Sorry if this was delayed a bit, but fresh out the press release from MobileRated comes their top 25 games for gamers on the go. The future of this budding branch of the gaming industry is getting bigger and brighter every year. Hats off to the mobile phone industry's focus on selling billions of powerful units in a year and the wonderfully adaptive Java.

But let's get right down to the innards, the list. The votes are screened, the tallies chalked up and the final verdict is:

1. Jamtris
2. M-SuDoKu
3. Bomber
4. Doom 3D
5. 5ud0ku
6. Mobile Fighter
7. vPoker
8. Dope Wars ZX
9. Mobile Cobra Strike
10. Brik Link

A whole lot of newcomers have made it to the top ten since October, although M-SuDoKu and Jamtris are still going strong. You also might want to know that the games are available for free, as usual, straight from MobileRated's site. So if you're curious as to why these 25 reign supreme, at least you know where to find them.

Yeah, we know that we said 25. Now you might wonder why there are only 10 of them up there...that's because the rest of the games are at the Full Article. Click on the link below and see what else made it to the list!

If you live in Europe and you have a cellphone (who doesn't, right?), then this post is for you.

Disney has just announced the launch of their 3-in-1 Puzzle Pack for mobile which consists of these classic puzzlers: Solitaire, Sudoku and Mahjong.

Sunil Gunderia, VP of mobile for the Walt Disney Internet Group, Europe, says, "By presenting mobile versions in a bundled package, we hope to appeal to a broader range of mobile phone users who are looking for a fun and easy way to pass the time anytime, anywhere.”

So whether you're stuck in the subway or in a boring meeting where no one's obviously paying attention to the speaker, all you have to do is bring out your nifty cellphones, get caught in the addictive puzzle gameplay, and voila! Instant solution for boredom.

Puzzle games may be considered by some as part of the lower end of mobile games, but I can personally vouch for Solitaire. I mean, I used to spend hours just playing that damn game without even realizing it. Talk about addictive, eh? So anyway, Disney’s 3-in-1 Puzzle Pack is now available across Europe from all known carriers and leading mobile entertainment portals. Consult your mobile service providers for availability.

MobileRated of Canada has released its top ten free mobile games list, which is based on the number of downloads for the month of October. These games are all free (legally), since MobileRated licenses and hosts phone games from third party developers who would want to have their games for the cellphones to be free and accessible to patrons.

Each type of demos, trials, and limited time free subscriptions are clearly identified and are acceptable and may be found alongside open source, GNU copyrighted and absolutely free mobile games.

Here's the top ten:

1. M-SuDoKu
2. Jamtris
3. 3D Attack Chopper
4. Mobile Fighter
5. Bomber
6. Dope Wars ZX
7. Brik-Link
8. Absolute Trivia: Games
9. Mobile Soccer
10. Paper Airplane

Based on the popular Japanese number game that instantly became a worldwide hit, MobileRated is happy to deliver M-Sudoku to mobile phone users. Yes, Sudoku lovers can now enjoy a free version of the game featuring an unlimited number of games of medium or difficult levels, and a multiple language support.

In case you are not familiar with Sudoku, allow us to give you some basics of the game. It's a puzzle game that requires you to place any number from one to nine in a 9 x 9 grid composing of 3 x 3 sub-grids or regions. Some of the cells in each regions are already filled up with numbers. Now the goal is to fill the remaining cells with single-digit numbers without any of the numbers being repeated in each row, column and region. Sounds easy but the game entails lots of analysis to eliminate number repetition.

The game's principle is fairly simple, that's why many people all over the world are hooked on it. In addition to that, no complicated math solutions are needed to solve the game. Now, with the advent of new technologies like mobile phones, Sudoku is accessible anytime, anywhere. M-Sudoku was developed by PhonPhun and it is now available at MobileRated's website. So if you want a free Sudoku challenge installed in your mobile phone, check out the Java version of M-Sudoku now.

If you use Windows in your computer, we're pretty sure you've been bugged by that "Windows Update" notice so many times. Don't you just wish that it could do that automatically without grabbing any attention away from your WoW or QJ reading? Now imagine that your cellphone maker can update the firmware in your cellphone as you're taking a picture of your cat. With the Firmware Update Management Object (FUMO), it's possible.

The Open Mobile Alliance has published its FUMO. This is a standard which allows cellphones to be updated over the air, without disturbing your sudoku. However, there will be some technical problems that need to be sorted out first. The memory to hold the new update is an initial problem. Slow connectivity in certain areas, may require the cellphone owner to go to a licensed store to download the new patch. The reliability of the over-the-air updates may also be a problem compared to a USB cable.

There seems to be a chicken-egg problem when it comes to the network operators and handset developers. No network operators will buy servers to distribute firmware upgrades unless the handset makers support the new operations and no handset developer will support network operators without the servers.

With the standard published, the testing can start, beginning September this year. Next year, hopefully, the handset developers start following the standards. So what do these company want to do with our phones in the first place? They may want to change the menus and interfaces to make it look better, especially for premium paying customers.

Let's see what they 'll do next year, eh?

Nurikabe is a square-painting numerical puzzler from Breakpoint. The premise of the game is this: Dr. Tetsuo's lab need is in need of renovation. Genius that he is, Dr. Tetsuo can't help but make a menial and tedious task more mind-boggling than it usually is, so he came up with the idea to repaint his lab according to the rules of a game called Nurikabe.

The player gets a board of empty squares with a few numbers scattered about. The object of the game is to paint all the squares either white or blue, using the following rules:

• The numbers are islands which show how many white squares make up the island (including the number square)
• The islands can form any shape
• Islands cannot touch (the white square of one cannot touch the side of the white square of another)
• The islands must be separated by blue squares which must form one continuous wall (every blue square must touch the sides of at least two other blue squares)
• Blue squares cannot form a block 2x2 or bigger
• There is only one solution

Seems like a handful, don't it? Leave it to a genius (sounds more like "mad scientist" to us) to make us get a brain workout. If you like numerical puzzle games such as Sudoku, give Nurikabe a spin. It won't disappoint.

Xing Mobile is joining the Sudoku party by bringing their own Sudoku game, Quan Yin Sudoku, to mobile phones. Xing is bringing the Goddess of Mercy back for another puzzle game. Sudoku is a logic-based puzzle game in which the aim of the puzzle is to enter a numerical digit from 1 through 9 in each cell of a 9x9 grid made up of 3x3 smaller grids (called "regions"), starting with various digits given in some cells (the "givens"); each row, column, and region must contain only one instance of each numeral.

Completing the puzzles require patience and logical ability. The mobile phone version is supposed to boast a near unlimited number of variants for puzzle fans to enjoy. The game will run on all MIDP-2 devices with a 176x208 screen size so go ahead and check out the screenshots by clicking on the thumbnails below.

    
  

TMS Mobile announced the worldwide availability of the hit logic puzzle Michael Mepham’s Sudoku to be joined by number-based logic game Michael Mepham’s Kakuro. The Michael Mepham’s Sudoku GamePaks, composed of 10 puzzles, can be downloaded directly from the Sudoku mobile website for $4.99. To download the game, simply key in 783658.com ("SUDOKU" on the mobile phone’s keypad) into your mobile Web browser and follow the directions.

"We believe that our first off-deck product is the best mobile Sudoku available and an excellent indicator of the quality of mobile content we plan to feature as we expand," said TMS. "Our direct-to-consumer service is also one of the first to offer direct access to mobile content...which dramatically shortens the process of keying in a mobile Web address."

Michael Mepham’s Sudoku for mobile phones was developed by Breakpoint Ltd., a leading Poland-based game developer and publisher.