Why Nokia's N-Gage Will be an Awesome System
This is the topic post of a thread I
started in a Gameboy Advance message board in early 2003. At the time,
Nokia's new N-Gage "game deck" was consisdered a possible serious
threat to Nintendo's handheld gaming empire, and many Nintendo fans
were worried about what would happen if it became successful.
I offered an alternate posibility, what if the success of the N-Gage
lead directly to Nintendo releasing a better online-connected device to
compete?
The posting is offered unedited and unaltered from how I first published it nearly a decade ago. Enjoy.
I just got a black SP an im about the biggest GBA freak you could meet,
but i think the N-Gage has potential and hope it does well. Gameboy
Advance (or rather the SP, since Nintendo is launching it into the
forefront of the GB world) is starting to appeal to a more general
audiance. More than ever before I see grown peoples on the subways
(lives in NYC) playing with GBA's, purple and pink ones (my standard
GBA is purple). I can only see this number rising with the more mature
looking SP released in non kiddie colors, not even the 'nintendo
purple' that they seem so obsessed with these days.
The N-Gage brings back memories of while back I got involved with a
company called Cybiko. They had a black and white device called for
about 100.00 back in about 2000 that had downloadable games, local
wireless chat, e-mail capabilities and promised MP3 and Memory card
releases.
It seemed very promising, but as it turned out the games sucked,
severely. It made some of the Game&Watch games look like
masterpieces in gameplay and graphics. I bet the Cybiko wasent even as
powerful as a classic Game Boy. They never fully released the
advertised MP3 or Memory card attatchments, and the range for wireless
communication came out to about 50 feet, this was obviously not in
their very misleading ad. The cybiko was a cult hit and made them some
money, along with an alledged investment from AOL.
In 2001 they came out with a new thinner version the called
"CybikoXtreme". They promised 3-d games and MXD music video downloads.
Somthing possessed me to choose this underpowered B&W system over
the GBA, and it was 150.00 (days after buying it the price was lowered
to 40.00). They were no new games, just the same old ones, there was
one game they made called Ki-Ti. It didnt even match the graphical
level of Donkey Kong and was impossible to play because it required the
unreleased memory card to play it on. Now their site hasent been
updated in months, and their testimonials section is nothing but old
(likely faked) testimonials from 2000 with the dates changed and
reposted to their site. Now there marketing this crappy toy in the UK,
you can check their site at cybiko.com if you care at all.
but the reason i brought Cybiko up is because the n-gage promises many
of the same things. But the N-Gage seems much more legit, its run by a
major company, and has the backing up of key developers like Sega.
the games seem to be more promising than the the games US gamers are
dialing up on their (mostly) small screened, black and white phones
like Snake, and bootleged versions of Pac-Man and Tetris.
hereIm going to go through each publicised aspect of the N-Gage.
Design:
It looks cooler than the Standard GBA, more like you'd be able to use
it in the mall and still look cool. The screen is smaller than the
GBA's, and maby even a bit smaller than the GBC's, it seems like a
waste of space. A good thing though, is that it's more compact than a
Classic GBA, and therefore more casually totable, but scratches on the
screen is a problem the SP will never have to endure because of it's
clamshell design. One huge problem with the N-gage is that you have to
remove the battery just to insert a game, whats up with that??
Controls:
The keypad looks a bit unfriendly to GBA gamers, and reminds me of the
Colecovision(sp?) and Atari Jaguar controllers. For modern consoles,
this is unacceptable, but for this gamesystem/phone combo it seems like
it could work. the buttons look well suited for gameplay and more
buttons is somthing people complained about with the sp. more buttons
means less cramming buttons with combonation button pushes, so in this
case its a good thing; though sticking a keypad on a GBA or a SP would
be unnacceptable.
