Mobilewhack has an in-depth review of the N-Gage - actually it has two reviews. The first, titled Nokia N-Gage: The Bad, covers all the negative aspects of Nokia's hand held. The second, not surprisingly titled Nokia N-Gage: The Good reviews the things that make N-Gage great. The author's outlook is pretty positive and he mentions that now that he owns an N-Gage his Gameboy lies at home in a drawer. Of course the N-Gage also replaces the author's previous 3650 phone quite nicely as well.

The Washington Post reports that the upcoming Nokia Sugar Bowl will be a target of heavy promotion of the N-Gage Game Deck.

"Nokia is attempting to make sure that the 72,000 fans watching the Oklahoma-Louisiana State game live and the millions watching the telecast at home can't miss N-Gage by positioning balloon blow-ups of the product behind both end zones at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. The day before the game, Nokia is staging an N-Gage Challenge in the French Quarter. Pop singers Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, who are married to each other, are hosting the event."

The Nokia Sugar Bowl will take place on January 4th.

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Texas-based newspaper Star-Telegram has an excellent article covering the initial impressions and future outlook of Nokia's N-Gage Gamedeck. Article includes quotes from several industry insiders: a Gamespot editor, Gamestop President, and a Nokia representative. An except:

"We are in a whole new category. There is no real competition," said Folmar, product launch and marketing manager for N-Gage. "I'm flattered that [the N-Gage] is the topic of conversation. I've seen a lot of misinformation out there. Out of everything that has been said, I haven't seen anyone knock the actual game play."

Folmar said Nokia is trying to develop new areas of gaming, such as wireless mobile game play, in which users can interact with each other, and the overall evolution of mobile games in general.

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Ashen is a supernatural horror-themed FPS developed exclusively for the N-Gage platform. When Seven River City is plunged into chaos, stricken by storms and overcome with supernatural phenomena, Jacob Ward is filled with dread and despair, like most others. Yet Ward knows more about this catastrophe than most, and as its citizens flee, he must return to Seven River City and work to save it. Somewhere in that half-ruined darkness is his sister, a woman Ward believes is responsible for this disaster; a woman who warned him this would happen...

6 Screenshots

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Nokia has posted three new Christmas e-cards on n-gage.com. Each card features a different N-Gage game:

Rayman 3
Red Faction: I'm Dreaming of a Red Christmas
Splinter Cell: Operation Turkey

The first two are sort of cheesy, but the Splinter Cell e-card is nice.

As reported in the N-Gage Forums, UK department store Woolworths is selling "limited quanities" of N-Gage Game Decks for only £129.99. This is the lowest price we know of in the UK. The N-Gage comes with an orange sim card for the pay-as-you-go network and is reportedly in limited stock.

Nokia today announced Ashen, its third self-published title for the N-Gage mobile game deck. Exclusively for the N-Gage game deck, Ashen is a 3D gothic horror themed, first person shooter that pits mobile gamers against a host of horrors. In addition to exciting single player action, up to four people can play in deathmatch mode via Bluetooth wireless technology.

As a special feature, Ashen has a unique “ghost vision” mode that allows gamers to detect and combat invisible enemies that block their progress through the game. Players can choose from eight different weapon types such as dual pistols, a Gatling gun, sniper rifle and a unique alien assault gun. Eight single-player maps are available, with two additional maps for multiplayer deathmatch gaming. With N-Gage Arena, the mobile online gaming community, Ashen players will be able to share their best scores with other devotees of the game.

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Mobile Raditude, the first ever mobile gaming competition that will allow gamers to compete wirelessly in a skill-based competition, began last week across the United States. The tournament is exclusive to Activision's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for the N-Gage game deck. By challenging and beating posted scores, gamers will increase their overall points standings and ranking on the tournament ladder. Prizes such as an N-Gage skateboard and other cool gear will be awarded to the Top 10 each month. The tournament will run through February.

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Ngage Gaming has a brief, but excellent howto for those who want to take their favorite flics on the road with them. Feature Length Movies on N-Gage: A Guide! goes through the steps necessary to convert a movie to Real Media video, which you can watch on your N-Gage. The whole process only takes about 90 minutes! You will need a large (128MB+) MMC as the article states that depending on audio/video quality, a 90 min movie could take anywhere from 75 to 90 megabytes of space.

