The year is 1843 and you, an intrepid pioneer with family in tow, have struck out on an adventure for the promised lands to the West. Nearly forty years after its debut, the educational gam eOregon Trail resonates with gamers seeking an uniquely American premise of promise, peril, and choice. Gameloft takes Oregon Trail HD ($4.99, direct) to the latest frontier, the Android platform. The mobile incarnation of this classic packs touch-screen support, updated graphics, and new mini-games, along with a wagonload of nostalgia. The graphics still look a bit rough and tumble and $5 is mogul money when it comes to mobile gaming. But if you're looking to put a little prairie on your Droid, where else would you park your wagon?

Which Wagon?
While the fastest way to start down the trail is with an "Instant" game, I preferred the customization of a traditional game. I selected the easiest setting, but be advised that difficulty scales to "Extra Hard," or, in the vernacular of the game, "Yer as likely to stumble on Atlantis as get to Oregon."

For profession, you can choose between a banker (most money), carpenter (most durable wagon), or farmer (least hungry). Given my limitations in finances, I choose the banker so I'd have more income to squander.

There are three wagons from which to choose: Basic (cheapest), Prairie Schooner (best-equipped), and, my choice, the exotically-named Conestoga (the pack-mule). In addition to selecting a departure month—March, April, or May —you can name your family members, though anticipating imminent deaths, I let the game choose the names.

Striking Out

In the course of testing, I traveled 1,009 miles along the Oregon Trail, through three forts and across desert, pastoral, mountainous, and snow-swept landscapes—at the cost of two children and a wife. I encountered plenty of pioneers who paid to hitch rides, trade goods, and assign tangential quests.

My family struggled under my leadership. At first, I led considerately: when my daughter Martha broke a leg, I waited 4 days for her to recover; when an eagle snatched her up, I waited another 2. However, the further we pushed the frontier, the more savage I grew: the second time she got measles, I just pushed ahead. Eventually I also lost my wife, Louise, to cholera, and another daughter, Mary, to typhoid.

Long Trek
My insensitivity is less a reflection of some innate callousness—I think—than evidence of the game's nineteenth century pace. I tired of watching miles ticking past on the cartoonish graphics, and didn't enjoy the fact that you can only play alone. There are side-missions—such as a Simon-like telegraph challenge—and mini-games—including hunting, fishing, wagon repairing, river-crossing, and rafting—also interrupt the trudge. Some are better than others: tapping the screen is all it takes to repair a wagon, but rafting is one of the few challenges that requires you use the phone's accelerometer to navigate rapids.

The finest elements of the original remain intact. Trivia intersperses treks. There's also the element of choice: which path will you take when the road forks, how will you cross the river, and when you're lost, do you double-back or pave forward? These choices—opportunities and consequences—are the grist to the mill.

A Forked Path
Gameloft's mobile version of Oregon Trail updates the veneer without reworking the structure. Some gamers might find this a dusty classic, because, in the context of modern gaming, it's a slow ride, unmitigated by this version's dated graphics, solitary game-play, and reluctant embrace of mobile technology. Others might recoil at the cost: you can play the equally nostalgic version on Facebook for free; $5 is a steep climb compared to Gameloft's other visually rich offerings, including Spider-Man HD or Asphalt 5 HD or Real Soccer 2011. However, for those who want educational adventure on the phone, Oregon Trail, unlike the frontier, is waiting to be tamed.
(From:http://www.pcmag.com)