Direct Link : Deflex
Publisher : Llamasoft

Price : $9.00 approx

Rating : 8 out of 10

To anyone who had a home computer in the UK during the 80’s, the name Jeff Minter will need no introduction. Indeed the name Llamasoft may be familiar to people in the US and Canada, especially if you had a Commodore Vic 20 or C64. To anyone who doesn’t know what I’m talking about, be sure to visit the Llamasoft website, as there’s lots to read.

Above all else, whatever your opinion on Llamasoft games, the one thing you cannot ever say is that they’re boring. This guy has a seriously warped mind and it’s contagious. Even the simplest of games cannot escape the mighty Yakness and Deflex is a game in point. There’s been many variations of this theme, but the basics are, you control a ball that bounces back and forth between the walls of an enclosure. There are numerous objects dotted around the screen for you to pick up (targets). You do that by pressing one of two buttons on your PPC. Depending on the key you press a deflector will be placed in the path of your ball, either a ‘\’ or a ‘/’ that will change it’s direction, either up, down, left or right, depending on how the all strikes it.

What’s starts off as a very simple game soon turns into something much harder. Although this starts as an action game, it soon becomes clear that you’ll need your puzzle head on as well, as some screens need a very logical mind to complete. While the majority of action games I’ve played on the Pocket PC tend to be very awkward to play, Deflex plays like a charm… once you manage to work out what deflector you need to drop and which key drops it.

What sets this game apart are the crisp, fluid graphics and quirky sound effects. Many of the sound effects have a very British influence and this is something very unusual in games today, especially Pocket PC games.

Conclusion : This was the first Pocket PC game I purchased and I love it. Although Llamasoft have another game available called Hover Bovver, I wish they’d write some more as they are sorely needed. For $9.00 you can’t go wrong.