Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

Hello everybody. A little birdy tells me Mile High Pinball will likely be released into the Showroom over the next 24 hours, or at the latest, by Monday. For those of you fully completed your First Access survey and are looking forward to getting your N-Gage points and a complimentary Activation Code, be sure to read this message from our Community Manager, redrum.

Now onto today’s links of interest:

N-Gage First Impressions

Ben Smith of SMS Text News takes a look at the Ovi suite of software services on his new Nseries, including the N-Gage experience:

“N-Gage immediately feels like a well polished product. From within a single well-presented client I’m able to create my profile to utilise the social features and browse a catalogue of games.”

More First Impressions

Mark Wilcox over on Forum Nokia also offers up his first impressions of the new N-Gage service:

“Teething problems aside, these are the best games I’ve ever seen on a phone and they are generally very playable and they all have a free trial.”

Space Impact Review

Mobile technology site Net 9 takes a look at Space Impact Kappa Base in this new review. They like the game, giving it four out of five stars and noting:

“The graphics are astounding with the whole 2D mixed with 3D thing going on. Overall, this game rocks, and in it I see much promise of success for the new N-Gage platform.”

Nok Nok Reviews Brain Challenge

Here’s another N-Gage game review, this time it’s Nok Nok taking on Brain Challenge:

“It won’t dazzle you with stunning graphics buts it simple and addictive game play that will keep you occupied for hours and hopefully improve your IQ in the process.”

Personally, I really enjoy this game too. I like to do my morning mind exercises while my Nokia laptop slowly, slowly boots up.
Project White Rock Unveiling

And finally, All About N-Gage reminds us that Project White Rock will finally be revealed at a press event being held tomorrow evening:

“All we do know is it probably has something to do with classic retro gaming and is being made by RedLynx, the people who made Pathway To Glory and High Seize (so we are assuming PWR is a strategy game).”

Maybe next week I can start using the game’s real name.

Great Gameloft Giveaway: Week One Winner
Congratulations to Vlart, our first winner in the Great Gameloft Giveaway! Be sure to enter yourself for your chance at a new Nokia device, a stylish N-Gage backpack, and other great prizes.

Brain Challenge Review
Pocket Gamer gives their noggins a workout with this review of Brain Challenge.  Read the whole thing here.

Another Music Store
Nokia’s keeping it busy with the other services too. This time, we’ve opened another music store, this one in Singapore.

Mobile Game FAQs takes a look at the commercial launch version of Space Impact Kappa Base in this new review. They like the game for the most part and give it a score of 86%.

They also note that the version currently available has had some major improvements since the version released during N-Gage First Access:

Unlike some of the other First Access titles, Space Impact has slightly changed. The background graphics appear far more detailed and crisp and it seems to play a little faster (the shots from the yellow bee-like enemies seem quicker if nothing else). It seems that the first couple of levels have had the most re-working but things soon fall back into place after that.

Read the full review here. And for more on Space Impact, don’t forget to check out this peculiar blog from Space Impact researcher Dr. Mordecai Egan.

Hello gamers, it’s a beautiful day for play, and for rounding up N-Gage news.

• First up the “official” N-Gage news. I have received a mysterious tip that a certain Dr. Mordecai Egan has quite an extensive blog regarding alien abductions and visitations. Normally such matters are handled by Nokia’s Crashed Saucer Recovery Unit, and not the N-Gage Blog, but I’m told the man is associated with the Space Impact project in some manner, so perhaps this requires further investigation on your part.

• In other news, The Great Gameloft Giveaway is still in full swing this week, so jump on in and play a Gameloft game for your chance to enter fantastic prizes. Operators are standing by.

• Next up, Tzer2 on All About N-Gage has posted up some N-Gage related videos, including the Human Snake viral, the Making of the Human Snake Viral, and what looks like (and I’m only guessing, first time I’ve seen it) an N-Gage tribute from our test department.

• All About Symbian wants to know what N-Gage games you’re looking forward to, so they have a new poll up. With close to 200 votes already in, Star Wars and ONE are in the lead. No sign of Project White Rock on the list, although it will be unveiled at a press event this Friday.

• Symbian Guru has posted a two-piece post about Nokia, the N95, and some of its competitors: “What are the next challenges for Nokia? Software, software, software, that is the first and biggest challenge.” Check out parts I & II here.

• And finally, N-Gation has posted up its review of Electronic Arts’ Tetris for the N-Gage platform, nothing: “My first impressions for the game were great nother Tetris game? Soon as that downloaded and installed – My mind was completely changed. It’s a fantastic game.”  

Fast and furious, here we go… 

• Tzer2 over at All About N-Gage has put up a new editorial about the full potential of N-Gage. I thought that this was a good article because it serves as a reminder that we are still in the early stages of N-Gage, with only a handful of games as of yet, and no devices with the application pre-installed. Read the rest here.

• Andrew Podolsky over at 1up.com has posted his first impressions of the new N-Gage platform. He notes: “However, the N-Gage is clearly attempting to become the new standard-bearer for mobile gaming, and from what we’ve seen and played, we’re hopeful that it will find an audience this time around.” Have a read.

• And finally, I’ve been tipped off about a new blog (new to me, at least) covering the N-Gage scence. Called N-Gation, it’s put together by hOAx, whos is tossing up videos, reviews, and previews of N-Gage games as fast as he can get his hands on ‘em. Looks like good stuff so far, go ahead and give it a click.

