The sad thing here is that I am less excited about everything announced for N-Gage than I am the games on my old phone. And my old phone only had Snake.
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The sad thing here is that I am less excited about everything announced for N-Gage than I am the games on my old phone. And my old phone only had Snake.
Well, that would explain why the screens looked nearly identical to it. Although I'd heard that it was a redone port of the original Sonic game, a straight up port of SA would make more sense given the screens.
I actually got to try out the N-Gage today. It belongs to someone I know who is in the industry, and received it at a show a few days ago.
The machine is very small, and the quality of the LCD screen is excellent. It's easily the highest quality LCD screen ever used in a handheld video game system. That's not to say that it's ideal--the N-Gage's screen is tiny, and its resolution is noticeably lower than that of the GBA, which it really shouldn't be considering the GBA is 2 1/2 years old. It's the actual quality of the LCD that stands out, with great color reproduction and better illumination than the GBASP.
The only game that was available to play was Tomb Raider. The game is on a MultiMedia Card; since my friend had another MMC in there (filled with MP3 music), he had to switch the cards. Sadly, you still have to do the now infamous procedure of removing the back plate and the battery to swap cards. Also, as GameSpot noted recently, you have to wait for the N-Gage to boot up (maybe 15-20 seconds), and then go to a menu and select the game from there. But that's not all! The levels themselves (in Tomb Raider) also have about 10-15 seconds of loading time! :wtf:
I've heard some people say that it's a port of the first PlayStation game, while others say it's the second. I really don't know, since I never got any of the games, nor have I played them enough to tell them apart. It certainly resembles what I've seen of the PS Tomb Raider games. The frame rate is very smooth, and the quality of the polygon graphics seemed comparable to PS (except for the much lower resolution). On the other hand, the sound was really disappointing. There was no music (not even on the title screen), and the only sound effects that I noticed occurred when Lara Croft's feet hit the ground after some jumps.
I couldn't really come to grips with the control of the game. It might be because I never really played the PS games for more than a few minutes, but this didn't really click with me. The running movement was easy to control, but attempting to jump onto crates and platforms was a bit of a chore. After about 10 minutes of running and jumping and doing side flips and such, I gave up. I'm not convinced that this is really the ideal game to play on the go, but I suppose it's a good rendition for the fans.
The joypad seemed to be pretty good, actually, and you can click inward on the middle of it (like the L3/R3 sticks on a PlayStation Dual Shock controller). I know some people complained about the joypad, but I think it's good. The fire buttons (really, the phone keypad) are a bit awkward, but not entirely unusable, either. I think the controls might be good for simple arcade-style games that use 1-2 buttons (probably the 5 and 7 buttons, which have raised round bumps to mimic the feel of A and B on Game Boy), but anything more and it starts to become cumbersome. All the keys are so close together, and you have to think about which button you're actually pressing. Notably absent are the lack of fingertip triggers--something most people have been accustomed to in home video games over the last decade. I can't help but think that sidestepping to the left in Tomb Raider would've been much easier if you could hit a left trigger with your fingertip, rather than move your thumb to the number 4 on the keypad cluster...or is it 1?
The person who owns this N-Gage said that while the gaming abilities are OK, it seems to really shine in other applications. I don't think he has phone service yet, but he said it's a great MP3 player and FM radio. He also said that it has personal information management functions like a PDA, and you should be able to synchronize the data with Outlook on your PC through a Bluetooth connection. Interestingly, he said it has a USB connection, but only for transferring MP3 files; all other data communication with a PC uses Bluetooth.
He's tried most of the other games at a show recently. He said the first games he will get will be Pandemonium and Virtua Tennis. He was also very impressed with Red Faction, Super Monkey Ball, Sonic N, Taito Memories and some of the others. The only one he didn't like at all was Moto GP.
The games that have Internet play will be playable online for free until the end of January, at which point Nokia will start to charge $9.99 a month. They'd better cook up some really compelling features soon, because I don't think downloading ghosts for time trials is going to cut it.
