Clark Boyd interviewed me the other day for a piece on BBC's The World radio program which covered a mobile game supporting gorilla conservation. The game, called Silverback, is a cute, involved J2ME title in the platformer-adventure game genre. It turns out the game was actually created back in 2003 by Kiwanja, and this is a re-release for the benefit of Fauna & Flora International. You can download the game free over-the-air, although A £5 donation is requested.

Unlike so many advocacy games, Silverback is actually pretty good! The player takes the role of a young gorilla facing challenges from youth to adulthood. There are a good dozen levels and the game is both challenging and well-designed for the handset. As I've argued before, one of the powerful features of games is their ability to let players take on a role and experience a life constrained by the rules of that role. Silverback does an admirable job of putting the player in the fur of a gorilla, even constrained to the tiny graphics of a mobile device.