Archive for the ‘Previews’ Category

All About N-Gage has another preview of Reset Generation up, this time from Evan Zelfden, who attended the Reset Generation unveiling at the Cartoon Art Museum a couple weeks ago. He really keys in on the cross-platform nature and portability of the application as a widget that can be embedded in websites and across the Internet.

He notes:

“While the game will cost between $10 and $14 on the mobile, the PC version will be completely free to play.  And not only can you play it on the official web site, you can embed it in your Facebook profile, or your blog, or anywhere else on the internet.

“This is where the game’s architects expect word-of-mouth to play a part.  Foe notes that it’s a game that’s created its own promotion.  The ultimate hope is that PC players will like the game and want to play it when they’re not chained to desks and desktops.  Which means they’ll need to purchase a Nokia N-Gage-compatible device in future.  It’s a long-range strategy, but it’s at the heart of the cross-platform approach, it explains why Reset Generation is free for PCs, and also why so much effort was concentrated on good, addictive gameplay.”

It’s another great preview, so please take a look.

All About N-Gage has put together an extensive preview of Reset Generation, discussing the heroes in the game, gameplay, and some of what they perceive as the significance of the project as part of the N-Gage offering:

“That is breaking new ground — it’s not a silo gameplay area that’s tasked with keeping smartphone and web players separate, but one connected world (surely a message Nokia as a whole wants to push).

“In any case, it adds another interesting strategy to the campaign, allowing it to promote a service effectively being given away for free — even with a 5% conversion rate, the number of potential eyeballs that could see the widget is huge, and the knock on effect for N-Gage as a whole could mean that Reset Generation is perceived as the title that launches the fabled N-Gage ‘next generation gaming platform’ to the masses.”

It’s a very nice preview, be sure to check it out, and while you’re at it take a look at the site’s Reset Generation screen shot slideshow.
 

Update: fixed links

Mile High Pinball has only been available in our Showroom for a short while, but the first reviews and previews are starting to appear on the Web.

N-Gation Review

First up, the N-Gation blog offers up this review of Mile High Pinball, noting:

“Overall the game is fantastic, Hardly any mistakes – It’s fun, and offers and challenge with the inclusion of online multiplayer makes this a very deep game to play, so buy it now – You won’t regret it.”

All About N-Gage Review

Next up, All About N-Gage offers this thorough very positive review.  Here’s a quote:

“Mile High Pinball is very original, and perfectly suited to a mobile phone’s screen and key layout. As you make your way up the table the puzzle and strategy elements become more prominent, and the game starts to become very addictive. This reviewer played through the entire game in two multi-hour sessions, not because there was a deadline to meet but simply because MHP has such a strong ‘Just one more go’ factor.”

 They end up giving the game 85% and their “All About N-Gage Recommended” logo.

Hands On with Mile High

Finally, Pocket Gamer offers up their first impressions of this pinball hit, promising a full review still to come:

“Score mode is great fun. You see your opponent’s score mounting onscreen, although you don’t see their ball. Your victories and defeats are then tracked on the N-Gage Arena community. This could be the thing that keeps you playing for weeks, beyond the single-player mode.”

Don’t forget, you can offer your own review of the game either here in the comments, on the forums, or of course on the application itself, where you can give it a star rating and write a short review that will appear on the Web game page.

And for those of you who participated in First Access and completed our survey in full, be sure to read this status message from redrum regarding your Mile High Pinball Activation Code.

It’s been a couple of days since the great unveiling of Reset Generation at the Museum of Cartoon Art in San Francisco, CA last Friday, and the first press articles about the game are starting to appear online.

GameCyte has put together an excellent hands-on preview, giving a thorough breakdown of the gameplay and the inspiration behind the game:

From its concept, to its gameplay, to its art and music, Reset Generation is a postmodern love letter to the industry — as Nokia puts it, “The first video game about video games.”

Pocket Gamer has also put up an extensive hands-on preview by Tracy Erickson. He notes:

Reset Generation is purely about gaming. From the hilarious heroes that act as parodies of popular characters from video game history to the core mechanics inspired by classic titles, every piece has been carefully installed to serve as an homage to gaming.

