GLOBAL – The N97 mini and N97 are the first handsets to play host to a new game that utilizes the talents of the digital compass sensor ( or ‘magnetometer’ as it’s otherwise known). Space Impact: Meteor Shield has just landed on planet Ovi Store, and you can downloaded it for free. Read on to find out more about how it uses the digital compass sensor as an innovative control method.

The concept for Space Impact: Meteor Shield is a simple arcade affair – you’re planet Earth’s last hope, and are tasked with taking the controls of a gun turret to protect the world from incoming showers of meteors and alien hordes. Holding the device upright, with the screen parallel to the ground, you control the turret by rotating the phone on its vertical axis, as if you were sat in the hot seat spinning on the spot – never before has the digital compass sensor been used in a game, so it’s great to see it find an effective and suitable home here. As you spin around you get bombarded by incoming attackers that you’re able to fend off by tapping the touchscreen to shoot.

Get Space Impact: Meteor Shield for N97 and N97 mini >>

If you want to find out more about how the magnetometer works, check out this brief article on the Forum Nokia community blog.

How else do you think the digital compass sensor could be used in mobile games? Let us know what you think in the comments section due south.