playtomo has left me divided. The problem is, on the one hand I can see, and review it, on nothing more than face value: this is a compendium of little games, offered for free and with a promise of more free games being added every month. On the other hand, all of the games are clones of other titles, and the fact that C4M stand to make money out of cloning other people’s work sits awkwardly with me. How to cover both of these aspects without having a muddled review? Simple – review the game twice! So, without further ado, here are the two reviews of playtomo – take from them what you will.

1. playtomo is a great collection of games

This compendium of games offers players a wide choice of short, simple games, perfect for mobile play. There’s something for everyone here: you have action-based games like Rocketman, where you have to keep a jetpack-equipped spaceman alive while he boosts through caverns, or FlapFlap, which is a simple game where you guide a strange, spherical creature between platforms. There are puzzle games like Lines and Swap Me, which draw on classics like Tetris and Zoo Keeper, respectively. There are even adaptations of more traditional games, like Solitaire and Sudoku.

Most of these games are proven classics, and while some of the controls can be a bit fiddly (Stonedge’s use of a slightly tilted perspective makes its choice of compass-point oriented swiping to control awkward, for instance), the vast majority work perfectly on a touch screen. Moreover, the graphics are clear and bright throughout, and each game has had ‘trophies’ added to it for meeting certain targets, and high score tables are included for every game. And if that’s not enough, there’s the fact you can tie playtomo into your Facebook account, and compete with your friends on the games of your choice! Well, that or irritate them by letting the game post your scores repeatedly.

There are a few issues with the game, however: for one, the audio is uniformly poor, limited as it is to basic, irritating background music. Which is probably why each game defaults to silence, rather than subjecting you to it. Also, one of the major benefits of a compendium of games like this – that you can download it in preparation for a long journey in the knowledge that you’ll have a wide variety of games to play as you travel – is scuppered by the fact that playtomo doesn’t actually download its games by default: rather, you download the shell in which the games are placed, but it isn’t until you try to play one that it downloads it. Each game is tiny, but if you were, say, planning to play while on a flight, or any other journey without reception, you would find yourself with no games to play at all, unless you’d already gone through and played them all.

Still, even with these downsides, this is a nice collection of games, completely free, with some good extra features – well worth a download.

2. playtomo is the devil

playtomo is a striking example of all that’s wrong with the games industry. Not one of its games is an original design: every single one is a direct lift of another game, some famous, some less so. Many of these games are broad genres in their own right, or were never commercial endeavours, and so their being copied is hardly a cause for concern: Breakout clone Bouncy, for example, or the unambiguous Solitaire. That they are lazy conversions – all the games lacking even sound effects for example, and none of the games adding anything new aside from tarted up graphics – is a shame, but what really grates is where C4M have directly clones commercial titles. Zoo Keeper knock-off Swap Me is one egregious example, but perhaps the most brazen rip-off is Lines, which is a direct clone of Tetris, without any attempts at hiding the fact.

Now, you might argue that copying a variety of well-loved games and compiling them together is a good idea: it allows players can have all these games at their fingertips, with minimal effort on their part. And you’d be right, but issues are raised when the company starts making money out of these games. The thing is, while this compilation is free to play, C4M makes money out of it through adverts. Moreover, it uses you to advertise the game further, boasting full Facebook synchronisation: meaning that it will publish your scores on your Facebook profile, constantly. Fortunately, the game can’t force you to synchronise your account, but if you haven’t done so then it will constantly nag you for not doing it.

Basically: download and play these games, and you’re (indirectly) helping to fund the creation of a title whose only aim is to make money from other people’s ideas.

Conclusion

playtomo offers players fantastic value for money. Not least because it’s free. At the same time, there is something of an ethical issue in helping to support the creation of compilations like this, and if you’re willing to look elsewhere you can find better versions of the games in here: versions which have had love poured into them. Still, I do have a habit of taking things like this far more seriously than might be warranted, and if you want to quickly stock up on games for your phone this’ll do the job comfortably. The choice is yours.

playtomo Gameplay Video

playtomo Screenshots

Version Under Review : 1.0.0.0

Website : Playtomo

playtomo is a FREE game for Windows Phone 7

Our Rating for playtomo

What do you think of this WP7 Game ?

Scan this QRcode with Bing vision ( Hit the hardware Search button and click on the small icon that looks like an eye ) on your Phone to download this game on to your Windows phone device.

Top Windows Phone 7 Games