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Hands-On With The Nokia N-Gage
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Thu Sep 11, 2003 04:07 PM
from the but-it-looks-so-cool dept.
from the but-it-looks-so-cool dept.
CokoBWare writes "Finally! Gamesindustry.biz has done a hands-on review of the Nokia N-Gage cellphone/games machine. The results don't impress the judges much, but I suppose the consumer will ultimately be the judge."
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The N-Gage Will Rise Again 79 comments
The New York Times has an article up this week talking about Nokia's third attempt to get their N-Gage brand into the minds of gamers. This time it's a service, not a device, and the company is betting that branding mobile games will be a better tactic than their previous attempts. "The Ideo and Nokia executives concluded that users mainly want to play against their friends and, at the very least, they want to know the skill level of their opponents. As a result, the new N-Gage permits users to see what games their friends have on their phones and whether they are online. They can also see how many points a person has earned in the game, as well as how much time they devote to solitary play versus group play. The researchers also asked players what their greatest frustrations were. High on the list was buying a game that turned out to be disappointing. In the new N-Gage service, customers will be able to sample games free before buying them. The selection will lean toward the casual side of gaming, with soccer and fishing titles and the popular puzzle game Bejeweled, among others. Nokia has not yet discussed prices."
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Obvious Questions... (Score:2, Funny)
How Long... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:How Long... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:How Long... (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:How Long... (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, about as well as it runs Duke Forever.
Oh, good... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh, good... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Oh, good... (Score:2)
If you really feel that way, then remove your car radio and CD player. Don't contribute to the problem.
Re:Oh, good... (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Oh, good... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Oh, good... (Score:4, Informative)
I remember listening to a report on NPR by someone from the Illinois equivalent of the NTSB and he had some good reasons for why cell phones are more distracting than stereos or even in-car conversation: Cellphones keep the driver distracted by a non-traffic sensitive other. Most drivers can work the radio without looking at it. Most passengers in the car can see when things are getting hairy traffic-wise and shut the hell up. Random on the cellphone doesn't know where the hell you are and can't tell you about the semi making a wide right.
Parent
Re:Oh, good... (Score:3, Insightful)
I have never had three people run me off the road in two minutes playing with the radio.
I never have to wait on an asshole at a green light because they are putting in a CD.
Phones are more distracting. People wave their arms and go to their special place on the phone.
Re:Oh, good... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
None of that is fucking safe! (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd prefer that a person return to the full upright position with both hands on the wheel, even if I wait a second or two at a green light, rather than have them speed off into traffic partially hunched over and with only one hand on the wheel.
Most drivers are lax in their attention while on the road, and it's very dangerous. Any time you do not have both hands on the wheel and are not scanning is a time when an accide
Re:Oh, good... (Score:3, Informative)
Latest research (from Scandinavia or Finland) shows that it's not being able to concentrate which distracts whilst driving.
Radio, CDs are 'background noise' - they don't affect your concentration too much even if you're listening to a live debate, or documentary
Having a telephone conversation is, however, very d istracting. You must concentrate and interact much more which limits your road attention
Compound this with the fact that people drive too fast, and too close to the car in front (ie faster rea
Another hands on review (Score:5, Informative)
Penny-Arcade (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Penny-Arcade (Score:5, Funny)
For the link-phobic:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2003-0
Parent
WHY DID THEY DESIGN IT LIKE THIS? (Score:5, Insightful)
Ok, so the thing LOOKS cool but is it functional. Apparently not. Who the hell wants to fumble around with removing a battery, sliding out an old cartridge, sliding in a new cartridge, and then replacing the cover?
The wait issue is of no relevance to me, who cares, what I care about is having to hold thirty things in my hands while I fumble around trying to switch games.
In this day and age, and all the devices that have come out (especially handheld gaming units) why would ANYONE think that this design would be acceptable?
Just my worthless
Re:WHY DID THEY DESIGN IT LIKE THIS? (Score:2)
The question is... (Score:2, Insightful)
A good idea, but a poor implementation (Score:3, Insightful)
A Gameboy Advance SP is $100. If the N-Gage were, say, $150, THEN I think they'd have something. But for $300, it has to be both a great phone, and a great gaming system, and its only target market is those people who were thinking about buying both a Gameboy and a cell phone at the same time.
At a price point around $150, it would only
Re:WHY DID THEY DESIGN IT LIKE THIS? (Score:3, Insightful)
Cellphones that play games VS Gameboy Cellphones (Score:5, Insightful)
Thing is, most people buy cellphones for the purpose of staying in touch. The games are just a feature. It's much easier to justify $300-400 for a great phone which will provide crystal clear sound etc than for a very expesnive gameboy.
