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NOM Review
Written by Karim Maksoud on Thursday, February 15, 2007
Attractive design, unique playing system, online features, simply great fun to play, simple storyline with deeper underlying themes
Would have been better with more levels
It's an agreed concept that everything has its own specialist application. Like a toaster. A toaster is made for the sole purpose of making toast. The same thing applies with gaming phones. They're designed to play phone games on. Not console games. Just like how you wouldn't put chocolate in a toaster, you wouldn't port a game designed for a next-gen console to a phone. It's simply not designed to support it. Mobile games should entertain you for certain amounts of time, have simple controls, and preferably a wealth of variation and levels. So pretty much designed for a few minutes of play on, say, a bus for example.
Console ports often get boring very quickly, as the appeal they might have had on consoles is certainly not mirrored on a mobile. In response to this, a wave of simple-looking, one-button operating games for mobiles have been released, most to praise and moderate critical acclaim. This movement eventually gave birth to NOM, from Korean developer Gamevil, which is a refreshing success in several different ways.
NOM, standing for no ordinary mobile game, screams simplicity at every possible moment. The premise is simple. You play a silhouette man called NOM. NOM is running away from all the troubles he's encountering during his life, and your objective is to dodge obstacles so you can escape without harm. The game's appearance is equally minimal: all characters and sprites are in black, while the game area changes color at different intervals, creating a surprisingly attractive look. Sound is excellent, with several tunes playing and changing in time with the color changes of the game area, as well as great sound effects.
The game itself uses a unique concept. When NOM reaches the end of the screen, you are expected to jump. Instead of him landing on a platform somewhere, he will in fact land on the side of the phone's screen, and start moving up, in which case you'll have to rotate your phone to play. This also means you'll eventually be playing the game with your phone upside down, and on its side, which makes it more fun to play. The game consists of ten levels, each varying in length and difficulty.
As mentioned before, your objective is to simply avoid obstacles in NOM's path. These vary from ordinary stones to hoops, headless chickens, small people, worms and Darth Vader. When an obstacle appears, you have to press the 5 key, the only button used in the game, at which instance NOM will deal with it in certain way, depending on the obstacle. For example, if it's a stone or hoop, he'll jump over or through it. If it's a small person he'll kick it. If it's a headless chicken or worm he'll slap it, and if it's Darth Vader he'll produce a lightsaber and start fighting him, something that happens after Vader exclaims "I'm your father!"
You also encounter several friendly characters during levels, including a dog who follows you, a girl who you kiss and your grandma whom you carry on your back. As well as the deeply satisfying offline game there's also a "community" option in the menu, which forwards you to the games online features, including high scores and hidden cheats.
Overall, NOM represents the state in which mobile games should be: designed for purpose. Instead of cramming too many features in like many games before it, the game is perfect for both short and longer play sessions, while online features will keep people satisfied for even longer.
