What's everyone's take on the Nokia N-Gage?

bokmeow · Feb 6, 2003

I definitely don't want to come right out and say that it will fail, but I believe it has an extremely rocky road ahead. I grasp the idea that it's supposed to be a PDA, gaming machine and mobile phone all in one, but man, it'd better have some incredible battery life, like at least a month. People have a rough enough time with that much dollar (under $300 and above $40) for a dedicated console machine, who can shell out that much for a mobile gaming console? At the very least, unless mobile phone usage changes, I think Nokia will have poor sales in North America.

snkneogeousaCTH · Feb 6, 2003

Plus the fact that's its bloody ugly. The screen is just horrific - too tall! And the game lineup is pitiful - the only attractive game (no pun intended) is tomb raider. Oh well.

Metal Slug · Feb 6, 2003

snkneogeousaCTH:
Plus the fact that's its bloody ugly. The screen is just horrific - too tall! And the game lineup is pitiful - the only attractive game (no pun intended) is tomb raider. Oh well.

I agreee totally.
I want a phone thats just a phone.

Metal Slug · Feb 6, 2003

Spong have played one, and they say it can do a full 3D port of Tomb Raider from the PS1 code!

ooooooooooh.

F3L0N · Feb 6, 2003

Metal Slug:
Spong have played one, and they say it can do a full 3D port of Tomb Raider from the PS1 code!

ooooooooooh.

A handheld??? thats gotta be a bullshit lie....i wanna it see for myself drool_2

snkneogeousaCTH · Feb 6, 2003

Hmm.. the 3D PS1 part is interesting. But look at the bloody tall screen!!! And all the buttons..weird.

I think I will have to see it IRL before I can decide.

I need to see a pic of it compared to a gba size wize.

DanAdamKOF · Feb 6, 2003

I can't tell where the speaker and mic are, but it seems to me that if they're on the screen side, your cheek will touch the screen and muck it up. If they're on the other side, your palm will muck the screen up. I think that this is actually gonna start with a bit of a backing because of its novelty but it will fade into obscurity within about 4 months.

Snooptalian · Feb 6, 2003

I think it looks pretty good. But only time will tell whether or not the games turn out to be any good or if they run slow like on a GP 32. Anyone know what the price is gonna be on these things?

MarkieMark30 · Feb 7, 2003

I work for a games development company in the UK, we have been asked to produce games for the N-gage. The price point per game will be around 20 Euro, we've only had the handsets for a week, but so far none of the dev team are very impressed with it.

Ahchay · Feb 7, 2003

What you have to realise is that this is being marketed as a phone - very different demographic to the GBA. People will buy this because it's a cool phone, not for the games capability.

And compared to the other phones around at the moment, it's great - has anyone actually tried to play games on any of the competitors? About the best is the Sony/Ericson one (I forget the model number) that comes with Qix, Defender and (I think) Tetris clones on it.

The other side of this, the phone market being what it is (in Europe at least), is that the shelf life for the N-Gage will be about twelve months. After that, people will be looking to trade in for a newer/sexier model. So, this machine has to make a big impact very quickly otherwise it'll get consigned to the landfill sites...

Cheers
Chris

bokmeow · Feb 7, 2003

Yeah, mobile phone market is so volatile, and since it is a handheld console as well, it has to meet two different expectations and plan to last a while, Xbox had to surpass all different expectations since it was a newcomer, people had to be convinced that it was not going to be quickly replaced by an Xbox 2 because it fell behind in the console race, and it had to be at an affordable price point.

PLVDM · Feb 7, 2003

there already working on an few good games for it like Sonic, Sega Rally and, monkey ball, tomb raider and more.

I don't know if the games will be good but the "console" sounds great if you read about the features (<a href="http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/news/0,10870,2910338,00.html" target="_blank">http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/news/0,10870,2910338,00.html</a>)

Movie 1
<a href="http://ncsp.forum.nokia.com/downloads/nokia/videos/nokia_n-gage-01-big.mov" target="_blank">http://ncsp.forum.nokia.com/downloads/nokia/videos/nokia_n-gage-01-big.mov</a>

Movie 2
<a href="http://ncsp.forum.nokia.com/downloads/nokia/videos/nokia_n-gage-03-big.mov" target="_blank">http://ncsp.forum.nokia.com/downloads/nokia/videos/nokia_n-gage-03-big.mov</a>

If you didn't see the movies yet, the first one is a commecial with ingame images, and the second is an interview.

Boomer · Feb 7, 2003

Here's some gaming features:
"Large color screen with backlight, 176x208 pixels with up to 4096 colours"
yeah large but should be turned on its side.

"Bluetooth wireless technology for gaming"
who cares...anyone?

"An eight-way directional controller "Rocker" for game play"
Cute unoriginal name for pad..how cool is that?!

