Hitman: Blood Money

Hitman: Blood Money brings to phones the key idea of IO Interactive's series — the player, as the bald contract killer Agent 47, receives a contract to eliminate a target in each mission and can choose between a quiet elimination using disguises or a more direct approach with a gun in hand and an inevitable shootout with security. The mobile adaptation necessarily had to simplify the mechanics, but it still tried to preserve the emphasis on planning, tracking the target, and using the environment instead of brute force, which was more the exception than the rule in the mobile offering of the time.

Numeric keypad controls handled character movement, interacting with objects, and switching between weapons and disguises, which for a more complex stealth action title presented a challenge for both designers and players more used to straightforward arcade controls. The graphics were more bare-bones than those of major action licenses, but the environments of individual missions — casinos, mansions, public buildings — remained recognizable, and the atmosphere of quietly stalking a target was present even in the limited mobile version, including the ability to hide the body of a knocked-out guard.

In the Java and Symbian lineup, dominated mainly by simple arcade and platform games, Hitman: Blood Money stood out as an exception with its emphasis on tactics and patience instead of quick reflexes. For fans of the series it was an interesting way to take a favorite brand along on their phone, albeit knowing it was only a taste of the full console experience with a more elaborate disguise and planning system. Today the title is more of a curiosity documenting the breadth of the licensed mobile business of the mid-2000s, when even more serious-toned action brands got their phone offshoot, and players could take their favorite character along even outside the living room with a console — albeit at the cost of a considerably more modest scope of missions.

Why play it: For Hitman fans who'll appreciate a rare emphasis on tactics and planning instead of quick reflexes among the otherwise mostly arcade titles of Java and Symbian.