Nokia N-gage: If at first you don’t succeed…
Launched in February of 2003, Nokia’s N-gage was the industry’s first attempt at a converged gaming device. Being such, you would expect it to be a little rough around the edges. Nokia’s first version of the N-gage was much worse than that. The device was plagued with several embarrassing design flaws which limited it’s popularity greatly.
First of all, the games were not hot-swappable–meaning that you had to turn the thing off and open it to change the game card, which was nestled underneath the battery (of all places) Also, the N-gage’s awkwardly positioned microphone required it’s user to hold it sideways against his/her ear when making phone calls. The sight of an original N-Gager chatting on the phone was simply hilarious, and critics used a variety of amusing terms to mock this design travesty (Side-talkin’, Elephant ear, Taco ear.)
In addition to design problems, the N-gage simply did not have the titles it would take to topple Nintendo as the handheld gaming King. Also, the N-gage’s promise of “Challenge Anyone, Anywhere” was more of a marketing ploy than it was an actual innovation. The concept of mobile online gaming, while an awesome one, was– just a concept. More often than not, N-gage “online” simply meant online score leaderboards. Yawn…
Nokia’s second incarnation of the N-gage, the N-gage QD was not so much a new console as it was a revision of the original hardware. If it was a software program, it would’ve been a dot release– a sort of N-gage 1.1
The N-gage QD was a more affordable, more portable, chopped down version of the original N-gage. The N-gage was now small enough to fit comfortably in one’s pocket. While it lost it’s predecessor’s FM radio, it gained hot-swappability. The ridiculous microphone placement was also changed, so an N-gager could use his/her phone in public without being embarrassed.
With the release of the QD, Nokia also started releasing some excellent titles. Gameloft was their best licensee, and released a number of excellent ports of Ubisoft Franchises like Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell in all their 3D glory. Although miniaturized, blocky, and at times a bit choppy, these games were the most graphically advanced mobile games of their time. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory was particularly fantastic, and having played through it, I can personally attest to it’s greatness. I played both the N-gage and X-box versions of the game concurrently, and there were times when my desire to play the portable version made be put my Xbox controller down. Truly excellent.
Still, design revisions and a few good titles could not save the N-gage, and Nokia was ultimately disappointed with the outcome of their mobile gaming device. With Nintendo and Sony’s powerful Next-Gen portables now in the mix, It’s safe to assume that Nokia will continue to focus on mobile phones and business handhelds rather than portable gaming–if they know what’s good for them.
Would you believe they have a game called Momma, can I mow the lawn?
Ugh…