I never really anticipated ever writing the name "N-Gage" again, but that's how unpredictable life is. Nokia's much maligned mobile gaming brand is still lurching forward in a sick parody of life, as the company has announced the addition of Konami games to the service's library. Exciting news for all seven N-Gage users.
One of the confirmed games for the new N-Gage is Metal Gear Solida Mobile, an Ideaworks3D collaboration that uses backdrops created from samples of images taken with the system's camera. Nokia states that Solida Mobile "will raise the bar with respect to graphical detail and made-for-mobile features."
Continuing this trend of unpredicability, I never expected this news to stretch over two paragraphs. It has. I bet you can't make this news achieve over two hundred comments.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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12:00 PM on 05.20.2008
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whoops just contributed :P
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Is that a challenge Mr. Sterling?
Really Konami? Solida? You couldn't think of ANYTHING else?
I'm already at #1, I don't need to rank whore anything. :-)
If you called this a "cheap ploy to drive up pageviews" however, you'd be onto something. ;-)
I didn't even know that people like Konami, would remember N-Gage.
Added a few new words to alter the context of the article to reflect this new ... N-Gage.
They REALLY should change the name.
Not to mention consumer accessibility. While they're pretty prolific outside of the US, I don't feel that they've really caught on well in the states. At least not the versions that will be able to run the N-Gage platform. Just seems like a lot of hullabaloo for a very limited release.
Also mobile gaming needs to die
@wardrox - thank you for being sane.
this is a major market niche, thats going to grow by leaps and bounds in the coming years. if you've seen mgs: mobile, or brothers in arms 3d, you know that graphically the mobile market is already on par with ps1 games, and with more powerful phones like the iphone and android based devices being designed with 3d animation in mind, once we nail a solid input mechanic for these things, the mobile phone will eat up a large chunk of the handheld market. there's big money to be made here, and though we haven't heard much in recent years, i wouldn't discount the whole 'xbox live anywhere' from dipping into this cash cow.
Seriously thought the thing was long dead...
(http://blog.n-gage.com/archive/mgs/)
That being said, the new N-Gage is actually quite nice, I've tried it on my N95. Most end-user benefits are based on it being Xbox Live Lite for mobiles, right down to networked play and achievements, but it is more a reference platform for developers than anything. The name has major baggage and I wish they had come up with something else, but maybe the name has more cache in Europe.
Don't fool yourself, it's still cellphone gaming, but at least they're trying new things. Mile High is actually quite a competent time-waster that puts a new spin on pinball instead of just making another Bejeweled/Tetris clone, and I'm definitely interested to see how Reset Generation turns out.
Problem is, I don't see N-Gage cracking the code at all, it's just updating it with network/arena support and other player-to-player features and making it generally friendlier. Truth is, Sony is in a much better position to do this with the combined knowledge of SCE and Sony Ericsson, but they lack a crazy visionary such as Kutaragi now to see it through.