Blog > Archive for December, 2008

It’s time to live fantasy football - the world’s most authentic football simulation is back.  No matter how their team is doing on the pitch, football fans now have the power to pick up their heroes and put them at the top of the table with EA SPORTS™ FIFA 09 for N-Gage.

EA SPORTS FIFA 09 brings the beautiful game to life as never seen before on mobile devices with an intuitive control system that obeys players’ every command and brand new, ultra-realistic passing, shooting and skill move models.

Bringing home the silverware is more challenging than ever before, as FIFA 09 gets strategic - players must make the critical selection decisions to produce a winning team. Make the best choices from the 11 leagues, 243 teams and an amazing 4260 players, who will take to the pitch in any of the 6 player modes, to lead their team to glory?

FIFA 09™ is out now and available for selection on your N-Gage at www.n-gage.com.

Hello N-Gage fans, it’s good to be back and I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Here’s a quick roundup of some of the more noteworthy N-Gage news from the last week…with more to come soon, too!

Crash Bandicoot Races Onto N-Gage

In case you missed it — and shame on you if you did! — Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D was released during the holidays last week. Grab it from the N-Gage.com website here, or head on to the Showroom on your N-Gage application.

Resident Evil Reviews

Two reviews for the blockbuster action adventure Resident Evil: Degeneration have been posted. First up is All About N-Gage, who has this to say in their opening paragraph:

“It’s another big game for the N-Gage - Resident Evil: Degeneration - and with it comes a lot of expectation. Not from the dedicated N-Gager, but from the huge numbers of general public that will see the name of the game and expect a third person shooter, with lots of zombies, fast action and running around real world locations.”

Pocket Gamer also weighs in with their take. This is also from the introduction:

“The process of running through an airport, trying to avoid the grunting, mindless life forms that populate it in a bid to escape is not uncommon to most of us. In fact, going on holiday could be termed a ’survival horror’ episode of its own. So it might seem strange that we find ourselves playing an N-Gage game that appears to go with the above formula for fun.”

The Best N-Gage Games of 2008

What were the best N-Gage games of 2008? Was it Tetris, Poker, or Asphalt 3, as our sales charts suggest week after week? Were they recently released Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, or Crash Bandicoot? Or were they some of our other games?

Nok-Nok has posted their opinion, and they name three first party N-Gage games as their favorites for the year. Read which ones here, and then come back and tell us what were your three best for the year.

Today marks the two year anniversary of the official N-Gage blog. Quite a long time, and look how far we’ve come! Here’s our very first post, back from when we were called the Future Watch blog, in the waning days of the first generation. Now here we are a good time after launch, with a whole slew of great games available and even more to come in the coming year.

So now is a good time to sit back and reflect…and take some time for the holidays! That’s my way of saying I will be on vacation next week. I may pop in a couple times to approve comments, but don’t expect very many blog posts.

Happy holidays everyone!

The Facebook application of ONE, called ONE Survival of the Fittest, is now live on Facebook. You’ll find it here.

The idea: choose a mentor from the boss characters of ONE, create a player name and challenge your friends to a turn-based fights. Depending on your success you can unlock new moves and watch in-game videos.

If you are an N-Gage Player and you’ve added the app to your Facebook page, chime in here and let us see!

If you happen to be in the right part of Indonesia this week, you may catch the N-Gage bus traveling about town, bringing the message of made-for-mobile gaming to universities and other hangouts for young people. Inside the bus are game trials, merchants, demos, and assistants to help show off the games.

The promotion is to help kick off the N-Gage launch in Indonesia, the first country in the world to offer physical N-Gage vouchers at retail locations.

Here are some pictures of the bus and its interior (click for detail):

Upcoming bus stops:

19 December    Roti Bakar Edi
20 December    Comic Cafe
22 December    Uni Budi Luhur
23 December    Uni Budi Luhur

Hello all N-Gage Arena members!

