Blackberry Game Mimics Real Life Movements...Scary

Courtesy of TechCrunch Mobile:

Its been a few months since we last mentioned Mobile Dead, but this zombie-blastin’ “Mobile Multiplayer Trans-Reality” (MMTR) game has now gone live in New York City.

Like other MMTR games, you’re wandering the streets of your own city rather than some made up fantasy land. Your character and other in game objects are superimposed onto a map of your area, with your character’s position determined by your real-world location (via GPS). Move in the real world, and you move in the game.

Because everything can be made better with a dash of the undead, Mobile Dead takes the MMTR concept and throws zombies into the mix. Weapons and health items are scattered around your area, with on-screen danger lurking behind every corner. As you come across other players (zombies), you’re free to friend them, fight them - or both. According to Perk Mobile, Mobile Dead’s developers, the game will even extend past the screen, with “real world puzzles” and hidden codes placed around NYC.

We noted this briefly last time, but it still holds true: The tough part for Mobile Dead will be maintaining a critical mass of players. If there aren’t enough players in New York City, much of the game’s appeal is lost. Hell, even if there aren’t enough players in any given neighborhoodof NYC - who’s going to trek 8 blocks to try and stalk down an opponent? On the opposite end of things, too many players could spoil the fun. If they do manage to maintain that balance though, Mobile Dead could turn out to be a blast.

Something that might ensure they can at least maintain them minimum would be getting the game onto other mobile platforms. They’re working on it; while there’s no ETA yet, releases are in the works for both Android and the iPhone.

With cell tower triangulation technology growing in popularity and satellite-based GPS well on its way to becoming a fully standard feature, I’d imagine we’ll be seeing a whole lot more of these MMTR games making their way out over the coming months and years. Keep your eye on the genre - it’s easy enough to drop in and out off to be inviting to the casual gamer, while immersive enough to keep it from becoming mind-numbing after just a few minutes.