Despite our coverage here, I swore off N-Gage roughly 9 months ago. Wampyre still loves it, and plays often (the dude has like, 13k points!!), but I couldn’t, for a number of reasons. However, I finally buckled down and installed the latest version on my Nokia N79, and spent about an hour and a half the other night guess-entering codes. I got 10 license codes through the S60 Ambassadors (RIP) campaign, and was determined to use them. Since then, I’ve made it a point to at least try to be an ‘N-Gage-r’ for the past few weeks, to see how the experience really was.
For starters, I want to be upfront and say that the setup still blows. Downloading each game took FOREVER, even over WiFi. The slowness was so frustrating that I ended up just downloading the PC version and installing them that way. There are far too many clicks required to download a game, exacerbated if it’s an older game because you have to reload the showroom to show ALL games each time. For whatever reason, the N-Gage application (either on my N95-3, the N82, or the N79) does not seem to like being set to try WiFi first, and fall back to 3G. It times out consistently. However, I figured out that if I initiate the connection, then cancel, I can choose the access point and things go smoothly from there. Rough.
Once I got all my games installed, things were MUCH better. The application is stable, and has yet to crash on my N79, even when I get an incoming call, SMS, or email during gameplay. I was able to easily type in the activation code without having to play the demo, as well, which I remember being an issue on some games in the past.
With 10 games activated on my handset, I have to confess, I’ve spent at least 1 hr/day playing, with few exceptions. I’ve become heavily addicted to Creatures of the Deep, as well as Reset Generation (which you can play here, by the way). Some of the more intense games, such as Metal Gear Solid, I haven’t actually played since setting them up, and Boom Bloxx is by far the stupidest game I’ve come across in a long, long time.
However, I’ve noticed that I don’t use any of the social features at all. None of my 29 friends have been online at the same time I am, and I have yet to figure out the purpose of the N-Gage Arena, specifically for someone with low rankings such as myself. The few online multiplayer games of Reset Generation that I’ve played were awful – I was often matched up with a clear expert in the game, which means they defeated me quickly and easily, and I got no joy out of it.
Bluetooth multiplayer, while a cool idea, is pointless given that there are no other N-gagers within 10 miles of me, much less 10 feet. I’d like to have seen Nokia organize some N-Gage meetups in major cities using their local employees. There’s a freakin Nokia office in Irving, for pete’s sake! Then I could at least get my multiplayer on via Bluetooth. In doing research for this post, I noticed that my complaints about multiplayer on N-Gage from over 1 year ago are still not addressed.
The big test came when I needed to hard-reset my Nokia N79. This is a situation that many of you are likely in, with firmware updates coming along and older phones not sporting UDP (User Data Preservation). It turns out, there are 2 different ways to backup your phone prior to a firmware update. The first is on the device itself, which creates a backup file on the memory card. After the firmware update, you simply open the File Manager, press options, restore. The other option is through PC Suite, which obviously requires that you have a Windows computer handy. I did both, though I was told that the on-device method would *not* work to restore my N-Gage save games and game installs, whereas the PC Suite method would.The N-Gage FAQ seems to indicate that you should use the PC Suite method, as well.
After resetting my Nokia N79, I first restored from the PC Suite backup, and to my horror, not a single one of my games showed up in the N-Gage client on my phone. Checking in the Application Manager, my games showed installed, but no amount of power cycles could get them to show up. Exasperated, I installed Creatures of the Deep from the file stored on my PC (the bare game file from my initial setup), and was interested to see it still showed the full version (I didn’t have to re-enter my activation code) but did not, unfortunately, store my game save information. Bah.
Frustrated, I gave the on-device backup/restore method a go and what do you know, but ALL of my games were re-installed, like magic, fully registered AND with my game saves in working order! Well, all of my games except for Creatures of the Deep. For whatever reason, my re-installing that one manually hosed the save game data, so I’m left to work my way up the fishing ladder once again.
Thus, from my experience, you should use the on-device backup method, rather than PC Suite, to save everything. I’ve also been using my Zeemote for gaming, which is simply fantastic. Why N-Gage-focused phones don’t come with this thing in the box is a mystery to me.
So, officially, I’m re-addicted to N-Gage. I like the game selection, and am glad to see that there seems to be a new game launched every month. I’m also pleased to see a nice balance of original games such as Creatures of the Deep and Reset Generation and games ported from other platforms, such as Metal Gear Solid and Monopoly.
Unfortunately, the N-Gage platform hasn’t matured much since its launc on the N81 8GB a year ago. The multiplayer features are still annoyingly limited, and the N-Gage Arena still doesn’t have a valuable function in the platform, as far as I can tell. I’m also disappointed that the social aspects have not been updated at all, such as finding friends to play with, or connecting to other N-Gamers. The forums are still a hassle to get around in, and there’s no easy way to setup an online game with someone for those few games that *do* support real-time online multiplayer.
I wouldn’t call the N-Gage 2.0 a complete fail, as it is entertaining, with good prices (most of the newer games seem to be priced around the $9-10 range), exclusive games, and great graphics. Let’s hope that Nokia can continue to improve though, with more contextual and social aspects to the games, and an easier way to setup and backup your N-Gage account, including games and save files.
What’s your experience been like? Do you still play N-Gage games often, or have you given up on the system, as I had? Do you think it’s dead, or is there potential still?
