All About N-Gage's Unofficial Games section has now doubled in size, so check out all the games that we've added to it. As before, we've tried to only include titles that are good, and we'll be adding even more games as time goes by.
Read on in the full article.
I see you "crossed the line" by including the java game,Sola Rola in the list....its the only non-symbian game of the lot...🙄
Yeah, Sola Rola was just too good to ignore, and it's also the only Java app ever to get one of our "Mega Game" awards. It's actually quite amazing what they managed to do with the Java platform, it looks and plays more like a DS game. It just shows how Java is no excuse for making a bad game, because high quality is possible if you're willing to put the work in.
I wish more Java games were like Sola Rola, but unfortunately it seems that they're almost all rubbish cash-ins on big name licences. The batch we got sent to review from Eidos Mobile contained Sola Rola and many other games, and the other games were all terrible even though they cost the same and came from the same publisher.
May I suggest adding Crash Nitro Kart to the racing section?
It's a fun Mario Kart clone with great graphics showing off hardware acceleration.
It's also available for the iPhone, so I assume it was quite simple to port between platforms due to the use of OpenGL ES (I think they have also ported a non-accelerated version too, though).
Unfortunately, we didn't get the great analogue accelerometer based steering like the iPhone 😞
I also really enjoyed Puzzle Quest Warlords (a Java game), but possibly not worthy of going in due to the lack of difficulty. But then Sola Rola wasn't exactly a challenge, even playing through multiple times (due to the reverse maps).
If you can tell me where people can buy Crash Nitro Kart for S60 I will add it to the section.
Sola Rola gets pretty tricky towards the end, I think it's just the right difficulty curve for a phone game. As Pocket Gamer said, the thing about Sola Rola is that it's fun all the way through, you never feel frustrated or bored at all, and at just 7 euros (or thereabouts) it's well worth the money.
On my phone (and apparently through most of Europe), it's in the Download! application.
Games > Vivendi Games > New Releases > Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart (�4.50)
Not sure where else it's available, although it looks like various US carriers have it. See here.
I actually only bought Nitro Kart after seeing a comment from someone on one of the news posts related to 3D accelerated games - certainly the best looking _playable_ game I've played on the N95 (i.e. not the Quake ports). If it was an n-gage game and so had native support for the landscape gaming keys, it would have rounded it off as a perfect title for me.
I would love to see an AAN review of it, to get this seemingly little-known title out to the masses (certainly a must-have for the masses with 3D accelerated phones, anyway!). I'd like to see the developer rewarded for taking advantage of some of the hardware, even if they did miss out on the accelerometer based analogue steering support, although I suppose that there's no official S60 API available for that, yet?
Oh, and I did find the final level of Sola Rola a bit frustrating (but a clever idea) - it seems possible to get in to a state where you can't complete the level, or at least it's almost impossible. Still, certainly an enjoyable game overall. I'd love to see a native version of it, if a native version would be a bit smoother. Something akin to Gish (PC), perhaps.
On my phone (and apparently through most of Europe), it's in the Download! application.
Well, see, that's the problem. If there's no single source for a game IMHO there's not a huge point in reviewing it as it's impossible to know where to get it. No one is going to switch networks just to download a game, and even on the same network you may see different games on different models.
Even on SIM-free phones you see totally different line-ups in the Download! app depending on which model it is, even when the phones have the same version of S60.
This is why the mobile games industry needs things like N-Gage and the iPhone store, they're central points where all compatible devices can get the games. Nokia's Download! is a bit too random to serve this purpose because you can't rely on it having a comprehensive selection of apps.
Also, I'm guessing CNK is a Java game?
even if they did miss out on the accelerometer based analogue steering support, although I suppose that there's no official S60 API available for that, yet?
Actually there is. 😊
There's been an official accelerometer S60 API for a couple of years now, since the Nokia 5500 introduced the feature to S60 way back in 2006, and that has been used in games (including the 5500's own built-in game).