Ewan Spence from All About N-Gage gives his 30 Minutes with the N-Gage review. Promising to be the first in a series of Symbian OS phone reviews that are not going to be in depth, but instead more of an initial impression after a short time with them. "Not a fixed 30 minutes, but generally after a day or two."

After noting a few gripes, such as the changing Game Card problem and "Button Schizophrenia," Ewan suggests that these things will not detract from the N-Gage's success if Nokia can bring some solid games to the platform.

". . . like any console, it lives and dies by the games. If they are up to scatch (or are better than expected), then Nokia have a good portable phone that plays great games, and roll on the sales of all those MMC Cards. If the games stay average . . ."

Nokia announced Operation Shadow, its second own published title for the N-Gage game deck. Operation Shadow is a war themed 3D action adventure that immerses gamers into the world of heavy combat action, lightning strikes and the latest military equipment. With multiplayer support for up to 4 players via Bluetooth wireless technology, Operation Shadow allows for fast-paced and action-packed competitive game play.

“We are thrilled to announce Nokia’s second own published game title,” said Pasi Pölönen, Director of Game Publishing, Entertainment and Media Business Unit, Nokia Mobile Phones. “Operation Shadow is a great example of how Nokia titles will be known for their innovative use of the mobile multiplayer features of the N-Gage platform. Imagine competing on the death match battlefield, forming a team with your friends and taking each other on. Each player’s team can exploit the tactical advantages of the various vehicles as they battle for supremacy and bragging rights.”

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Playlogic announced last week that its upcoming futuristic shooter, Xyanide, will be released for the Nokia N-Gage in February/March. Xyanide, which has previously been announced for the Xbox, PSP, and Game Boy Advance, is being adapted for the N-Gage by Overloaded Pocket Media.

Xyanide is a side-scrolling shooter in which players assume the role of Drake, a star fighter pilot escorting an execution craft on a dangerous mission. The witch Aguira, destroyer of worlds and civilizations, has been condemned by the Judges of Mardar. Her punishment is death by disintegration – she’ll be dumped into a black hole. On route an asteroid containing Xyanide, a substance that materializes thoughts, hits the execution craft. Hostile worlds immediately form between the two ships, and Drake realizes Xyanide gives Aguira the perfect chance to escape.

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The Register has an interesting article by a man who claims to have developed a prototype Gameboy Advance Gamephone.

"In the Autumn of 2001, we developed a prototype that turned the Gameboy Advance into a fully functioning phone. The idea was that we would be able to use a hybrid GSM/GPRS transport that would allow multigaming sessions with existing GBA games."

Mame, the infamous Multi Arcade Machine Emulator, has been ported to the N-Gage! The MAME emulator allows one to run various classic arcade game ROMS - approximately 1000 ROMs are known to be supported by MAME. EMame is a port of Mame to Symbian devices. Staffan Ulfberg made some changes to EMame so that it runs on Sybian Series 60 (ie. N-Gage) devices as well.

Reportedly, Target stores are now carrying the full line of N-Gage games, products, and accessories. Thanks to Papa Lou of N-Gage Forums for the tip.

In an article titled Hold On, My Taco Is Ringing, Peter Lewis of Fortune magazine really lets N-Gage have it. For the most part it is an entertaining rant, which is interesting to see coming from Fortune magazine.

Article Quote:"If you answered "true" to one or more of these questions, you just may be one of the six million people who Nokia forecasts will buy an N-Gage by the end of next year. Of course, there's always the possibility that Nokia has been using the secret "bong" feature of its new multifunction device, and that the global market for the N-Gage is more like, oh, say, 60,000 wealthy game fanatics. Those extra zeroes were smoke rings."

This article is available in the December 8th issue of Fortune magazine.

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We've updated our Release Date Chart to reflect yesterday's announcement by Nokia.

Nokia today announced new game titles for the N-Gage mobile game deck, including previously unannounced Nokia published games. Coming during 2004, the latest additions to the portfolio bring mobility to the strategy, action, sports, and racing genres, allowing mobile gamers to play a range of both exclusive N-Gage games and blockbuster titles in a new and exciting way.

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