Power:
this is supposed to be more way powerful than the GBA, but talk is
cheep, the screenshots of Tomb Raider and Pandimonium look promising,
and almost to the quality of Playstation games, but the GBA is already
approaching the level of PSX quality 3-D, and Tomb Raider was reported
to have a horrible framerate. Framerate for a system as alledgedly
powerful as N-Gage should at least be able to match that of Super
Monkey ball Jr. for GBA, which i will now consider the visual standard
for 3-d handheld gaming, thouh Tomb Raider has been reported to have
improved in quality greatly. Pandimonium however, looked perfect, and
almost unimprovised form the PSX game. The GBA was once proudly sold by
Nintendo as a "Super NES you can take anywhere", but already its gone
far byond that. If N-Gage truely does have the power to reach PSX
quality 3-d, then we can expect great things from it gameplay wise in
the future.
Wirelessness:
The N-Gage is being marketed by Nokia as a "Mobile Game Deck". I see it
as more 70% game console, 40% cell phone. Obviously this would only
appeal to someone who at least already has a cell phone or was in the
market for one, and possibly owns a Game Boy of some sort. Nokia would
be kidding themselves to think this would make people with no need for
cell phones go out and get a n-gage. The cell-phone game system combo
has great potential in not only advanceing the handheld market as far
as handheld gaming, but online gaming as a whole. Sony and Microsot can
blab all they want about how networked gaming can change the games
industry, but mobile phone manufactuars and developers in Japan and
Europe are shutting up and doing it.
Picture this scenario: an average gamer wakes up and picks up his
Magical Fictional Online Gameboy Advance SP before running out the
door, and downloads and checks his e-mail. On the bus, he plays a
MMORPG version of Final Fantasy Tactics, (or Mario RPG if you desire)
with other users on GBA's, game enabled phones, or N-Gages. He gets
bored and downloads the newest issue of a in-depth electronic magazine,
dedicated wireless gaming. he can also play sipmple applet games and
can access wireless websites on a network ive invisioned called iGear,
which goes byond cheesy WAP text and offers fully fledged web content.
If he felt like it, he could instantly download new levels in Monkey
Ball junior or new Tracks in a racing game, or have instant access to
high scores achieved by other games minuites ago. Does this not appeal
to you?
Networked handheld gaming can make all of this possible, and dont laugh
at the prospect of such a system being made by Nintendo just yet;
Nintendo has already released an experimental (now disonctinued)
service in Japan that let you connect your Game Boy Color to a cell
phone and have online play. Remember the Battle Tower in pokemon
Crystal? In japan the tower was filled with real-life players using the
service. If the inital concept of a mobile game deck takes off,
nintendo would likely not hesitate in creating such a interactive
gaming environment, that will be interchangeable with home online
games. If a MMORPG on N-Gage became big, Nintendo would likely follow
suit, and Handheld consoles would be launched into the core of the
gaming world and be represented right along with PS2, X-box, and
Gamecube, any pocket gamer would drool at the prospect.
its easy to get excited by Nokia hype, but we have to be totally
realistic. Game Gear, Wonderswan, Nomad, Lynx, GameMate, game.com, and
Wonderswan Color have gone up against the Game Boy with most with far
superior technical specs and still failed. Nokia may be a giant in the
phone market, but there entering uncharted waters, and there is a very
real chance they'll end up all wet.
GBA freaks can find a million things wrong with the N-Gage, and many of
them are valid (i.e. tiny screen), but this will open up lots of
possibities for the gaming world in general, prviding that these are
legitimate games and not time wasters, as more than a few cell games
have been. Nintendo needs compitition in the handheld market, thats why
besides games like Metroid Fusion, nintendo has been showing
half-butted software support besides played out SNES Mario ports. The
success of N-Gage can only mean good things for the GBA, as the N-Gage
isint going after the GBA market, but trying to carve a new market all
together. even die-hard Gameboy Advance fanboys should watch the N-Gage
closely, and if your a true fan of handheld gaming you will be rooting
for N-Gage even as you sit back on your couch playing Golden Sun 2.
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