EA Games extravaganza on the Nokia Asha 311

One of the many reasons I have grown extremely fond of my Nokia Asha 311 is that it has reignited my love for mobile gaming.
In fact, you could say that there are 40 reasons, as the chief catalyst for the return of the twitch in my gaming thumb has been the 40 free EA games that come with the device.

Getting the games

It’s not just me either – new owners of all the Asha devices can get the free games: Nokia Asha 202, Nokia Asha 203, Nokia Asha 305, Nokia Asha 306 and the Nokia Asha 311.

Not forgetting, of course, the two new Asha members that were only announced last week: the Nokia Asha 308 and Nokia Asha 309.

The games, which combined would be worth around €75, are free but you do need to download them from the Nokia Store first, so operator data costs may apply.

Your Nokia Asha will have an EA Games Gift icon in your applications list. Launching this will take you directly to the EA collection page where you can download the games.

You can download all 40 games and keep them forever, so long as you have enough storage on your phone, and you must do so within 60 days of first opening EA Games gift.

Titles include EA Sports FIFA 2012, Need for Speed Undercover, Monopoly Here and Now and The Sims 3 World Adventures. For a full list of all 40 titles, scroll to the bottom of this Nokia page.

There is bound to be a game that will keep you occupied for hours and hours, no matter which genre of gaming you prefer.

Here is my personal my pick of the free EA games. I’ve chosen one from each of these categories: puzzle, arcade, driving, action and strategy.

Tetris Revolution

It has been longer than a decade than I last played Tetris, so downloading and playing this game was a real trip down memory lane. It was also a reminder how incredibly addictive and brilliant the original game was!

In this Revolutions version, the gameplay remains much the same, where different shaped blocks (or tetrominos, if you insist) fall down the screen and you need to rotate and manoeuvre them to form straight lines along the bottom.

However, rather than playing indefinitely, you are set targets (such as forming 40 lines) to get to the next level. The further you progress, the trickier it becomes and you can learn new moves along the way.

Medal of Honor

You are part of a US Special Forces mission operating deep inside enemy territory during WWII, where you must eliminate their air defences to allow Allied troops to land and provide support.

Gameplay revolves around a series of objectives, such as guarding the supply camp and destroying enemy positions. Along the way, you’re picking up new weapons and learning new tips.

Medal Of Honor is part shoot ‘em up, part role-playing game and with a script straight out of Hollywood, indeed the original story was developed by none other than Steven Spielberg.

Need for Speed The Run

Need for Speed The Run is a classic arcade style driving game. You can choose to have quick races, or if you prefer to be part of a larger narrative then you can play in ‘The Run’ mode, where you’re trying to outrun the law and a crime family.

By coincidence, there is an epic race across the USA, where you get to race for money, as well as trying to stay out of the clutches of your pursuers. As you win races, you also unlock cooler and faster cars.

It all sounds rather outlandish, but who cares when you’re such a good time?

FaceBreaker

The Marquess of Queensberry probably didn’t have FaceBreaker in mind when he endorsed the rules of boxing. Here, you can brawl, punch members of the opposite sex and aim as low as you like.

To begin you have to choose your character and also which character you would like to fight. From there it is a frantic punch-up to land the all-important knock out blow. I always fought as the dancer Kiriko, just so that I wouldn’t have to punch her.

If you think that boxing is an art, then see what you make of FaceBreaker!

Connect 4 and Battleship

For this you actually get two classic strategy games in one.

What’s great is that on both games you can choose to play against the phone, or you can play with a friend. On Battleship, in particular, the animation and sound effects are lots of fun.

These are great two examples of classic games reinvented and given a new lease of life on your phone.