In Defense Of The N-Gage

Thanks to IGN Wireless, who, not content with vehemently defending cellphone gaming in general, have decided to step up and tell us why Nokia's N-Gage is worth a second look. As they eruditely put it, "E3 was not exactly kind to Nokia and it's [sic] new N-Gage mobile gaming platform," and they go on to compare Nokia's phone and 'mobile game deck' to another neglected system: "A lot of it depends on whether or not gamers are willing to take chance on an unproven system, or whether they'll let hype from Sony's PSP or an improved GBA prevent them from taking the plunge. Which would be a shame, because that's what happened to the Dreamcast in the face of the PS2, and now everybody sits around and talks about what a great system it really was."

Comments

Bad analogy

[ArmorFiend]

The analogy seems totally hollow.

Sega Dreamcast: The first of the next-generation 3D consoles to come to market. For the year or so it was the most powerful mainstream system on the market.

N-Gage: Underpowered. Underengineered. Lame.

Saying "go buy an N-gage because Dreamcast was cool" is putting the lid on the fishbowl after the horses have escaped.

Re:Bad analogy

[cicatrix1]

Is it just me or does this article reek of "we got paid to say something nice about N-Gage"? Really, this thing has almost NO redeeming qualities, and comparing it to the dreamcast is unfathomable.

What's wrong with it?
A) It costs 3x more than a GBA.
B) Can't use on planes.
C) You must remove the battery to change games.

Re:Bad analogy

[Trystero]

Make that "A) It costs *over* 3x more than a GBA."

As I understand it, this N-Gage runs $300. A GBA still runs, what, $70? The GBA-SP, of course, runs $100. I'm not being critical of the posting, just emphasizing how staggeringly overpriced the N-Gage is compared to what people can already buy. Three-hundred dollars for a hand-held video game player seems outrageous. Yes, I know it does more than an GBA, but if all you primarily want it for is to play games, then just get a GBA. If Nokia expects the system to survive only on the interest of geeks who love gadgets, then they are in for a rude awakening. Kids will want it for the games, and Mom & Dad won't pop for a $300 item when they can get an already popular hand-held for less than a third that price. The N-Gage is going to go down in flames.

I hadn't thought of your point B. Another nail in its coffin.

Re:Bad analogy

[Anonymous Coward]

Agreed. IGN basically says "well, we should support the N-Gage because what if it turns out to be an unappreciated-but-wonderful system such as the Dreamcast?" It's a very, very poor argument. The Virtual Boy did not sell well when it was first released. Should we have supported it anyway? No. It was a crap system that gave people headaches and cramped necks.

Anyhow, IGN tends to be pretty biased in its articles. It's the Fox News of the video game media. Craig of Pocket.IGN.com has repeatedly slammed the GP32, a (IMO) wonderful handheld from Korea that has been the darling of many Slashdot readers and editors.

But I digress. If we see advertising for the N-Gage pop up on IGN soon, then we'll all know the real reason that that article was written.

Poor Defense

[sandalwood]

"...that's what happened to the Dreamcast in the face of the PS2, and now everybody sits around a talks about what a great system it really was."

Except the Dreamcast actually was a good system. This article fails to mention some of the fatal design flaws in the N-Gage. Like this one: in order to change games, you have to take the back plate off the N-Gage, remove the battery, take the old game out and put the new one in, put the battery back in, and replace the plate again.

Price tag...

[mlk]

One thing many posters have ignored is the price of a GB SP + a good mobile phone, namly which is going to be ~$100-$200.

Re:Price tag...

[evilWurst]

Indeed! Cheaper to buy both new than the nokia combo system, and many of the people who would want the nokia already have one/both GBA and cell. Even if the nokia was pure gaming gold, its adoption would be slow for those reasons.

Further, if they're targeting the young new cell owners, success could kill them. Schools already have a dim view of cellphones as it is. If cell gaming in the classroom gets notices, they might outright ban the things from schools. Bad business and bad PR.

They should probably be targeting adult casual-gamers with this, not young "real" gamers. The older types are already willing to dump $300 on a phone with all the extras. And they'll do that for their own personal phone whereas for the kid's phone parents want something cheap and durable.

Concerned about IGN

[Tom Courtenay]

I've been a reader of IGN for years now, and I gladly pay the annual subscription rate. Their writing is generally top notch (compared to the competition), and the reviews impart an honesty I appreciate as a game junkie.

Upon reading this article however, I was surprised at the tone of it. I'm glad it ended up as a /. article, something about it seemed very contrived. I'm an optimist, and I'd like to think that IGN didn't take a payoff for this. If they had, I'd wager they'd have made a much better case for the platform. A more realistic view (imo) is that they're planning on starting a N-Gage channel. From day one, IGN has been extremely negative toward the system, but it's still gained support from a few well-payed-off developers. It's quite possible that IGN has identified the system as a legitimate contender worthy of daily report.

Regardless of the reason, the article is poorly written and comes off as a bit of a showcase piece. I certainly hope IGN doesn't continue this trend.

Decidedly rosy glasses?

[Snowspinner]

Personally, I cannot take seriously anyone who suggests that one can only be enthused about platformers and remakes of 16-bit games if one looks at the era through "rosy glasses".

Personally, I think my hobby died with the rise of the PSOne, and I'm left with the Gamecube as the third place console, but the only one that puts out more than a handful of games that are of types I actually enjoy. I could care less about Tony Hawk and Tomb Raider.

And lest someone mod me flamebait, I'm sure both of those are great games. I know people who enjoy them, at least. But I've just never gotten into them. They don't feel like the games I grew up on. They feel like a different hobby to me. Some people made the transition from that hobby to current video games. Some people started with Tomb Raider, and can't figure out what it is I like so much about Zelda.

But for me, if that's the future of video games, I'll be over here with my emulator, thank you.