NEWS

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May 19(12 am)-Nokia had a huge booth this year, but it seemed more like a waste than a way to get gamers to see how much better the N-gage is. They, also, gave away free t-shirts to anyone who went to and played three of their four demo stations, but it may have been a better move for them to give away the shirts and not force anyone to see how horrible the games were.

The three games were Tony Hawk, Red Faction, and Tomb Raider, along with a booth to listen to the N-gage's music capabilities. The first game I tried out was Red Faction. The controls were intuitive and easy to get used to. The control pad moved you, while buttons 1 and 2 switched weapons, 4 and 6 strafed, and button 5 shot the weapon. The controls weren't perfect, though, but I did not think they were that bad for a cell-phone game combination. Anyway, the game had tons of frame rate problems, and if a guy came onto the screen it had major slowdown. In one part, the guys could even shoot through the walls. I had moved around and gotten stuck in the wall too at one point. After dying and restarting many times, I realized how unpolished this game was and hopefully it will get a lot of work before coming out.

The second game up for grabs was Tomb Raider. This game didn't have as many problems, except that the controls weren't as nice. The demo level had u going through a level following a line and collecting gems. You were trying to see if you could beat the fastest time. I almost did it, but was 3 seconds too slow. This game was a huge improvement over Red Faction, but still doesn't make me want to get an N-gage.

The final game was Tony Hawk. I barely played this game, but from what I saw it looked nice, but still needed improvement. The controls weren't as nice as the Gameboy Advance controls, but still it was playable. Finally, I headed to the music lounge. In here, the music was basically the same quality as any mp3 player and was simple to use. There's not much more to say about it, but it was a nice add on for a cell phone.

In conclusion, the N-gage has a lot of work to do, if it wants to beat Nintendo. At a price of $299, I don't think many people will go for this phone. Hopefully, by the fall the games get much polish and get reworked, but as of right now I have a feeling that this will be another death by the Gameboy. It's too bad because this actually sounded cool and got so hyped, but now people will wait for Sony to release their system, which could be the only thing able to dethrone Nintendo as handheld leader.