I assume that's how third party games like Marble Maze are able to steer by accelerometer, and accelerometer steering should be perfectly possible on any S60 game if the dev wants to include it.
Unfortunately most S60 devices don't have an accelerometer because they're no real use to most people, which means devs don't really want to make games that depend on it being present.
The iPhone has one as standard, but that's mainly because it's needed for switching screen modes. Games getting to use it is just a fortunate side effect.
I'd love to see a native version of it, if a native version would be a bit smoother.
Funny you mention it, the smoothness of Sola Rola is what impressed me most about its graphics. The environments and characters bobbed about and scrolled very smoothly indeed, far better than most other J2ME games. It made me realise just how good Java can be if it's used properly (which it rarely is unfortunately).
A native version might have had more detailed effects though, and a smaller RAM footprint, and they could be more fast-moving when tilting the maze (which is possibly what you meant too).
Tzer2 wrote:Well, see, that's the problem. If there's no single source for a game IMHO there's not a huge point in reviewing it as it's impossible to know where to get it. No one is going to switch networks just to download a game, and even on the same network you may see different games on different models.Even on SIM-free phones you see totally different line-ups in the Download! app depending on which model it is, even when the phones have the same version of S60.
Well the website that I linked to says it's available "In Europe" on Download!, and "Coming soon" in USA. It listed the USA providers separately.
Tzer2 wrote:This is why the mobile games industry needs things like N-Gage and the iPhone store, they're central points where all compatible devices can get the games. Nokia's Download! is a bit too random to serve this purpose because you can't rely on it having a comprehensive selection of apps.
Understood and I agree 😊
Tzer2 wrote:Also, I'm guessing CNK is a Java game?
Oh no! Not at all! It is _very_ smooth and fast. Natively 3D accelerated, as I've said in many posts! It looks like Jamster/Jamba (depending on where you are in Europe) also sells it. They show a couple of screenshots from the 3D version as well as one from the featurephone version here.
For an example video, see here. While it doesn't say what phone that is, it looks like that and runs just as smoothly on my N95.
The version on Download! only shows the feature phone screenshot. Hmm. It's possible that isn't the 3D version?
Tzer2 wrote:Actually there is. 😊There's been an official accelerometer S60 API for a couple of years now, since the Nokia 5500 introduced the feature to S60 way back in 2006, and that has been used in games (including the 5500's own built-in game).
That was 5500 specific though 😊
When I first got my N95, the accelerometer was either completely unavailable to user applications, or only available via a number that indicated what direction it was rotated, in the Sensor API. A very crude measurement (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4 or something - I don't recall the specifics).
The full access that we see now was made available thanks to the people at Nokia Research Center that were working on Activity Monitor who released the Accelerometer plug-in package and the MovingBall application here. From the notes at the bottom, it appears that newer N95 firmwares may have this natively available from the Sensor API now (I'm not sure if that is the same API as the 5500 uses - could be).
Tzer2 wrote:
Unfortunately most S60 devices don't have an accelerometer because they're no real use to most people, which means devs don't really want to make games that depend on it being present.
True, but being part of the Sensor API, it's detectable at runtime. As they already had the steering code for the iPhone, it could have been ported for devices supporting it. Ah well.
Tzer2 wrote:
Funny you mention it, the smoothness of Sola Rola is what impressed me most about its graphics. The environments and characters bobbed about and scrolled very smoothly indeed, far better than most other J2ME games. It made me realise just how good Java can be if it's used properly (which it rarely is unfortunately).
It's certainly great for a Java "action" title, but think how much better it could have been if someone had put the same effort and care in to a native port?
Edit:
The page here is from the people who made the game. They say supported platforms are Series 60, NGI, Brew and iPhone. Is NGI the new version of N-Gage? If so, it should be coming soon! Maybe they're waiting for the 3D accelerated SDK before releasing.