EA's racing game Need For Speed: Undercover is out now on the N-Gage platform. You can find it in your phone's N-Gage app: to see it go to the showroom tab, select Options, then Update Now. (For a list of compatible phones and other info, see the All About N-Gage FAQ.)
Gameloft's action adventure Prince Of Persia is now available on the N-Gage platform. Go to your phone's N-Gage application's showroom tab, select "Options" and then "Update Now" to see it. For more info about the N-Gage platform including a list of compatible devices, see All About N-Gage's FAQ section.
Tzer2 brings us the latest All About N-Gage review - Monopoly: Here & Now - The World Edition, the board classic, brought to life here by Electronic Arts. It seems as though it ticks most of the boxes in terms of gameplay and graphics, and makes a good multiplayer party game through TV Out. But Tzer2 picks it up on having no online multiplayer mode (though you can hand the phone round a group), and no tutorial for those not already au fait with the rules of Monopoly.
The upcoming Ovi Store application is due to replace Nokia's existing Download!, MOSH and Software Market services, and there has been speculation about what else it might absorb. However, Nokia has now gone on record to say the N-Gage application will be kept as a separate service, at least for the moment, though they also said that their medium term goal is to "converge everything into a single distribution channel".
Nokia have released Monopoly, Here and Now: The World Edition for the N-Gage platform. Bringing the classic property trading board game into the next generation gaming platform, the EA published title allows up to four players to play on a board populated not by streets, but by the major cities of the world.
It's Brain Training - for S60, with SPB kindly porting their own take on the genre from their Windows Mobile version. The result is something that's clearly not optimised for non-touch S60 phones, but despite this Ewan found the SPB Brain Evolution games challenging and the overall package good value. Will it actually help your brain to evolve? I suspect not, but it sure looks like a good way to keep your grey matter on an even keel while waiting in queues...
Well, this is very late news, but better late than never: There's been an update to the Mobipad application, which allows you to wirelessly control S60 devices through a standard Nintendo Wii controller (particularly useful if you've got your phone connected to a television through TV Out). The new Mobipad 1.2 beta lets you customise all the buttons to your own liking, which should solve the control problems that were experienced by previous Mobipad users. The catch is that you have to make a 5 euro donation to the developers to get the new version (previous donors get the new version free). The old version 1.0 is still free though.
Over on All About N-Gage we've been covering quite a few stories lately, here are some of them: Fishlabs have just announced five games for N-Gage including the next gen's first RPG, AAN has started its own Twitter channel, a selection of N-Gage games have been greatly reduced in price, there are several N-Gage contests where you can win holidays, phones and games, the S60 Ambassador programme is giving away N-Gage games in a new campaign, and of course Nokia's recently announced six new N-Gage-compatible phones.
The Chinese MMORPG Anrufen is now available in an English-language beta version for Symbian S60 3rd Edition phones, which can be downloaded from the official Anrufen website. There's also an official forum for reporting problems with the beta.
The next gen N-Gage shoot-em-up Space Impact Kappa Base has been updated to add support for online clans and instant messaging in the game's "World Battle" section. Current owners can update to the new version for free, and people who haven't bought SI:KB yet may like to know the game's price has been dropped to 5 euros. Current owners can find full instructions for updating to the new version below.
ZingMagic, creators of slick version of classic board and puzzle games on all platforms, have launched a range of their titles now supporting S60 5th edition devices like the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. The list is: Backgammon Pro II, Checkers Pro II, Chess Pro II, Chinese Chess Pro II, Four In A Line Pro II, Gomoku Pro II and Reversi Pro II. All have a reworked UI (compared to the original S60 3rd Edition versions) and improved AI. There's also Zingles II, a bigger update, now supporting '4x4', 'thru 16x16', 'Jigsaw', 'Killer Sudokus', plus lots of 'solving aids, helper features'. Links, screens and mini-review of one of the new titles below the break.
Ewan heads out onto the course with the golfing legend.... but this, curiously, isn't an N-Gage game - it's Java. Surprisingly, this fact doesn't affect playability and, despite somewhat rudimentary graphics, he finds that it ranks with the best golf games on the mobile platform. Here's the review of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09.
Tzer2 has ripped into Gameloft's Asphalt 4 for N-Gage (on S60) over on our sister site All About NGage, criticising its lack of innovation and jerky frame rates. The title is even described as feeling "dangerously close to shovelware", with the developers being "lazy". Despite the above, there's plenty in Asphalt 4 for getting an instant arcade racing gaming fix and doubtless the title will sell as well as its predecessor.
The guys over at Herocraft have been busy for the last couple of weeks. After releasing their long awaited title Travel Genius, they have updated two of their more recent offerings: Hexxagon Labs and 8 in 1 Arcade Park. You will be happy to know that both of these updates are available for existing owners of the games for free, it is definitely worth checking them out. Read on for details.
To promote the N-Gage game Resident Evil: Degeneration, Nokia and Capcom have set up a dating site for the undead called Zombie Singles, which invites people to upload a photo and then "zombify" it with the site's online zombification tool. All Zombie Singles profiles are automatically entered into a contest to win a trip for two to the Tokyo Game Show in Japan, along with two Nokia N96s and a visit to Capcom.