The Verdict:
It is a tad early to say this system will be a failure, even with all of its problems. I have to say, there was a huge buzz about the N-Gage at the Game Developers Conference, and I know quite a few people who were impressed with the device. You can’t deny this thing is chock full of amazing technology. I like all the different things that it does. It’s a game device, phone, MP3 player, radio, MMS message station, Bluetooth device, portable web portal, and more. But do you really need all of that functionality?
Sprint has been letting me test their
Sanyo SPC-5300 since CES, which plays Java games, has a camera, and allows me to message and surf the web. Sprint has licensed a lot of games from Sega, Namco, Bandai, and others. Even though the games are pretty weak overall, the phone and integrated camera are fantastic. I absolutely love it. The thing I like most about it is that it’s functional and easy to use. The N-Gage’s interface is really tricky, and navigation is rather cumbersome. Even though the N-Gage does many different things, I have to go back to the adage, “Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should.”
I think I’ll just opt for my phone and my GBA SP, for the time being. Granted, you really don’t even need all the features that I have on my SPC-5300, but there are phones that have color screens, games, ringers and web utilities from many carriers that can be found for under $100-$150. Add a GBA SP, and you’ve got better games and a decent phone that doesn’t look like you’re using a taco on your head. The N-Gage is a GSM phone, while prevalent in Europe, it's not as popular among carriers in North America, or in Asia. Most carriers in North America are CDMA.
According to Nokia’s PR, this thing will be marketed to the hardcore gamer in Europe, North America, and Japan. Companies like Nokia and Ericsson are very big in Europe, and features like MMS messaging are extremely popular there, so I can see Europeans taking to this device before other regions do. Japan is really going to be the tough sell. Not only does Western technology sell poorly in Japan (Xbox anyone?), but the Japanese already have impressive phone technology. I have no clue what will happen in America with these things. I think it really comes down to the games, and currently I don’t think Nokia has much going for them in that regard.
What I do think is exciting is that this is actually happening. This device will push mobile phone gaming forward, and that’s a start. Even though I really don’t think this is competition at all for Nintendo, the N-Gage will give mobile gaming phone companies a run for their money. Even if this thing gets its much needed killer apps and totally takes off, could you just imagine what Nintendo would create to counter it? As a hardcore gamer, I still don’t know if I’d drop $300+ on a phone-game-swiss-army-knife-thing like this. For gaming purposes and a phone, I’d still opt for a decent cell phone and my GBA SP.
Nokia has provided us movies so you can see the N-Gage in action, as well as
hear from one of the developers.
Click here (9.81 MB Quicktime Movie) to see a quick demonstration of some of
the games you'll be able to play on N-Gage.
Click here (11.3 MB Quicktime Movie) to hear from Stevie Case and John
Romero (yes, that John Romero) of Monkey Stone Games talk about mobile gaming, and the N-Gage.
For more information about the Nokia N-Gage, check out
