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Reasons to get N-Gage'd

Written by Simon Phun
Monday, 17 March 2008
Nokia has revived the N-Gage and this time, it doesn't look like it's going to suffer a premature death. Key reasons that the first-generation N-Gage didn't stand a chance were: 1.Cost and limitations of the N-Gage 'game decks' 2.Cost and availability of games made for the N-Gage 3.Game publishing was new to Nokia Competition (some might dispute that term), also didn't help Nokia's cause. Nintendo has the Game Boy Advance and DS, while Sony has the PlayStation Portable (PSP). Anyway, let's avoid a history lesson and get on with what we saw on the revamped N-Gage (sometimes refered to as the N-Gage 2.0). No longer a reference to a sorry game deck, the N-Gage is now a mobile gaming service that is compatible with several Nokia Nseries mobile phones. This means a larger support ecosystem and that gamers have a (more reasonable) choice of devices to play on. Today, the N-Gage is pushed on to the Nokia N81, with exclusive content access in Singapore. Support will soon be officially extended to the N95, N95 8GB and N82. The new N-Gage incarnation is in the form of an application. Installed on the N81, it allows users to try N-Gage games, buy them and also get connected to the N-Gage Arena gaming community. Nokia also gave the new N-Gage a really friendly interface to make it a painless experience. The official N-Gage website was also given a very cheerful facelift. Currently, the N-Gage download is only made available to Nokia N81 handsets. It's a pre-release version called First Access that comes complete with disclaimers. The full release, well, is officially within the first half of 2008. What we saw so far on First Access and also press previews holds promises, optimistically speaking. Even pessimists will be forced to say that the new N-Gage doesn't look quite as doomed as the first version. Dismantling barriers Now that users are to have a wider choice of handsets, the next barrier will be the price of games. The new N-Gage games are no longer served in MMC format, which eliminates packaging and inventory costs. The games are now downloaded directly to the mobile or sideloaded from a PC to the handset. I was told by Nokia that the current crop of six games available – Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep, Space Impact Kappa Base, System Rush Evolution, Block Breaker Deluxe, Tetris and World Series of Poker will be charged SGD18 each. That's a small price to pay compared to the old format. Having the chance to try these games during a sneak preview session, I would have to pick Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep and System Rush Evolution as they both have very addictive gameplay (fishing and a futuristic racer, how diverse is that?). Both titles are published by Nokia. It's not to say that the others are not worthy of attention, but hey, how many games can one play at a time? By middle of the year, the games portfolio will be increased to 25 to 30 titles. Besides coming from Nokia, the list include games from third-party publishers EA Mobile, Gameloft, Glu and THQ Wireless. From the looks of it, the upcoming games are reasons enough to visit the N-Gage experience once more. Nokia Games Publishing Two familiar titles, ONE and Mile High Pinball are to make their foray into the N-Gage once more. Both are visually enhanced but it's still unclear if there are any new content from the older N-Gage versions. More titles were shown, namely, Bounce: Boing Voyage, Creebies, Dirk Dagger and Yamake. Bounce: Boing Voyage Bounce: Boing Voyage is the result of what would happen if the marble in Marble Madness was to be replaced with a rubber ball, complete with eyes and their brows. You have to guide the Bounce ball through surreal worlds in a mission to rescue the world of Pongpingy from the evil Hypnatoid. Don't ask. Meanwhile, the game promises a fast arcade-type gameplay that requires only single-thumb action for controls. Not all is cutesy with the rubber ball though, as it changes to a rock and sometimes a ball of mud during the heat of the action. Creebies From the looks of the game trailer it's not quite clear which is creepier, Creebies or Teletubbies. Whatever the case, Creebies at the very least looks like its going to get you friends while the same can't be said for the British television monstrosity. Creebies are virtual pets that takes appearance and personality from the amount of attention you give it. Furthermore, the game is built for multiplayer, which means my Creebi can interact with yours via Bluetooth or even be given up for adoption in the N-Gage Arena. Their (Creebies) existence aren't only for show as they can play mini-games aganst one another. Dirk Dagger and the Fallen Idol There weren't any game trailers for us to judge the gameplay, but from the screenshots, Dirk Dagger seems to revive the lost tradition of adventure games. The game has a film noir style to it complete with 30s Dick Tracy american detective pop culture experience... only funnier. It's too early to tell how the game will be like, but let's hope that it doesn't fall into the short gameplay that plagues mobile adventure games that leaves gamers feeling shortchanged. On the bright side though, Dirk Dagger will have a jazzy soundtrack. Yamake This should be interesting. Yamake lets gamers make the games and then share them on Bluetooth or the N-Gage Arena. It allows you to incorporate pictures, videos and audio clips on your phone within simple puzzles. You can create trivia, jigsaws, top trump-style games and more. Wrapping up, for now So far, the new N-Gage looks good with the promise of expanded hardware support and affordable games. Still, the N-Gage application is now only officially extended to the Nokia N81 and that itself might not win gaming converts or crossovers. After the first N-Gage salvo that failed, Nokia will have to roll out higher accessibility to their games and dangle carrots out. Maybe in the future the N-Gage might be popular enough to have live game demo displays in Harvey Norman or Best Denki, but until then, more work has to be put in to get the word out. *Next week: Third-party games revealed* Trackback(0) TrackBack URL for this entry Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment You must be logged in to a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.