Here are his reviews so far:

• Asphalt 3
• Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep
• System Rush: Evolution
• Brain Challenge
• FIFA 2008
• Space Impact Kappa Base

Have a great weekend everybody!

All About N-Gage have just posted their take on EA SPORTS™ FIFA 08, the first football game for the next generation N-Gage platform. Ewan Spence writes:

“The look of the game is wonderful – all the players may be small, but they are crisp, you can make out where they’re going or trying to do – you can even watch them loose balance on a slipping pitch!”

Read the entire review here, and for those of you in select European countries, don’t forget to take of this special offer to get a complimentary copy of the game for installing the N-Gage application.

Mobile Game FAQs has reviewed FIFA 2008 for the N-Gage platform and they like what they see, giving the game an overall score of 83/100. Here’s a snip from the review:

“EA have set the mantle to the other title chasers for Best N-Gage Football game. Gameloft are getting up to speed with their own game launches and hopefully it wont be too long before Real Football NG comes off the bench.”

 Check out the rest, and for those of you in select European countries, don’t forget to take of this special offer to get a complimentary copy of the game for installing the N-Gage application.

Good morning N-Gage fans, although after spending all of this morning in a meeting planning for our next meeting, it’s rapidly becoming afternoon, but such is the Nokia way. Now, on to the rest of today’s news…

Behind the Scenes with Creebies

Pocket Gamer has put up an extensive, two-part interview with Lida de Araujo, the game designer of Creebies, which of course is the upcoming creature nurturing game for the N-Gage platform. In it, she talks about the game’s influences, target audience, dynamic breeding mechanics (heh), and community aspects of the game. Here’s a snippet:

I’m really so proud of Creebies. I think it’s an incredibly rich and deep title that could easily hold its own on a console or PC. It’s quite difficult for me to say what I’m most proud of because it was a huge team effort that everyone put so much time and creativity into.

Be sure to read Part 1 and Part 2.

All About Symbian Podcast #70

The lads at AAS have posted up podcast #70, this one goes over Nokia Q1 results, a talk about Orange, and then they discuss N-Gage releases FIFA and SIKB. I’m going to give it a listen during lunch. Here’s the link.

System Rush Review
All About N-Gage wraps their big, beefy hands around System Rush: Evolution and gives it a good shakeout. All in all, they like the game, scoring it 85/100 and noting:

System Rush Evolution sums up the new N-Gage platform perfectly. The gaming is perfectly suited for a mobile device, and offers a comparable challenge to console based gaming, thanks to the strong consideration of the devices the game will be played on.

Read more… 

FIFA 2008 Review

Next up, Pocket Gamer takes EA Sports FIFA 2008 out onto the pitch and gives it a thorough examination. Here’s a snip:

In true FIFA style, the game offers plenty of modes. You can set up an individual match involving international teams, or teams from a host of domestic leagues, including England, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Holland, the USA, South Korea, Portugal and Mexico, as well as a grab-bag of teams from ‘Rest Of World’.

Read more… 

Asphalt Series Tops 10 Million in Sales

Congrats to Gameloft, whose ‘Asphalt’ series of racing games has just topped the ten million units in sales mark. Obviously that’s across all platforms, not just N-Gage but still an impressive number!

Congratulations to Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep, which received another glowing review, this time from Mobile Game FAQs.  They definitely liked the game, scoring it a 92 out of 100 and writing:

Hooked on? More like permanently addicted! Here’s our first review of the new NGage platform and one of it’s leading titles Hooked On: Creatures of The Deep. It’s still early days in the N-Gage’s new life and we don’t really know what the games of the future will hold at least in terms of size…What does 20 odd Mb buy you these days? A graphically good game but more importantly a game of huge length and depth.

Congrats to Infinite Dreams and the Hooked On team for another great review.

Here’s the latest news, reviews, and buzz about N-Gage from around the web and beyond. First, let’s take a look at some reviews of the latest N-Gage games:

Asphalt 3: Street Rules
Pocket Gamer takes A3 out for a test drive (you saw that one coming, didn’t you) and like what they find, giving it an 8 out of 10 and concluding that, “Asphalt 3: Street Rules is an excellent driving game that’s a great showcase for your N-Gage handset.”

Brain Challenge
Next up All About N-Gage breaks down Gameloft’s Brain Challenge, the daily puzzle game that educates even as it entertains. Reviewer Ewan Spence concludes, “Coupled with the ten minutes a day nature of the game, I think Brain Challenge is going to do very well.” Check out the full review.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Finally, Pocket Gamer (those guys again) have posted a two-part interview with Henri Roth, creative director at Universomo, the developer working on the N-Gage version of this multi-platform LucasArts game.

Here is just a little snippet from the interview, with Roth talking about developing for the N-Gage platform:

The N-Gage platform has been a dream. It is just great to be able to develop in native C++ and not care about Symbian. But, being our first N-Gage game, we had to spend a lot of time and effort in building our engine and tools pretty much from scratch. After that, the biggest difference to a Java game project has been the gargantuan amount of content we had to create and manage for the game.

Be sure to check out Parts I and II of this interview, and for even more Force Unleashed take a look at my interview with the developers over on the official N-Gage site.

If you have any more links to news or reviews, post ‘em!