Done in 50 Seconds is obviously a spoof on the popcorn movie, Gone in 60 Seconds. The objective of both movie and game is the same but that's where the similarity ends. You are tasked to steal certain cars within a fifty-second time limit not using your exemplary use of nitro or driving skills, but your brain. The premise of the game is not unlike this puzzle I saw a person play on the train. You have a set number of cars of varying lengths and they are placed on a board of which you must slide the cars around. It's like an advanced version of the children's game, where you slide numbered tiles around until they are sequential.

The caveat here is you have to complete the exercise within fifty seconds. There are sixty levels available for play and the title starts out mildly (perhaps even simple for puzzle fans) and ramps up accordingly thereafter. The first few levels exude a tutorial type approach. They instruct you on maybe one or two tricks. Subsequent levels will have you using multiple tricks to get at the target vehicle. The target you are assigned changes depending on each level. Obviously, it's easier to manoeuvre a Ferrari than an eighteen-wheeler but much of the difficulty is based on the context of the level. After you finish a level, you progress linearly to the next one and the preceding ones are available for free play as long as you wish.

So far, Done in 50 Seconds sounds like a decent but not necessarily groundbreaking title. Like recent titles from AIM Productions, there is a slight load time before starting the title due to the nature of the compressed graphics. The bottom line is a smaller footprint on your handheld, but I didn't get to truly appreciate the extra detail. On that note, the developers continue their care with a suitable soundtrack, but the overall effect is quite ambient. It is what Erik Satie, the impressionist pianist/composer, would call furniture music. It does not necessarily shift to become more dynamic or overpower the action at all. Sound and music can be turned off with the touch of a stylus at the top left corner.

Done in 50 Seconds includes a slick and eloquent level editor. The use of the editor is easy and integrated into the game itself; something I think other developers should take note of. You can't use the sixty levels that come with your game as a base but if you play this long enough, I think you'll be able to incorporate a few mind-bending tricks of your own. There are, however, a few flaws with the title. The chief problem I found was the animation. It simply took too long to animate moving one car from one end to the other. With a game that entailed a time limit, I thought the animation could be turned off, perhaps with a quick double tap. The end result is rather ironic, considering the theme Done in 50 Seconds and fast cars, the cars in themselves weren't very fast at moving out of my way. Since I'm not the most adept at these titles, trial and error became a frequent companion. It would have been nice to have a clemency option; like the provision of an animated walkthrough if you fail a certain number of times.

You can swap levels with other players but it requires rummaging through your installation folder on your Pocket PC and taking out indiscriminate (L0001.lvl, et al) files to pass on. Perhaps an integrated way to send these to a web server or download some new ones from the developer's website would have greatly enhanced this function. Likewise, it would have been neat to have a replay option, so prevalent these days in first-person shooters, to see how your fellow colleagues did. The developer support for it is still going strong. A level building contest is underway and there are people constructing play guides. As it stands now, Done in 50 Seconds is an intriguing title, with lots of gameplay but ironically, you'd have to be the patient sort to appreciate it.

Ratings:
[08/10] Addictiveness
[15/20] Gameplay
[11/15] Graphics
[07/10] Interface/controls
[08/10] Program Size
[03/05] Sound
[05/05] Discreetness
[13/15] Learning Curve
[ N/A ] Multiplayer