By CHAOS, Freelance WriterIN THE BEGINNING there were cellular telephones - humongous things the size of small suitcases - literally. Then they started getting smaller. And smaller. And smaller.
Then they began evolving. No longer content to be mere telephones they became a myriad of things. Radios. MP3 players. Thermometers. Flashlights. Calorie counters.
Then somebody had a bright idea. One of the most popular pieces of handheld bits of equipment has been the Gameboy, so why not turn a cellular telephone into a gaming console as well? Thus the Nokia N-Gage was born...
The N-Gage certainly looks the part. On either side of the nice but small 176 x 208 LCD are the usual Nokia-look call and hang-up buttons (at the top), and menu buttons below the screen. On the right-hand side sit the numeric/text pad. Over on the left is the joystick and, to fill a space, buttons for three applications: Music Player, Radio and the application launcher. Around the side of the device is the on/off switch (right-hand side), twin headphone sockets (underneath), and USB port and power jack (left-hand side). There's a microphone in there too, and a loudspeaker. Again, just for the record, do not use this phone for telephone calls without the headset. You will look like an idiot.
So with the help of my brother, who knows a lot more about games than I do, I decided to put the N-Gage through its paces as a gaming console, courtesy of Cable & Wireless.
Games appear as an icon in the root directory. Once selected and launched, the game stays in memory until the N-Gage is turned off. Pressing the phone keys, or one of the application buttons takes you away from the game. Relaunching it from the application launcher takes you straight back to where you were, as if you'd left it on pause. This is a good for gamers and better than forcing you to start the game from scratch each time.
Relatively slick
We tried the N-Gage out with Pandemonium - which is a nice way of saying that's the game cartridge I got the phone with. The controls were responsive and game play was relatively slick. In fact, my brother has already finished the game. The graphics are O.K. - a little better than O.K. actually, since we are talking about a cell phone.
Dedicated consoles also offer more dedicated controls - aside from the joystick, the N-Gage simply uses the numeric pad for game play. Still, it's remarkably comfortable to use, though if every key is required, it can take some getting used to. The N-Gage sits nicely in a pair of adult hands. Head-to-head Bluetooth gaming is a part of this, but I have not had the chance to try it - but it sounds like such a good idea- even if it depends on knowing people who own N-Gages as well. As a console, the N-Gage is flawed, but a gem nonetheless. We expected to be disappointed, but ultimately enjoyed using it. It's really only screen size that lets it down. On the other hand, there is not much in the way of competition, so if you are one of those people who like moi tend to wile away those moments waiting for whatever by playing games on your cell, the N-Gage is a gem - and that does not even take into account the radio and MP3 players. I say go for it.
Comments or questions? Email me at chaos_theory@ureach.com
