I-play's fantastic little Java title, Skipping Stone, has just won the Best Mobile Game award at this year's 3GSM event in Barcelona. Released in the UK last summer and mentioned several times on this very site, Skipping Stone has attracted universal critical praise for its ingenious gameplay mechanic - you simply lob a pebble into the sea then hit a single button over and over again - at exactly the right moment - to keep the stone bouncing. Created by hugely talented Korean outfit, Gamevil, it's been a big hit over in the East...
...but not here. Sadly, Skipping Stone sank without a trace, I-play unable to convince mobile gamers to look beyond the lack of a big movie license and give it a go. Or perhaps it was down to the networks whose choices of front page games on their entertainment portals can often make or break new titles. Maybe there was no room for cute cartoon fun amid all those brilliant film tie-ins, retro games and casino cash-ins.
Only 5% of mobile phone users currently bother to download Java games - and yet that seemingly enlightened minority chose to ignore one of the finest examples I've seen so far (along with Ancient Empires II, another much-awarded title last year, and Gameloft's Splinter Cell conversions). You can file this alongside Europe's obliviousness to We Love Katamari as quality videogaming incalcitrance bordering on masochism.