I just don't see myself or any 'adult' wanting an ncage. Sure the "adults" may play games on their PDAs and cellphones, but they didn't buy them for that purpose. The people who buy ncage will be doing so purley to play games, I don't see the gamer market being crazed about cellphones. The kids on the other hand would proably rather have a GBA nor would they have the money for an ncage.
Re:Cellphones that play games VS Gameboy Cellphone (Score:4, Interesting)
fyi, you can get phones for much under that are perfect for 'just getting clystar clear sound', even in market areas where tying the phone and provider is illegal(that is, in finland for example). the 'crystal clear' sound hasn't been an issue for the last 5 years anymore(as long as the phone stays in one piece and doesn't break up), except of course in areas with poor gsm operators who don't think it's important to have good coverage throughout the nation(finland isn't exactly packed with population in the rural areas, but the phones work flawlessly). things like battery life(which you can't feel when buying the phone) and stylistic features and now real extra functionality have become the things to seperate yourself from the market.
the thing is.. it's also a s60 phone(and afaik, it's going to be the _cheapest_ s60 phone available, not sure on that though), allowing you to run symbian apps(c64 emulator, gbc emulator, read ebooks, read slashdot, wipe your ass, develop stuff for it with freely available tools, does your dishes, let's you get the latest news, use as a remote control for your pc through bluetooth, have bluetooth dongles at both work and home and use it as a data transferer.. it has pretty wide array of geeky uses), so it's not just a 'phone' anyways. it also has a memory slot for relatively cheap media(compared to sticks&etc) that's available too, easily in any pc store.
and as for why people buy cellphones.. they need to have it, it's no longer considered an option to have it, everybody has it and is pretty much expected to have one as well. when they get tired of the old phone(or if/when it breaks) they pretty much 'have' to get a new phone, some go for the looks, some go for the geek features, some go for the pop features and small size.
while i do agree(heck, i've heard that even nokias engineers agree) that it is retarded to have the mmc card under the battery(dunno, maybe the original design team thought that it would be only changed every once and then?).
Parent
Re:Cellphones that play games VS Gameboy Cellphone (Score:2)
The crowd does "cool" things. Playing games has never been "cool" its' been maybe fun. But never cool. It's one of those "geeky" things that "normal" people do sometimes because it's fun. The N-Cage will be one of those geeky odd things that has no real market.
Re:Cellphones that play games VS Gameboy Cellphone (Score:2)
Maybe on a handheld...however, watching the commericals for games like Madden and SoCom, I'm pretty convinced that the game industy has turned certain types of games into "cool"
Re:Cellphones that play games VS Gameboy Cellphone (Score:3, Informative)
Not necessairly true. Sony is making a profit on all the PS1's they sell now, and I believe they are also now making a profit on the PS2's.
The consumer hates it too (Score:2, Informative)
From what I hear from everyone that gets a chance to play with one of these...they don't even make a good phone and the games are terrible!
Stick with your Nokia phone and GameBoy Advanced SP
problem: ngage (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:problem: ngage (Score:4, Insightful)
BTW, don't buy a GP32 is you aren't technically adept. It's not a GBA. It's not much harder to use than a MP3 player, but it's not idiot proof like a GBA.
Parent
I'm not banking on it... (Score:5, Insightful)
The phone companies in the US will try to provision it to death, like they do everything else, which knocks it out here. But that's just the start.
You are knocking out a lot of the prospective audience by making it a games device first and a phone second. You can get away with having your employer buy a phone with games, as long as it doesn't look like a GBA. You can get away with buying a PDA and putting games on it because it still looks businesslike. This screams "I'm playing games". Older folk aren't going to go for it, which leaves the younger folk, who aren't necessarily going to have enough cash.
It also doesn't bring any cool network functionality to the table. All of the games are just that... games. I might as well get a GBA and a phone. No MMORPGs. You have to use cartrages and they are a pain in the rear to install, instead of just letting you download stuff.
Of course, they may make the v2.0 or v3.0 version actually good.
Re:I'm not banking on it... (Score:3, Informative)
Even counting only US younger folk, the younger folk represent a spending power larger than a pretty decent chuck of the African continent. Well, I don't know about African economies actually, but teenager's influenced spending power is about $520 billion [go.com]. Anually.
