It's Digital Chocolate's second N-Gage title and one which again plays things very much by their own rules and style guide rather than Nokia's. Ewan Spence has been whiling away the last week playing it and finds it a good introduction to the puzzle for newcomers, while probably not appealing to hard core sudoku fans...
The puzzle game DChoc Cafe Sudoku has arrived on the N-Gage platform, you can download it from the N-Gage application if you go to the Showroom tab on the far right of the screen, select "Options" and then "Update Now". It's from the same people who did DChoc Cafe Solitaire, and you can see a video trailer below.
Take a dash of Irish charm and mix it with the classic puzzle game Bejewelled. What have you got? Lucky Coins, a new S60 game that has been quietly charming Ewan Spence. SBSH have added a few twists of their own to the genre and each seems to have genuinely paid off.
In All About Symbian Insight 57 (AAS Podcast 110) Rafe reports back from the UK launch of the Nokia 5800 launch at Nokia's flagship store on Regents Street, London. The team discuss Q4 finanical results from Nokia and other consumer electronics company before Ewan updates us on two recently announced N-Gage games and Steve highlights Jomtris.
Third party publishers Glu have announced Age Of Empires III for the new N-Gage platform, based on the PC real time strategy game set in the glory days of various European colonial powers. UPDATE: This has now been confirmed by Nokia, though they say that the release date in the press release is wrong and it's actually due some time in the first half of 2009. (Thanks to "brain" on the N-Gage blog's comments section)
The C64 emulator Frodo for S60 3rd Edition has been updated to version 1.5, and now includes support for accelerometers in selected phones, which lets you tilt the phone to simulate a joystick or steering wheel (you can see a demo video below). There's also an on-screen keyboard and vibration support. Frodo comes in versions available for older Symbian devices too such as S60 1st and 2nd Edition, Series 80 and UIQ, just scroll down the same page. Apparently Frodo for S60 3rd Edition should work in theory on the 5800, though it may run very slowly as the application hasn't been optimised for S60 5th Edition yet. (For more S60 3rd Edition emulators, see AAS's special feature.)
The arcade racing game Asphalt 4: Elite Racing is now available on the next gen N-Gage platform. To see it, go to the Showroom tab on the far right, select "Options", then "Update Now". It should be visible in the "Latest Games" section, or alternatively click on "Available Games". (Also worth noting that the prequel, Asphalt 3, is still available on N-Gage and has been reduced in price to 7 euros.)
According to a report on mobiletoday.co.uk, Sony has refused to let Sony Ericsson use the PlayStation brand on its phones. Sony Ericsson (a separate company jointly owned by Sony and Ericsson) apparently asked Sony for permission to use the "PlayStation" name as a sub-brand on their devices, in much the same way they have already used Sony's "Walkman", "Cybershot" and "Bravia". Sony said no, allegedly. (via Eurogamer.net)
I can't resist linking to this. Just about my favourite version of Tetris, all programmed in Python for S60 (amazingly) and working on almost all modern S60 devices (no need for graphics acceleration here) in this, the very latest version 1.60. It seems that Jomtris really is paving the way for other heavyweight games and apps all written in Python (a modern day object-oriented equivalent to Psion's old OPL, if readers remember this).
Another week, another member of the AAS team succumbs to 5800 XpressMusic and S60 5th Edition fever. Tzer2 now has the touch-screen phone and here presents a look at how suitable it is for gaming in general and for N-Gage in particular. Maybe it's not up to the job and we'll have to wait for the N97 after all?
It's good to see Resco active again in the Symbian OS world. And even better to see that their latest, the game Resco Bubbles, is both original, addictive and has a superbly crafted learning curve for a mobile device, or so reckons Ewan in his review. Note that it does require a Nokia N95 or N82 though (both of which have an accelerometer and graphics hardware/compatible 'sensor framework')
Hurrah! It seems that THQ and/or Nokia have changed their minds, and the apparently cancelled Worms for N-Gage has been un-cancelled. This is great news for the next gen N-Gage as the game was very well received on the original gen N-Gage, and should be even better on the new platform thanks to the bigger screen size and better internet connectivity. Nokia chose to mention All About N-Gage's "Most Anticipated Game" reader poll in their Worms announcement, so perhaps AAN's readers managed to get Nokia to see how much demand there is for this game.
If you're a mobile game company interested in publishing your games on the N-Gage platform, you may want to check out their slightly updated Developer Application Process page. This page used to only mention becoming a first party developer. However, the application form now also says it can be used to apply to be a third party publisher, so presumably you can now publish your games on N-Gage without giving up ownership of them.
Over on All About N-Gage, we've reviewed the arcade racing game Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D, and we've also published the results of our readers poll on the best N-Gage game of 2008, along with the personal picks of the AAN/AAS staff.
Over on All About N-Gage, we've just started a poll to find people's favourite N-Gage game of 2008. Head on over to the survey thread to vote, and remember this is just a silly bit of fun! :-) You may also want to check out the results of AAN's end-of-year readers poll, where we asked which phone they used for N-Gage, and which announced game they were most anticipating.