OK, for the sake of argument, let’s suppose you’re living in the United States, and you’re a good consumer, and you plan to get up really early – while it is still officially dark outside – and stand in line outside (in the cold) at one of any [insert name of major retailer's location] to wait for the store to open, so you can try to get some must-have item on your holiday shopping list before said item is completely sold out! You with me? Well, if this describes your morning plans – or perhaps you just have some time to kill waiting in line to go to the movies, or waiting for the train to get to work (whatever) – you might want a a little distraction to occupy those spare moments … Right?

How about defending cute – and seemingly helpless little penguins from a band of misfit elves who are intent on smacking your flightless friends in the face with snowballs? Who can resist an offer like that? Fire up Arctic Frenzy on your Nokia S60 device – my kids and I have been playing it on my Nokia N97 – and put your elf-finding skills to the test.

This Java-based game from the folks at HandyX, is a nice twist on the classic board game “Battleship” where you try to figure out where your opponent is hidden on the game board, and you take your best shot to blow him away. Again – in case it wasn’t obvious – in this version, you play the part of the penguins, and you scatter them across the board in attempt to stay hidden from your opponent, while at the same time doing your utmost to find your enemy and lob a virtual snow ball right into his face!

As you begin the game, you can select single player – where it is you vs. the computerized elves, or multiplayer, where you can match wits with a friend using the same app on your bluetooth enabled devices; there is then the option of either the classic game, where you get an extra shot every time you hit the enemy or the “salvo” game, which is simply one shot per turn; from there you have the option of auto setup, where the app sets up the game for you and your virtual opponent, or for the traditionalists amongst us, there is the manual set-up mode, where you decide exactly where to place your penguins on the game board. I like the manual set-up, as it lets me think I am in a little more control of the fate of my penguins.

When the game begins, a little red cr0ss-hair symbol appears in the upper-left corner of the screen, which is divided up for you in a grid configuration. Using the arrow pad on the screen, you glide the cross-hair mark to where you want to shoot first, and let ‘er rip. You hear the shot – the sound effects are fun (but loud) – and if you miss the square where you aimed turns grey. Hits earn a red square, and again in the “classic game” a hit earns you another shot right away.

You – and your enemy can be positioned anywhere across the screen, although some of the members of your team (not sure how else to describe that bit) are considered swimmers and are placed in the water, while the rest sit on the snowy surface.

The game is fun – not complicated – but certainly clever. And it is easy to get going right away – there are instructions, but if you’ve played Battleship before, you’ll catch on quick. And, while at first I thought the large control pad on the game was going to be annoying, it makes it very easy to play the game, and the movement of the cursor (cross hairs) on screen is very fluid.

You and your opponent (mostly the computerized elves) go back and forth taking shots at one another until one of you is knocked out – a true last-man (or elf or penguin) standing kind of game. I’ve been having fun with it – and my kids (8 and 10 years old) are hooked on it. There’s something about hitting elves with snowballs and watching them go down hard that brings a smile to my face …

Arctic Frenzy is available for $1.99 in Ovi Store. Take your best shot – the penguins will thank you.