No Better Time to N-Gage

***wraggster*** · August 8th, 2006, 17:24

Great article from Modojo, heres an excerpt:

Ever since it was revealed, Nokia's N-Gage has been the butt of jokes from gamers all across the world. From its awkward, taco-shaped style, to the dorky side-talking design, the N-Gage seemed destined to fail before it even hit the market. But even with a system redesign, and Nokia's determination to succeed and appeal to gamers, the N-Gage was simply unable to make its mark. Now, after nearly three years since its debut, the N-Gage platform has finally died, with support dropped not only by third parties, but from Nokia themselves. While Nokia still has plans for the N-Gage name (something that should resurface in 2007) the poor old N-Gage as a closed platform has all but been abandoned.

However, many gamers have found that the best time to give a system a chance is during its death throes. The N-Gage is no exception. The system initially failed because there were far too many dry spells during the systems lifespan, with only a little over 50 games released for the platform over the course of three years. It was easy to see why being an N-Gage owner didn't always seem like a smart decision. But now that the system has shown everything it has to offer, the laggards can finally move in on a quality piece of equipment while losing little out of their wallets.

Why the N-Gage you might ask? It might be hard to look at what appears to be an outdated electronic with all the new flashy gaming devices now in days. For one thing you have the DS (and more recently the DS Lite) continuing to "wow" gamers with innovative game design, and then Sony is making their mark by providing gamers with a console-like experience on the go. Heck even the archaic Game Boy was given a sexy redesign with the Micro.

So where does Nokia fit in? Like most mobile games you find on phones, the game design often revolves around the idea of "pick up and play" format. Rather then being engaged with a massive and deep story line in, say, Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth or complicated and complex control schemes such as Metroid Prime Hunters, the majority of the N-Gage library is built around being able to play a quick five minutes of gaming while, for instance, sitting in a waiting room for your doctor's appointment. This instant gratification is becoming scarce on the current handhelds (to a lesser extent with the GBA). That's not to say the N-Gage doesn't have deep titles however - even with a small library of games you can get the best of both worlds.

Full Article

**Video_freak** · August 8th, 2006, 17:27

May the N-Gage R.I.P. I'm surprised it took so long to die. I remember when I had a friend that bought one when they came out, thinking it was the best thing ever- that is until he played a game on it.