498Jorge ArreolaOnce, while watching two classmates play Battleship during a lunch break, I got in trouble for blurting out the coordinates of a player’s fleet to his opponent. I don’t know what made me do it. I didn’t particularly dislike the kid, because he always did share his lunch money with me and even gave me a puppy once. I think it was just because the game was so close and I really wanted to get a turn before the lunch bell rang. If you can’t tell, Battleship has always been one of my favorite board games, so much so that I’ll blow it for someone else to get my turn, and Navy Battle just happens to be a faithful rendition of the classic, but adds a few new elements to amp up the strategy. The setup is simple: During World War II, that goldmine of storytelling, you take control of one of four naval fleets pertaining to the Americans, the British, the Japanese or the Chinese. In turn-based naval warfare, the object is to sink your enemy’s fleet before it sinks yours. The Classic mode is very faithful to the original board game but Advanced mode is where a number of improvements are included. Here, the rules are basically the same except that now you have access to special weapons during the battle. You get your choice of both Torpedo and Missile shots that move across an entire row or column until they strike a boat. As you continue to win battles, other weapons open up such as Air Strikes that deal damage to a 3 X 3 area, Radar that reveals anything in a 4 X 4 area, and the ability to relocate an undamaged ship to a new location on the map during mid-battle. Advanced mode is really the mode to play because of these enhanced features, but unfortunately most of them seemed offensive. It would have been nice to see more that helped on the defensive end. The game also has a multiplayer option to go head-to-head with a friend using pass and play. Even so, since the A.I tends to get harder as you advance in levels, the game can get quite difficult. There are a few other similar games available on wireless but this one is easily the prettiest. The action is shown at an angle and the incoming attacks add some much-needed animation to a type of game that has always been very static. I especially enjoyed watching the enemy’s fleet go up in flames after a well- calculated attack. The audio however is a bit lacking and could have used a more potent vibe. Navy Battle offers an adequate cure if you’re suffering from a bout of board game nostalgia. Its mix of classic Battleship action and the new additions make it the best of its kind for mobile.