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.)

Post from: EveryJoe

N-Gage Suggestions

Space Impact Kappa Base is the N-Gage iteration of Nokia’s popular Space Impact mobile game. Kappa Base introduces a new gameplay dynamic: grazing enemy bullets with your Skyblade accumulates both points and kinetic energy. Kinetic energy, in turn, can be used to power special weapons.

One of the regular weapons in the game, the Guardians, absorbs enemy bullets. Absorbing bullets with the Guardians also accumulates points and kinetic energy, as if you had grazed those bullets with your Skyblade.

Absorbing bullets with the Guardians is much easier than grazing them with your Skyblade. This presents an opportunity to exploit the bullet-happy boss of Mission 1 for tens of millions of points. Missions are repeatable and points translate into unlock credits, so this trick allows you you to unlock all the best equipment very early in the game.

The Trick

1) Unlock the Guardians.
2) Equip the Guardians and any other weapons you want.
3) Fly all the way to the boss of Mission 1.
4) Turn off autofire (press number key 8 or gaming key B).
5) Do not damage the boss.
6) Absorb the boss’ bullets with the Guardians.

You’ll rack up both points and kinetic energy very quickly as the Guardians absorb the boss’ bullets neatly arranged in well-spaced rows.

Optional Special Weapon: Maintenance Droid

Optionally, you can equip the Maintenance Droid as your special weapon. Your constantly renewing kinetic energy will power your Maintenance Droid, letting you use it as needed to keep you alive should you fail to dodge a bullet.

Recommended Skyblades: Sinuous and Atlas

The best Skyblades for this trick are the Sinuous and the Atlas. The Sinuous is very hard to hit, while the Atlas can take lots of hits. Additionally, the Atlas’ slow movement lets you make fine adjustments to avoid the boss’ bullets and absorb them with the Guardians.

Death From Awesomeness

The best part is, you won’t have to fire a single shot at the boss. At some point, it will just keel over and die from your high-scoring bullet-dodging awesomeness. Depending on how many bullets your Guardians can absorb before the boss gives up, you can rack up anywhere from 80,000,000 to 190,000,000 points in Mission 1. Without continues, S+ rank is almost a given.

With practice and optimal equipment, a complete run of Mission 1, including boss bullet dodging, should take less than ten minutes. At 100,000,000+ points per run, unlocking all weapons and Skyblades very early in the game should be a snap.

Post from: EveryJoe

How to Score 100,000,000+ Points in Space Impact Kappa Base Mission 1