"Usage time":
"Games up to 3 - 6 h (depending on game type)"
Bit low don't ya think?

"Size:

"Volume 139cc
Dimensions (L x W x D) 133,7 x 69,7 x 20,2 mm
Weight 137g"

I don't know, I don't care.

I know that I should be just hyping it (since Nokia is from Finland) but heck, it's still alot worse than "new" Gameboy Advance SP. N-Gage could be alot better without those stupid mobile/PDA features.

PLVDM · Feb 7, 2003

what i think:
"Large color screen with backlight, 176x208 pixels with up to 4096 colours"
I don't judge the screen untill i played it, from what i've seen in the movie (2 posts above) it seems to play well.

"Bluetooth wireless technology for gaming"
seems cool to me, if i can play against a friend wireless!

"An eight-way directional controller "Rocker" for game play"
haven't played with it so I don't know how cool it is

"Usage time":
"Games up to 3 - 6 h (depending on game type)"
It is low that's for sure but i think most people won't use their N-gage as an GBA for gaming 24 hours a day, more to game 10 minutes at the busstop

I know that I should be just hyping it (since Nokia is from Finland) but heck, it's still alot worse than "new" Gameboy Advance SP. N-Gage could be alot better without those stupid mobile/PDA features.

That's just the point of it, it isn't a game only device, but all in one...

zorro · Feb 7, 2003

It looks very rediculous to talk into or even use as a phone

bokmeow · Feb 7, 2003

PLVDM:
"An eight-way directional controller "Rocker" for game play"
haven't played with it so I don't know how cool it is

For me, it needs to pass the test of Geese's Deadly Rave. If the move can be performed with the 'Rocker' then it can do most other functions, but if not, forget it.

SN K' · Feb 7, 2003

Whatever happened to a phone just being a phone spock

Phoenix Down · Feb 7, 2003

Sounds kind of cool but I'll wait until I see it to pass judgement.

On another note, I think it's really funny how people look at me strange on my bus ride to work and ask me why I'm playing a kiddie system when half the other people on the bus are playing games on their PDAs or Cell Phones. spock

leGionellz · Feb 8, 2003

I Think that this will eventually turn into a success. But like usual, the first generation of phones with such futures will not really do it. Better, nicer and smaller ones will appear and everyone will say: why not.

This phone looks bloody ugly by the way.. I want my phone to look like a phone

WindyJay · Feb 8, 2003

How can the person who said ' not very impressed' with the capabilities of it..?????! what a full 3D version of Tomb Raider on a handheld not impressive enough for you? sure the frame rate on a lot of the games isnt upto scratch at the moment but its early days they have 9 months to go yet.
Point against it though, not due to end of 2003,price £330 odd, come on at that price its no suprise the graphics should be better, but with rumours of a Sony and Microsoft handhelds in 2004/05 i certainly wont buy one, screen wrong way round, to many buttons for ease of use as a handheld and looks to hard to hold as a phone, sorry Nokia but you should have a done a seperate handheld.

Boomer · Feb 8, 2003

I dont't think N-gage as a portable console, I think that it is mobilephone with some great gaming features. N-Gage could be great stepping stone for new generation of mobile games. I mean, how many of would like to play King of Fighters or Metal Slug with your phone instead of that stupid snake game? There's no way that N-Gage would compete with GBA but it is really competive against other mobilephone manufacturers.

<small>[ February 08, 2003, 09:46 AM: Message edited by: Boomer ]</small>

bokmeow · Feb 8, 2003

But looking at the competitiors that will presumably be coming out with their own, pared down with just a good cpu and excellent web browsing capabilities, and if download services comparable to that in Japan are provided, I find it difficult that people are willing to shell out 40 dollars just for the novelty of playing Tomb Raider, again, with 'brand new levels'.

Ahchay · Feb 8, 2003

I have a friend who has one of the earlier MP3 player Nokias which uses almost exactly the same form, and it's a perfectly usable phone. Besides, I daresay it'll benefit from the use of a hands-free kit.

I reiterate. It's a phone. It's not a portable gaming console. Games are there as a unique selling point to get people to buy the phone - and by extension, the contract.

Mobile phones are expensive. Even your bog-standard Nokia 3310 would cost you in excess of £100 to buy, so although this might have a list price of £300 odd (I've heard as much as £500), by the time it hits the high street it will end up at around the £150-£200 mark (or even less) on a par with the "camera" phones.

As for battery life? 3-6 hours non-standby usage is, again, perfectly acceptable for a phone. People are used to charging their phone pretty much once a day.

And I quite like the idea of a portrait screen, but then I'm a sucker for vertical shooters wink

Not that I'll be getting one, am perfectly happy with my Nokia 6210 and I play games on the NGPC

Cheers
Chris

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