N-Gage Suggestions

Nokia has demonstrated that they listen to the blogosphere by reconsidering their Draconian single-device N-Gage game licenses. With that in mind, allow me to offer three simple suggestions to improve the N-Gage service.

1) Embeddable profiles — Online gamers love to show off on the Web. That’s why Xfire users embed their profiles all over the place. That’s part of the reason Xfire virally spread and became a $102 million company. Nokia should provide the same embed functionality for N-Gage profiles.

2) D-pad overlays — Playing Street Fighter Alpha 3 for the Game Boy Advance via the vBag emulator on my Nokia N95 has shown me the greatest gaming limitation of the Nokia NaviKey: it’s terrible for quick sliding movements. Your thumb just keeps hitting adjacent buttons. You try to throw a Shoryuken, and instead open a phone menu that knocks you right out of the game.

The NaviKey restricts control to taps and presses, thereby restricting N-Gage games to simple control mechanics. Simple control mechanics are vital for mobile gaming in general, but console gamers would appreciate optional access to much richer control mechanics.

Simply by raising your thumb away from other phone buttons, D-pad overlays for Nokia NaviKeys would open up whole new gaming possibilities. They would also provide a familiar controller for console gamers. Such a simple cheap plastic phone accessory would add so much value to the phone as a gaming platform.

3) Consistent branding — The branding on N-Gage games is confusing to say the least. Even my current favorite N-Gage game, Space Impact Kappa Base, has a long unwieldy name only fans of the old Space Impact could love.

Many game franchises that saw iterations on the Game Boy Advance got the word “Advance” tacked on to their titles: Super Mario Advance, Tekken Advance, Ace Combat Advance, etc. The consistent, easy-to-understand branding really pushed both the games and the platform.

N-Gage should do the same thing. The N-Gage version of Metal Gear Solid, for instance, could be called Metal Gear Solid Engage. It has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

Smartphone gaming could be to portable gaming what PC gaming is to console gaming: instead of a separate device just for gaming, you have one device for both work and play. N-Gage presents an opportunity to create a whole new class of hardcore phone gamers; hope Nokia gets it right this time.

(D-pad photo by daroga.)