It’s the end of the year, which means only one thing (besides the holidays) … it’s time to place your votes for the N-Gage Player Awards for the year 2008. It’s been an amazing year of fun, new application, drama, excitement and great players from around the world, and now it’s time to recognize the best of 2008!!!

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE PLAYERS TODAY!!!

Now is the time to vote for your favorite players of 2008. Throughout the holidays, the following Voting Form will be up for you to vote for your favorites in various Player Award categories.

CLICK HERE TO LAUNCH THE N-GAGE PLAYER AWARD VOTING FORM

NOMINEE VOTING

During the second week of January 2009, we’ll take your votes and create the Nominees list for each award (top four players with the highest amount of votes in each category). Then, we’ll have you vote again for your favorite nominees.

PLAYER AWARDS NIGHT

The final winners and results will be announced live at the 2008 Player Awards Night on January 30th, 2009, hosted by your favorite moderators.

So who will win? Be sure to find out by marking your calendars for the live Awards Night. See you there!!!

Here are the top five best-selling N-Gage games for the week of December 8 through December 14.

Platform: N-Gage

Reach: Global

*PEGI: is the The Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) age rating system established in 2003 to help parents make informed decisions on buying games.

Ikona Says: No chart will be published next week due to the holidays.

All About N-Gage has published their very positive and enthusiastic review of Metal Gear Solid Mobile for the N-Gage platform. Fresh from pulling an all-nighter to finish the game, AAN reviewer Ewan Spence notes:

“Metal Gear Solid Mobile (MGS Mobile), just released for the Nokia N-Gage, eschews a full on kitted out combat system to concentrate on the stealth… and the game is all the better for it. That’s because a casual game, especially one on a mobile, needs much more laser-like accuracy on game play than a full blown console variant. And in MGS Mobile, they’ve delivered that on a plate.”

Read the whole thing (including lots of juicy screen shots) right here.

Resident Evil: Degeneration is a 3rd-person shooting full-3D survival horror game. This game is based on the opening scene of the movie of the same title.

The game starts from the airport, which is swarming with hordes of zombies. To complete the mission, you will figure out puzzles, rescue survivors, and seek a way out from the airport. Explore all the rooms to figure out the puzzles. You will need the ability to make lightning-fast decisions in each and every fight to the death. Make the best use of your weapons, items, map and information from your party.

To download the free trial from the N-Gage application, navigate to the Showroom tab, press ‘Options’ and then ‘Show Updates.’ The game should be available for download from the Web later today.

N-Gager Reviews Metal Gear

N-Gage fan site N-Gager.co.uk has written up a thorough and painstaking review of Metal Gear Solid Mobile, obviously having quite a lot of fun with the game and giving it high marks. From the review:

“Metal Gear Solid is fantastic fun and when it first makes you jump with shock/fear you’ll know the developers have really done their job here. £6 is nothing to ask for such a great N-Gage experience and although the game isn’t huge there is plenty of replay value. Some of the Pickup Points require you to complete the game without your radar activated or without killing any guards which is great fun to try and do. You won’t be disappointed with Metal Gear Solid Mobile.”

Read the rest here.

Nok Nok Loves Reset

Although the game has been out for some months now, Nok Nok has just reviewed Reset Generation, and they love it:

“This is more than just a videogame about videogames, it’s a homage that manages that rare achievement — to match (and even surpass) the originals for addictiveness, gameplay and sheer fun. Reset Generation is a brilliant blend of old school concepts and next-gen innovation, and it’s this mixture along with killer gameplay that makes it N-Gage’s greatest triumph to date.”

Check out the whole thing here.

But wait, there’s more…

Resident Evil Game Page is Up
Check out screen shots, videos and more.

Blast From the Past
N-Gage Player emo185 has taken a look back at the history of the N-Gage program, from taco to full course meal.

Cindy’s Song
Hear Cindy Gomez’s Street Dancing tune in full from the upcoming N-Gage game Dance Fabulous right here.