• Any Pocket PC, minimum 450 KB of storage memory.
• This game available only for color devices.

What's Hot
The graphics are cartoonish and top notch. The game play is simple and addictive, and reminds me of the games Arkanoid and Brick Breaker of days gone by.

Figure 1: Great cartoon graphics! Now if the boss was only pointy-haired…

Gotchas
There is no help file or documentation that come with the game, so you have to figure out everything for yourself (including the good and bad bonuses), unless you visit the Rapture Technologies Web site.

The game sounds are repetitive, simple, and get boring after a while. A nice background soundtrack would have been nice (maybe even some music from “Shaft” to get in the retro gaming mood).

Just remember to play in moderation, and switch to the highest speed if you get bored.

Languages Supported
English

Where to Buy
Part of the free Pocket PC Fun Pack, and the upcoming Mobile Games Pack (not yet released), and downloadable from Microsoft.

Rapture, I Want More Games!
Cubicle Chaos can’t help but remind me of the excellent Dilbert cartoons by Scott Adams, where people are stuck in closet-size cubicles each day. Now, you can exact your revenge against the cubicles that you hate so much (or, the people within the cubicles you hate so much)!

Rapture Technologies, Inc., is a company whom Microsoft contracted out to create this game. Based on their work, including this game, I hope they put out other games, not only within the Mobile Games Pack, but separately.

Take Out the Cubicles!
Cubicle Chaos is a takeoff of Arkanoid: you have to knock down all the cubicles using a ball to move onto the next level. You aim and deflect the ball using a “paddle” at the bottom of the screen, which you control using your stylus. The ball will start to move a little faster as time goes on, just to make life a little tougher for you. In addition, the cubicles are not all made the same: some require just one hit to collapse, while others require multiple hits.

To add a little more dimension to the game, bonuses occasionally fly down from the top of the screen, and you can obtain the bonuses by catching them using your paddle. The catch is, some of them are good and some are bad. The good ones can slow down the ball for you, turn your one ball into three, or break through all the cubicles they encounter, regardless of depth or number of hits required (think of a bulldozer moving through the cubicles, it destroys everything in its path). On the reverse side, the bad ones can make your paddle half the size it normally is, or flip the controls for the paddle (you have to move your stylus to the left side of the screen to make the paddle move to the right side of the screen).

Figure 2: Nail those cubicles good!

Each level gets progressively harder as you move through the levels, and the shape, number, and type of cubicles changes with each level. You get five balls to play the game; when you run out of balls, the game is over.

You can always resume your game at a later time by writing down the briefcase combination shown at the end of each game. You can then enter the combo by going to the briefcase by tapping on the little briefcase icon at the top left of the screen, tapping on the briefcase combo until you’ve inputted the one you want, and then tapping on the briefcase open button. On the briefcase screen, you can also select the number of players, the speed of the game (it defaults to medium speed), see the high score, turn on and off audio (for when you are playing the game in the middle of a boring meeting), and quit the game.

Conclusion
Despite some minor issues with the game, it really is a fun game to play. The graphics are amazing for such a small screen, and the game is simple, easy to play, and well suited for the screen of the Pocket PC. You can check out Fire Drill, the sister game that comes with the Fun Pack for more fun. With games like this, I look forward to the rest of the Mobile Games Pack!

*The views expressed in the above article are provided by an independent third party and do not reflect any official view or endorsement by Microsoft.