With handset subsidies being what they are in many places, the difference between a very uncool phone and a very cool phone ma
Saw one at EBX (Score:3, Informative)
Wouldnt you feel like an idiot talking into this?? (Score:3, Insightful)
Not to mention that fact that you have to remove the battery to put the games in?!?!?! Um.......... how the hell did that idea make it out of engineering. That one design failure alone, leads me to believe that Nokia isnt that serious about entering the gaming market... either that, or the are just not meant to be there!
Are you so sure about that? (Score:5, Funny)
Really? What if the consumer is a construction worker? Or a student?
Or imagine a scenario where they sell two N-Gages--it could be a judge and a construction worker!
The Important Question... (Score:4, Funny)
Dumb Idea (Score:2, Funny)
So when will they come out with the HO-Gauge? (Score:5, Funny)
Wait for PSP!! (Score:3, Interesting)
Better specs have not won the fight. The Neo Geo Pocket, TurboGrafx Xpress, Sega Game Gear and Nomad, Lynx, Game.com.
Many have come, many have failed.
Playstation Portable sounds like it'll be the first handheld to give the gameboy line a run for it's money. But I'm not banking on that either.
Nintendo promised some amazing new revolutionary whizamajig for next year. A successor to the GBA? A successor to gamecube? Who knows...
But, my bet is a portable gamecube. This is purely speculation, but it makes sense. The miniDVD format for GCN games has always been a bit of an enigmah - until you think about a handheld device... You could squish a gamecube into something handheld for the price of an nGage..
Maybe I'm dreaming, but hot damn that'd rock. Even if it was a different console, but they had "hybrid" games, ie, one version plays on the gamecube, a "lighter" version for it's portable sibling..
Anyhow.
Woe be to all ye who enter Nintendo's sacred grounds.
To hell with this...get a GP32 (Score:5, Informative)
Bah what a crap review.... (Score:2)
Also his description of putting a game in and switching cartidges is somewhat nonsense. If I compared it to my game it'd be somehting liek this: I have to put the cartidge in then t
Re:Bah what a crap review.... (Score:2)
Because SD cards are small and easy to lose. The game-size-vs-portability issue is one that Nintendo tackled and resolved just fine on the Game Boy systems.
It's not the fact that you have to turn it off that's annoying; it's the fact that you have to remove a cover, take out the battery, replace both, and wait. All together, that's a real nuisance if you're switching games more than once a week.
Re:Bah what a crap review.... (Score:4, Interesting)
My Kyocera 7135 phone with built-in PalmOS has a nice side-loading SD slot, so what's the dilly-o with Nokia?
Those SD cards aren't just small and easy to lose, they break realllllly easily.
If they make it to nGage Advance, it'll have a handy side-loading slot, that autodetects the cartridge without powering off, just like my phone does now.
(Btw, this kyocera phone is a buggy pile of shit - it gets "fatal exceptions" when it rings and the battery cant last 24 hours in a stretch, lest anyone think I'm praising it)
Parent
it starts sad and gets better. (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm still a fan of convergence, even though i see it done badly so often. Kinda like horror movies. I can put up with a lot of Scream swquwls for one "Ring", and I can sit through a lot of MS Bob, NGage and fridges with net connections, for one good media and entertainment device that fits in my watch pocket and last several days on a charge.
remember listening to midi files over
Good Idea, But.... (Score:4, Insightful)
I disabled all of the extra features on my cell phone because they weren't worth the extra $ every month. I tried to buy tickets for a movie once on it and when I went to pick them up they handed me 3 pair of tickets when I only ordered one! The UI for the browser would bring me pack to the confirm page each time I opened it - I decided then that the service was not ready for prime time.
I come from the school of "design the device/application to do its primary job right and do it well". If your going to try and sell me on half assed features, then I'm not buying. My phone handles phonecalls well and thats why I bought it. The NGage looks uncomfortable as a phone, and falls short on everything else.
All in what?? (Score:4, Insightful)
Not to mention a GOOD mp3 player is $200, good portable game system is $100, PDA: $250, Cell Phone: $200. So unless this thing cost $750 what's the chances of it not stinking in atlest one (if not more) of these areas.
Oh, and I'm not buying the component reuse argument. A good PDA screen dosn't make a good Cell phone screen. Plus then all you get is a bunch of software emulated hardware function.. whoohoo
The better idea would've been... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:No use (Score:2)
Re:Haven't I heard this somewhere before? (Score:3, Funny)
Or was that William Tindall in the 1560's? It's so hard for me to keep them straight.