Minecraft: Pocket Edition 0.5.1 update to add clouds, signs, gravity for sand/gravel and more

Minecraft junkies who like to take their overly-pixelated building adventures mobile will be happy to know that the Pocket Edition of the title will soon receive a pretty nice upgrade. More features were confirmed for version 0.5.1, including gravity for sand and gravel blocks, clouds for devices with certain chipsets, signs and a tone update for the skies — they’ll now be bluer in the daytime.

These are some pretty big editions. For starters, giving sand and gravel blocks the element of gravity will create new dynamics of danger for those doing some exploring. Take it from someone whose character survived a zombie riot in a cave only to have his last ounce of health taken away by sand as I tried to dig out of a cave: it’s not fun. Not at all.

Speaking of caves, it’s been confirmed that caves are being worked on, but they are causing some framerate issues on older devices. The developers may add caves as an optional feature for those who feel their device is up to task, though, so not everyone will be left out of the fun of going deep into the core of the world. That particular feature not might make it into the game until version 0.6.0 is released, though, so don’t hold your breath just yet.

Minecraft: Pocket Edition still has a long way to go before it catches up to its PC and even its console counterparts, but to be a handheld title this game is shaping up to be very nice for those of us who just can’t get enough of the experience.

Thankfully, Mojang has provided a demo for those who want to see what the game is all about and to see if it can run well on their devices. If you decide that you like what you see then take the plunge on the full version for $7 in the Play Store — trust me, it’s worth every pretty penny you have.

[via Droid Gamers]