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N-Gage First Access: The verdict

How does Nokia's beta games app shape up?

N-Gage First Access: The verdict
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It's been three weeks since the First Access N-Gage app was made available for N81 and N81 8GB users. If you're a regular reader, you'll have seen our reviews of the launch titles (and if not, follow the links at the end of this article).

But we've also been gathering our verdict on the application itself. How good is the new N-Gage platform? Does it live up to our lofty expectations (and, for that matter, Nokia's lofty promises)? Is it riddled with bugs, or ready for release? Is the N-Gage Arena community appealing? That kind of thing.

We won't tease you: the new N-Gage is a hit. There are some negatives to chew over, but overall, it's a clear step forward in mobile gaming – not just in terms of whizzy 3D graphics, but with regards to the connectivity around those games, and the way you discover and buy them.

The games
The N-Gage launch line-up includes six games, although we're told that when the final version of the application goes live there could be a couple more. But the six we've reviewed are a mixed bag, illustrating a couple of wider points.

Taking Nokia's own titles first, Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep, System Rush Evolution and Space Impact: Kappa Base are all innovative games that, even at this early stage, are feeling out the boundaries of N-Gage's technical and connected capabilities.

We would warn Nokia about over-estimating the game skills (sorry, skillz) of its audience though. If the big deal about the new N-Gage is that you don't have to be a gamer to buy one of the platform's handsets, then the high difficulty level of System Rush Evolution and Space Impact is going to frustrate much of that target demographic. It's an issue to watch.

That's Nokia's slice of the game cake, then, but what about the third-party publishers? It's clear that EA Mobile, Gameloft and Glu are taking a relatively cautious approach, bulking up existing Java games rather than ploughing resources into exclusive N-Gage titles.

We could complain about a lack of ambition but given our experience of new console launches, it's not a surprise. What's going to be important is how these Java games are beefed up for N-Gage.

EA Mobile's Tetris has clearly had a great deal of thought put into the conversion, with extra modes, graphical flourishes, and good connectivity. Gameloft's Block Breaker Deluxe is impressive too, with its Bluetooth multiplayer mode. Glu's World Series of Poker: Pro Challenge, however, is disappointing.

Going forward, it'll become vital to see third-party publishers making genuine N-Gage games that justify their higher cost, rather than just porting across Java titles and doubling the price.

The application
So, then, the First Access application. On the downside, the installation process is too fiddly, although we'll put that down to its beta status. It'll also be important for Nokia to make it as simple as possible to sideload games onto N-Gage phones, for those users who don't have access to a wi-fi connection – 20MB+ over 3G when you're not on an unlimited data tariff? Ouch.

That said, the First Access application itself is marvellous. The discovery process is easy (we're hoping Nokia will be using the in-app messaging feature to notify you when a new game is available, too), and the choice of buy-outright, rental and free demo options is excellent.

It's fair to say that some of the coolest features – rating games, for example – are a bit buried, in that you have to click the 'Options' softkey to bring them up. However, once found, they're quick and simple to use – which will ensure N-Gage users have plenty of peer reviews to help them judge which games to buy.

Meanwhile, N-Gage Arena might be influenced by Microsoft's Xbox Live service, but it works brilliantly as a mobile community, even at this early stage. Bolstering your N-Gage ranking through point pick-ups is a genuine incentive to keep playing the games, while interacting with friends' profiles is sure to create some fierce contests for bragging rights.

Is it a buggy beta app? It feels pretty solid to us. We had a couple of crashes during our weeks of testing, but nothing that lost any of our data or corrupted the application once we restarted.

One thing we would throw up is why the N-Gage application is located under the Applications menu – on the N81 at least – rather than being more prominent. Ideally, it'd have a dedicated launch button on the handset itself, but at the very least it could be on the main menu.

Again, the potential strength of N-Gage is its potential stealth penetration, in that it'll be on handsets bought by people for other reasons – music or mobile photography. But the theory that they'll then discover and play the N-Gage games only holds true if the N-Gage app is easily discoverable. Perhaps this'll happen in future handsets.

The handset
Talking of the unit, a quick note on the N-81 8GB, which is the first phone running the new N-Gage platform. It's grown on us – we're still not overly keen on its D-pad, but landscape gaming is great with the two buttons placed above the screen (well, to its right when you're playing in landscape mode).

One thing to watch is games that require use of the numeric keypad, since on a slidey phone like the N81 it's much more comfortable to play with the keypad closed – but thus only allowing you to use the D-pad and the two extra buttons.

One blessing is that the N-Gage app locks the music keys placed around the D-pad. Using an N81 to play Java games can be truly infuriating if your thumb slips and triggers the music player, but with N-Gage, that never happens. With Nokia trying to squeeze gaming onto phones also designed for music, photography and mapping, this is a bonus.

The verdict
As we said, Nokia has delivered on its promise to make N-Gage a step forward in mobile gaming. Of course, there are some things to work on – watching the difficulty level of first-party games, encouraging third-party publishers to push the boat out – but as a starting point, it's excellent.

The last caveat we'll add is that once the final N-Gage app launches, the marketing and awareness-raising around it has to be good. From personal experience having just been on a press trip with a mix of journalists, we can say two things: people who knew the old N-Gage are extremely sceptical about the new platform; while people who aren't big gamers tend say they're not that interested in checking it out – until they start playing.

Having free demos partially solves both those problems, but Nokia still has some work to do. The new N-Gage platform is excellent – now it's just a case of making sure people are aware of it, and making it as easy as possible for them to try it out.

Stuart Dredge
Stuart Dredge
Stuart is a freelance journalist and blogger who's been getting paid to write stuff since 1998. In that time, he's focused on topics ranging from Sega's Dreamcast console to robots. That's what you call versatility. (Or a short attention span.)