Gamertell

Nokia has announced that I-Play will develop casual games for the upcoming N-Gage platform coming Fall 2007, proving once again that the N-Gage name will live on.

If you thought the N-Gage was extinct you are partially correct. The N-Gage gaming phones have almost gone the way of the Dodo bird but the name will survive in the form a mobile game service with content compatible on Nokia Nseries and other S60 3rd edition devices.

The first two games by I-play will be World Rally Championship and Super Mah Jong (from the makers of Jewel Quest), and will be available in 2008. I-play specializes in what it calls “one-thumb” mobile games.

Just yesterday I was surfing the web, looking for replacement parts for my N-Gage QD (that pesky rubber band around the edge is rather loose) and trying to find ways to exploit its Bluetooth connectivity. There are plenty of places selling discount N-gage branded games - I just bought Super Monkey Ball for $2 - while the Nokia N-Gage web site continues to offer N-gage games (in Euros, though).

Sure, there are a few flaws with the system - it’s hard to navigate through the tools and the battery drains too fast - but I still use my QD on a regular basis. It’s primarily a cell phone at this point but I do periodically play games whenever waiting for a movie to start if, of course, I don’t happen to have my DS with me.
Read [Crunch Gear]  Site [I-play] Site [N-Gage]