Simon, with its brightly colored lights and four memorable bugle tones, is one of the most popular handheld games ever conceived. The invention of Ralph Baer, the father of video games, Simon was first sold by Milton Bradley in 1978. The game has now been ported to a much smaller handheld, namely your Sanyo PM-8200 phone. Apart from the addition of several new Simon board skins and sound sets, the game is relatively unchanged and benefits from the PM-8200's Simon-shaped navigational pad. The game won't move faster than its established speed, however, which can be tiresome. It also begs the question, why would anyone, at this late date, want to play Simon on his or her phone?
While the Sanyo PM-8200 is much, much more powerful than the MIPS-1000 microprocessor that powered the original Simon handhelds, this virtual version of the game manages to choke up occasionally, especially when you enter commands faster than they can be audiovisually represented (which isn't very fast at all). In these cases, the game might skip an entire note. This seems silly, given Simon's incredible simplicity.
On Sprint Vision, Simon includes some cursory game lobby options, along with an "all-time best" leaderboard, stored on your handset. As mentioned, you can also change the skin or the MIDI instruments that play Simon's G, E, D, and G notes. None of these alternatives is more appealing than the nostalgia of playing with the original device, however.
Simon is one of the oldest and most celebrated handheld games, and it is likely one of Milton Bradley's star properties. Yet, there's something lost in translation here. This is a game you just need to be able to hold and hit. Simon still has a place--it's just probably on a car keychain, rather than a cell phone.