Gizmodo also has a story up, calling it the flagship title for N-Gage, adding, “The N-Gage platform has traversed a rocky road since its inception, and if there’s any princess in need of rescuing by a wildly popular and successful hero, that’s probably it.”

Other key features about Reset Generation to note from the previews:

• 18 single player missions
• Playable on both PC and N-Gage
• 4-player multiplayer
• Cross-platform gameplay (PC vs. N-Gage)
• Free to play on PC
• Rankings, belts, and Point Pickups
• Ten playable heroes
• Homage to videogame history

So what do you think of the game? Was it what you expected? Are you looking forward to it?

The team over at Pocket Gamer has been busy getting their hands on as many upcoming N-Gage games as possible, with two new previews this week.

Hands on with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Here’s what they had to say about Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, in particular the unique CellWeaver system for controlling the game:

“What’s even more of a shock when working your way through the tutorial, however, is to discover the game’s based around a gesture system that’s officially called CellWeaver. This uses your phone’s (in this case a N81) numeric keys as a 3×3 grid onto which you ‘weave’ your actions.”

There is also an interview with the game producers available.

Hands on with Yamake
Next up is Yamake, an innovative title from our first party team that makes it possible for players to create their own games from a range of mini games by adding content, then playing and sharing them with friends and the wider Yamake community:

“What makes Yamake much more interesting, however, are the distribution options. Once created, you can either send (or receive) a puzzle via Bluetooth or upload to the N-Gage Arena, where – once the application is live – we assume there will be the sort of community-rating features that will allow the most interesting puzzles to be highlighted and shared amongst the N-Gage community. Of course, you can also download puzzles from the Arena for your own playing enjoyment.”

More on Yamake here. 

Project White Rock all for the love of gaming?
Finally, we have an update on the For the Love of Gaming story we blogged about last week. It seems Pocket Gamer’s Tracy Erickson has picked up one of the mysterious white vials and examined its contents:

“That isn’t stopping it from teasing us with bits of information though, the latest of which comes in the form of a vial containing a white USB stick. On the portable USB flash drive sits what appears to be the soundtrack for Project White Rock. Clocking in at 25 tracks, the electro-pop selections share a common theme: gaming.”

Read more on his discoveries here.
 

The lads over at Pocket Gamer have been getting their hands on aearly versions of upcoming N-Gage games, and have been busy writing up previews about them. Here are the latest links:

Hands on with Dogz

“On the face of it, Dogz is one of the less exciting upcoming N-Gage games, since we already know it well from the Java version. However, don’t muzzle it to the back of your consciousness just yet  because a hands-on playtest proves the game certainly shouldn’t be written off on those grounds.”

 

Hands on with Snakes Subsonic

“Snake is the Mario of mobile gaming, and like Mario it gets a facelift every time a new generation of hardware appears. Naturally, the latest N-Gage platform is no exception, and during our recent Finnish excursion we had a second chance to get our hands on the flashest version so far of Nokia’s evergreen reptile, Snakes Subsonic.” 

Hands on with Creebies

“One of the more intriguing N-Gage games in development we’ve come across is Creebies, not least because Nokia is pitching it as one of the key titles on its new platform designed to appeal to women.” 

If you could have a “hands on” with one unreleased N-Gage game, which one would it be?

For those of you who can’t wait to play the next installment of ONE, the next generation fight game, Pocket Gamer has put a tasty hands-on preview.

Here are a few snippets from the piece:

Playing on an N81 in landscape mode, the effort that has gone into the visuals was easy to see. We played two of the seven worldwide environments available – a sun-baked Mexican car lot and a dark, underground German car park – and both were suitably atmospheric.

Other features Nokia says will be available at launch include multiplayer – two-player head-to-head via Bluetooth – as well as a global leaderboard and the ability to check out the fighting styles and stats of other players. And offline, as well as the main game option, you can also play in Arcade mode.

And of course, the official site has recently gone live, so you can check out the videos and info on the game.