MobileWacks

I have just been over to ovigaming.com, where they had this review on Powerboat challenge for the N-Gage. Their rating for the game? A dismal 48/100. After reading a comprehensive review, I am convinced that the author has written a genuine review rather than one based on emotion. Unfortunately, after my purchase of a Nokia 5800 XM, I no longer have an N-Gage to test it out personally. So I will take the author’s word for it when he says that the game is not fun. A little shocking, then, for the developer is Fishlabs.

Any gaming enthusiast will fondly recall memories of having played V-Rally on their mobile phone years ago. Developed in association with I-Play, it has been perhaps the best 3D car game to date, with accurate graphics that run smoothly even on the lowest-end phones. Fishlabs has been involved in the development of many other 3D games that have changed people’s perspective of mobile phone gaming. Apart from the detailed 3D graphics, all of its games have had one thing in common- they are fun to play.

After N-Gage’s sudden, and perhaps unsurprising, decision to shut down, Powerboat Challenge is the last game that has been released for the much hyped gaming platform. Nokia would have loved to go out with a flourish, but that doesn’t seem to have happened. Somewhere along the line, N-Gage seems to have gone terribly wrong.

The screenshots of the game themselves look pretty decent. Here’s a look at the screenshots provided in the review by Ewan Spence:

Powerboat Challenge for the Nokia N-Gage

Powerboat challenege Nokia N-Gage 2

Powerboat challenege Nokia N-Gage 3

Fishlabs seems to have taken good care of that particular area. Its graphics engine is functioning as good as ever.  Yet, the game is sadly unplayable.

Here, one is forced to asked the question, who is at fault? Is it Fishlabs, for not putting in a good enough effort in the playability department? Or is it Nokia, for not providing a good enough platform to an acclaimed developer like Fishlabs?

To some extent, Fishlabs is to blame for sure. It’s not as if all N-Gage games have lacked functionality. The best example would be One, which was probably the peak of the N-Gage as a platform. It had all the ingredients necessary for a good game- graphics, responsive gameplay and replay value.

But N-Gage can’t be let off that easily. For all its claims, it has never provided developers with a good enough platform. It has never taken developers to the point where they can make much more than a game that could just as easily have been made in Java. Indeed, many of the games look like simple java games ported to the N-Gage platform. And it is not necessarily the developers who are to blame for this. They have been screaming for hardware support and the like, features they were never provided. How then can one expect an enhanced gaming experience if the developers themselves are shackled by weird rules?

N-Gage could have been so much more. N-Gage QD was, many feel, the most promising and revolutionary phase in mobile gaming. It was the first time that an entire generation looked upon mobile phones as a possible gaming device. Lack of sales forced Nokia to turn N-Gage into the software platform that we see today. It held just as much promise as the initial QD, but somehow it failed to deliver.

The decision to shut down N-Gage has been made. Its entire fan legion can only hope that Nokia learns from its mistakes. What is needed is perhaps a clear view into its leadership and team to root out the problem and ensure that such a fiasco does not occur again.

Powerboat Challenge will remain a sad reminder of the mobile gaming revolution that could have been. Nokia were so close to the trophy that they somehow failed to clinch. And as millions of fans continue to hope for a better marketing sense in Nokia’s future ventures, no one will forget the monster that Nokia created for themselves. Eventually, they were devoured by their own failure to deliver.

R.I.P. N-Gage