YOUTH’S PLAYGROUND GETS WIDER: NOKIA’S RESET GENERATION COMES TO MAC, LINUX, KONGREGATE

This may be the happiest and most unexpected news I’ll run all day: back in December in my Offworld 20 list — compiling the best games of 2008 — I noted a still-too-little-played game from Nokia and Red Lynx, Reset Generation, the flagship title of Nokia’s relaunched N-Gage game service efforts.

Even as many months on, it’s still a hard game to aptly describe: I suggest my more concise efforts over at Edge Online for that, but what you do need to know here is that this many months on there’s still nothing like it on the market, and it still remains as vibrant and essential as it was back then.

And now, finally and surprisingly, Nokia’s updated the Java player to support both Macs and Linux, who classically were barred from the experience, and copied the game onto web-portal of choice, Kongregate, as well.

If you play anything this week, make it this game: it’s wonderfully familiar and deliberately obscure all at once, but it’s a fantastic design lesson in perfectly balanced quick-draw strategy.

As a bonus, and in celebration, game music remix clearinghouse ocremix.com has just posted a new contest to have your way with 8-Bit Weapon’s soundtrack to the game, with prizes including a fully loaded Nokia phone equipped with the mobile version of the game (which I’ve still kept around specifically for late-night pre-sleep sessions), and T-shirts and CDs from the Weapon, including the previously mentioned sample and loop CD just released by Sony.

Reset Generation [Nokia, Kongregate page]