good as far as mobile soccer games go, good graphix, all the licenses and tournaments etc.
pretty shallow though as far as the actual game plays, also seems to be ported to Ngage without a lot of thought as there are too many vital buttons than is possible to map to keys in landscape. Although by holding down pass to shoot and slide tackle and double tapping direction instead of using sprint it gets slightly better but you still miss out on one or two buttons ie long pass, through ball or skill move. Also no multiplayer of any sort, just score comparing on Ngage.
not a bad game if you're into soccer but a bit more thought on the Ngage platform would have made it a lot better

Actually the game went online on monday as posted that day by me.

snoyt

Adrian69, I think this is pretty much what we can expect from third party publishers in the early phases of any new gaming platform, quick ports from other systems without much thought paid to the advantages of the new system.

I'd give it about a year before third party games start using a gaming platform properly. It's partly because they want to wait for a bigger userbase to increase sales and partly because they're unfamiliar with developing for that platform.

This is my favorite game for my N-Gage. I honestly can't put it down. The graphics are suprisingly good too.

Fair comments, I guess if we think about it pretty much all gaming systems don't really find their feet until a year into their life cycle. A bit more important for N-Gage to find its feet as soon as possible though IMO, unlike games consoles and the two main handhelds(DS & PSP), there is very little awareness for the new N-Gage platform(hardly any gaming websites carry an N-Gage section with exception to pocketgamer), something a good few AAA titles will hopefully change.

As for Fifa08, looks ok in the videos I've seen, if a little clumsy. I don't really think the typical N-Gage compatible phones D-Pads are ideal for this type of game where good diagonal movement is pretty essential. I'm hoping Nokia play on the strengths of the system and start pushing development in areas such as turn based tactics games where four way movement works perfectly(like the outstanding Pathway to Glory series, other games like Tactics Ogre would also be perfect).

Well... it's a double-edged sword really. On the one hand N-Gage and phone games in general will inevitably get less attention from the gaming media, but on the other hand if N-Gage is included in tens of millions of phones as standard then a lot of people are going to notice the "N-Gage Games" icon and give it a try. Unlike consoles, people are buying N-Gage phones anyway for other reasons.

It could be that the new N-Gage will only really take off once phones start being sold with it pre-loaded, instead of the current situation where you have to install it yourself. I think the first pre-loaded models are due to be out in the Summer, which may explain Nokia's "soft launch" for the platform right now. It would make more sense to hype it once people see the icon on their phone's menu by default, so they're just one click away from trying it.

I'd say we're in uncharted territory here, it will be very interesting to see what happens.


As far as turn-based strategy goes, there is a new version of Worms World Party on the way, and Redlynx (who did Pathway To Glory and High Seize) are doing Project White Rock, though it's unclear what kind of game PWR actually is.

I think there are other genres where four-way movement is perfectly fine too, for example the new N-Gage game COTD works fine with practically any d-pad. Snakes is another one that doesn't need diagonals, and driving sims don't normally need them either.

But like I said before, I'd wait for the devs to get used to what they have to work with before judging the merits of the platform.