Man of Steel for Windows Phone 8 – Review – Exclusive to Lumia Devices

We all (or most of us) know, at select places the movie “Man of Steel” has been released. Nokia, as presented an exclusive trailer of the movie a few days ago, have also released an app/game on the Windows Phone store. The “Man of Steel” app for Windows Phone is exclusive to Lumia devices. The app actually released on 13th of this month, a day before the movie released.

Compatible with Windows Phone 8 platform, the app additionally requires the resolutions of HD720P(720×1280), WVGA (480×800), WXGA (768×1280). The app is free to download and install on your compatible Lumia device.

The standard metro style of the app swipes through 6 pages – the game, tickets, movie info, rewards, comic reader, and photo challenge. We’ll go through each of them thoroughly below.

The Game Play

The game part of the app consists of 4 chapters which are initially locked leaving the 1st one open for the users to start playing and unlock the later ones. Playing and unlocking the next chapters is the most common feature of the games. Likewise other items like wallpapers and ringtones are also get unlocked on the “Man of Steel” app by successfully achieving the preset milestones in the gameplay.

You have to choose from challenges (red markers on the map) from a chapter to play. Upon finishing the target successfully, you get a reward (a wallpaper or a ringtone) unlocked as well as you complete a challenge (gray markers on the map). The game play features the motion sensor of the device which is the basic control method of the game. e.g. Tilting up/down/left/right, turns the flying superman likewise. Swipe feature plays the role to fight objects flying in the air. It’s all in augmented reality.

Well frankly, I couldn’t finish playing it fully but started writing about it. Actually to me it was also a little difficult to complete the tasks after beating a few challenges in the first chapter. You can give your free time and see how much challenges do you beat. As per Nokia Conversations, when they officially announced about the app, the 4 chapters in the game consists total of 40 challenges within to unlock more than 40 rewards.

Rewards & Comic Books

The unlocked rewards can be found in the rewards section from the main interface of the game. You can preview wallpapers, set them on the background of locked screen or even share them onto social networks you have added in your Windows Phone accounts.

Nokia Conversations told that they have added 4 full-length issues of Superman Origins by DC Comics. They will stay locked until you beat the challenges.

Movie Info

Movie Info, suggested by the title, provides information about the cast and crew, latest news on the buzz. 5 trailers of the movie can be found in “Videos” and wallpapers in the “Photos”. Additionally the filming locations have been added with a little historic information about the location – for your general knowledge perhaps?

Video trailers are streamed online, you of course need a WiFi/data connection to play them as it’s required at almost most of the parts in the app. Game play is ok to go without internet connection.

Tickets

I guess, “Theaters” would have been the better option to title this section. But it’s “Tickets”. It lists the theaters near your location as well as mark them on the map in a different view. Well for me It’s always ridiculous when it comes to Maps on Nokia in Pakistan, you won’t be able to see map information on the screen as Nokia Maps has not started GPS/navigation services for Pakistan. Yet the app uses Foursquare mapping and listing service which also been based on Nokia Maps. So bad luck in Pakistan.

The list view however shows address detail where available. So you can have an idea where the theater actually exists.

Photo Challenge

Photo challenge is the 2nd interactive part of the app after the game play. Simply you can use the camera to take a picture and share it to your social circles e.g. facebook, twitter. You can also choose pictures from the phone’s photo gallery and share them.

In addition to sharing, there is “See the world as the Man of Steel Photo Challenge” to participate with exceptional photos. You don’t have to do things separately, it’s all done at once. When you submit a photo to share, it’s also uploaded to the challenge gallery. It’s up there in the second screenshot of “Photo Stream”.

There is much to like about the app. An intuitive game play and photo sharing challenge with the movie info is a good tool to advertise the movie itself. If you have not been to theater to watch the movie and want some of the dose, you can install the app on your Lumia Windows Phone and give it a try.

Download “Man of Steel” app from Windows Phone Store. You can also scan the qr-code below with your Lumia Windows Phone to directly go to the app page on the phone.

Click on the image to enlarge the QR Code