Why did Nokia choose such awful demos for the N96?

agreed - in fact i've not even played the included games except tetris.

i downloaded bounce: boing voyage and star wars though
i had already purchased B:BV on my N95 and after almost 30 mins on the phone
and a couple of hours waiting for activation i managed to migrate my license across.

I will give the pinball game a go as i like video pinball generally.

driving games will never work on ngage as they need analog controllers
(navi wheel support maybe coming soon?)

actually B:BV would benefit from an analogue controller too.

mac

http://helloN96.tumblr.com

It's as if no one at Nokia actually played the games, they just looked at the list and assumed they were all the same quality. Very very odd.

macwhu wrote:
driving games will never work on ngage as they need analog controllers

That's not entirely true. If you haven't already, I'd suggest you try K-Rally from www.idreams.pl - the same people who made COTD I believe. K-Rally is a top-down perspective affair, with 3d elements. The graphics are amazing. Try it for yourself, and you'll see. And the gameplay is very good.

I wish they'd make K-Rally available on N-Gage.

that looks nice (k-rally) but its not a true driving game
ok its like micro machines

but its not a FP perspective driver
thosen0 really really need analogue controllers otherwise
its impossible to hold a corner without over steering etc.

n-gage also desperatly needs a really good platform game
a 2d/3d hybrid.

1. OOPS! The only games missing is dogz!
2. I agree. The best game genre that is missing on n-gage is a good 2D platformer. Like GBA or DS games. I hoped upcoming Crash Bandicoot is a 2D platformes, but it seems it's a nitro kart game.

Something has to change.

N-Gage just isn't working is it? 60% of the games are nothing more than fluff and the rest of too expensive or poorly promoted.

I know this won't be a popular comment but here goes...

Step 1. Nokia should axe N-Gage completely.
Step 2. Axe the Download! app
Step 2. Create the Nseries App Store and basically copy everything that Apple is doing.

There are over now 1051 games available to ALL iPhone and iPod Touch users, the longest wait for payment, download and installation over wifi is no more than 10 minutes.

Yes, 90% of those 1051 games are fluff, but the remaining 96 games are really rather good, and cheap too.

Sometimes you have to keep refining to make something work, other times to have to stop and start anew. Nokia, it's time to put a end to this N-Gage mess.

Jaggz, with all due respect I know you're a long time member but what you've written sounds like a troll and/or a propaganda message on behalf of Apple. The stark headlines in bold look like something from a political campaign. Phrases like "basically copy everything that Apple is doing" make it sound like you've lost all sense of critical thinking.

This is a site dedicated to N-Gage and you're basically saying the whole thing's rubbish and should be abandoned before it's even started, without giving any real supporting evidence for it either.

I think you're also rather missing the point of N-Gage. It's not there to provide a general app store, that's what Download! is for, and I agree Download! should be totally redesigned along the same lines as Apple's iPhone Store (though I would want to see tighter quality control so that people don't lose confidence in the platform). The point of N-Gage is to provide an "Xbox Live" of mobile phones, and so far it's by far the best at doing that. iPhone doesn't do this at all.

Before you start saying everyone will buy an iPhone, most people won't because it's far too expensive.

The average amount people spend on a phone worldwide is about 90 euros, once you've taken away all the taxes and subsidies. The iPhone costs 600 euros once you take away all the taxes and subsidies. Expecting everyone to buy an iPhone is like expecting everyone to buy a Ferrari or a Rolls Royce, it just ain't gonna happen. Even on contract these price differences are apparent, because the cheapest phones are available with no upfront charge at all and a very low monthly fee, whereas something like the iPhone costs hundreds up front and has a fairly high monthly charge.

S60 phones on the other hand are much cheaper, you can buy a 5500 SIM-free for under 150 euros and the 5320 (which is N-Gage compatible) recently launched for 200 euros. By the end of next year we might even see S60 models selling for under 100 euros which would be a very mass market price indeed. At those prices S60 is available for nothing on even the cheapest contracts.

"Sometimes you have to keep refining to make something work, other times to have to stop and start anew. Nokia, it's time to put a end to this N-Gage mess. "

Put a stop to it? It's only really launched last week, and will only be at full speed once it's included with all S60 models as standard (which should happen during 2009). That's how long it took Nokia Maps to become a standard feature, and the same thing is starting to happen with Nokia Music Store. It takes time for these things to happen if you want to get it right. Apple apparently delayed the iPhone by a year from its original launch date because it wasn't ready, but no one really noticed because they hadn't officially announced it.

You've got to give things a chance before you write them off.

There are over now 1051 games available to ALL iPhone and iPod

Only if you include things like "hangman".

By your standards I could equally well say that N-Gage-compatible phones have FAR more games and apps than the iPhone because they have N-Gage, Java, Flash Lite and S60 compatibility which when added together stretch into thousands of titles.

Just to give an example, the Nokia N95 section on Handango.com right now has 3354 apps and games available.

But enough of the bold, it's rather patronising isn't it?

N-Gage just isn't working is it?

N-Gage hasn't started, has it?

The point of the platform is to be embedded in S60 phones, and they've barely started doing that.

How well do you think Apple's app store would have done if it didn't come built into iPhones?

macwhu wrote:driving games will never work on ngage as they need analog controllers
(navi wheel support maybe coming soon?)

actually B:BV would benefit from an analogue controller too.

The accelerometer would work for this too. It's used on the iPhone for Crash Nitro Kart 3D (not on the still-amazing N95 version though), and also on N95 and iPhone in the upcoming Real Racing.

And the Zeemote also has an analogue stick, I think - there are so many options available for analogue control now.

There's a Asphalt 3 site now. like the game itself, it has nothing to say. from n-gage game sites, some are really cool. like Bounce, Reset Generation and SW:TFU! but this site only includes screenshots, video, and n-gage news from the official blog.

I agree, it's sad that they choose bad games to promote the platform, but this is what happens in the business world. It's not like the people making the decisions have actually played the games a lot (if at all). And there are other factors that will be important when they choose titles to embed, like which ones would cost them extra license money. That's a problem with big brands, like eg. Star Wars.

puterman wrote:I agree, it's sad that they choose bad games to promote the platform, but this is what happens in the business world. It's not like the people making the decisions have actually played the games a lot (if at all).

No but they should be employing people that do
we do lots of web work for sony computer entertainment
one of the reasons we win the work is we are passionate about games
and play them all the time.

@ Tzer2: I use bold type as emphasis, nothing more. I personally don't find it at all patronising, but I can see how some people might.

I've re-read my post and I realise that I was overly dismissive, I apologise.

I like Nokia, I like Apple. Sometimes that makes me unpopular in both camps, I understand that and I'll try to keep my rants to myself in future, well at least keep them to my own site... which doesn't seem to work either. :con?

I'll mark this day in my calendar and I'll check back one year from now to see how much progress N-Gage has made by then. Another year ought to be enough.