So far, it seems like it might be a fun device, especially if you dig the phone, MP3, radio, and PIM capabilities. As a gaming platform, however, I don't think it's worth paying $300 for. If I didn't already know the N-Gage was being marketed as a game system, I'd guess that Nokia originally designed this as another high-end phone (perhaps a PDA/smartphone type device), and tacked on the gaming aspect as an afterthought. (The awkward card-switching process and need to start the game from a menu are evidence of this.) I can't see many people doing any serious handheld gaming (read: more than what today's cell phones offer) with it. It seems too complex and cumbersome even for quick "pick-up-and-play" games, yet at the same time not robust enough in other areas (notably screen size, resolution, and sound) for some of the more sophisticated games that Nokia seems to want to release for it. I'd probably wait until a future version of the machine came out that was cheaper, with a better screen and controls that are truly tuned for gaming.
I'll wait until the product is available, so I can try more games before passing final judgment.
» http://gamesasylum.com/showarticle.php?articleID=2090
Well, like many people predicted, the price is already dropping, sorta. The price will only be £99 in the UK if you sign up with O2 for your phone service. I would imagine that similar offers will be made in other regions. Since most people pay for phone plans anyway it's a much better deal.
Not for me though. I don't want or need a phone or phone plan and I lost interest... but I think that this kind of pricing plan will give people a lot more incentive to buy.
EBgames has a couple of new rebates on the NGage that mght make it more affordable. Pre-order it with 2 games and get $100 (EB Gift Voucher). Also they are giving an additional $5 per game on trade-in PS2, XBox and Gamecube games used for an NGage purchase. Trade in 10 games with a pre-order and the system could be down to $100. That seems reasonable.
BTW - the review above was very accurate - I played on one tonight at my local EBGames. I love it for the radio, mp3 and PDA - the games are a bonus...
I spent some time with an N-Gage and Tomb Raider today, and my thoughts are pretty similar to what Agent X said above. A few things though:
It's definitely a port of the first Tomb Raider and not the second, which isn't exactly news. Thought I'd clarify that from Agent's post.
The graphics were excellent for a handheld. The framerate held up rather nicely and it is pretty comprable to the original Playstation's graphics. I too was disappointed by the sound... it's very barren and bland. I can only hope that a game like Sonic N wouldn't have the same lack of sound and music.
While I was sure I would hate having to use a damn number keypad to play games with, it was worked out surprisingly well. A game like Tomb Raider which has a lot of commands played just fine on the keypad. The D-pad is passable but nothing great... and for some reason in Tomb Raider Lara seems to auto run if you tap up once... very annoying and I couldn't find a way to turn that off.
You're able to save anywhere, which is pretty cool, but the load times are slightly off-putting. Once you're in a level you don't have to worry about it loading for a while at least.
So, as a game system it's certainly decent, but not $300 decent by any means. As a phone/organizer/MP3 player/kitchen sink, it does an alright job, but there are other devices out there that do those things better.
One thing I absolutely hate about the thing, is how you use it as a phone. I'm sure everyone has seen the infamous "Taco" picture by now (I forget which TNL-er it was in the shot), and it's so true. I didn't want to grab the phone properly since you pretty much would have to put your fingers right on the screen, and who wants fingerprints on their shiny new LCD? It's just fails miserably as a cell phone in that regard.
So, in the end, I was ready to hate the thing completely, but I was somewhat surprised by it's performance as a game system. As a phone, forget it. Why even bother with it would be my question to anyone interested in it as a phone. While this shocks no one, this certainly isn't worth your $300+ hard-earned bucks. At the $100-$150 level, it's worth considering for the gaming and MP3/radio functions I suppose.
Yes, I'm quoting myself here. :)
I just read an article today that says that this alliance almost happened:Quote:
Originally Posted by Agent X
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/35/34377.html
I don't know how true it is, but it makes for some interesting reading.
In other N-Gage news, someone ported MAME to the N-Gage (and some other mobile phones) recently. Click here for more information.