Gupta's Greats

It's true that "Windows Powered" devices are great for work. But they also have some pretty decent "play" capabilities, including MS Reader, Media Player and Internet Explorer. And while only one game, Solitaire, comes built into these devices, enthusiastic developers are coming out with some pretty impressive action games that take advantage of the faster processors, better color screens and built-in stereo headphone jacks of the newer Windows CE devices.

Sabotage

Shoot the paratroopers before they blow up your gun turret

Sabotage is simple! Enemy paratroopers are being dropped by helicopter. Your mission is to shoot as many of them as you can while they are parachuting down. Once they reach the ground you can't touch them. They jump on each other's shoulders and start building a formation higher and higher. When they are level with your turret they blow it up with a bomb. Every time you fire at a Paratrooper you hear a gunshot. It's very realistic sounding, but you can silence it if you need to play it in a quiet environment.

Sabotage pits your gun turret against enemy paratroopers. You have to shoot them before they reach the ground, or else!

Your gun turret can be moved using the arrow keys on your Handheld PC or the rocker arm on a Palm-size or Pocket PC. H/PC users fire by pressing the spacebar. Palm-size and Pocket PC users have to tap the screen to fire.

The screen displays the number of paratroopers left, the highest score achieved, and the score of the current game. There are multiple levels in this game. As you complete one level you move up to the next, more difficult level. The number of paratroopers increases as well as the speed at which they are dropped.

I prefer using the spacebar on the H/PC to shoot, rather than tapping the screen of my Pocket PC. The developer might want to configure the next version of the game so that Pocket PC users can press the action button to shoot.

Sabotage is intuitive and easy to use. It's available for the Handheld PC and Palm-size PC (Windows CE 2.11) as well as the Pocket PCs. Sabotage was developed by Xoanan Industries and can be downloaded at their Web site (www.xoanan.com). Its shareware registration fee is $10.

Metalion

Fight the Red Galaxy Knights with the Federation's new super weapon

This fast-paced 3-D action game lets you pilot the Federation's new fighting weapon, "Metalion," in a battle to the death with the evil Red Galaxy Knights from Jupiter. Don't worry too much. You have seven lives and can choose from three types of Metalion, each having different weapons. Still, the bad guys come at you fast and furious. You have to keep your finger on the trigger and your eyes open. In really bad situations you can use the special Super Bomb, but use it sparingly. You only have three per life. And keep an eye out for special symbols that appear on your display (Power-Up, Recover Health and Super-Bomb). Collect them and increase your chances against the Red Galaxy Knights.

Metalion is a fast-paced 3-D action game that lets you pilot the Federation's new fighting weapon 'Metalion' in a battle to the death with the evil Red Galaxy Knights from Jupiter.

Metalion features excellent graphics and fast-paced background music just perfect for an action game. This addictive game will keep you entertained for hours. Metalion works on all Pocket PCs, but is better suited to the Casio and Compaq devices because of their dedicated game button. Metalion was developed by Ziosoft and is priced at $24.95. A free demo can be downloaded at ZioSoft's Web site (www.ziosoft.com).

J-Five

A fast-paced space battle ­ but you have to buy your weapons first