Are we N-Gage’d yet?

Remember N-Gage? It’s that thing on the right that was released back in 2003, with a scant number of games and a plethora of problems. It flopped in its first week, selling only 5,000 units. Within the first year, N-Gage sold 1.3 million systems. Not bad. But in comparison, Nintendo DS sold 500,000 units during its first week in 2004. Pure pwnage.
Despite the relatively poor reception, Nokia, N-Gage’s manufacturer refuses to admit that its a noob when it comes to gaming hardware. And it might finally pay off: there’s now version 2.0, which is looking to provide more than fodder for a laundry list of internet jokes.

Rather than buying a bulky system that works as a phone, you can buy a nice, slick, but pricier N-Series Nokia phone that runs the N-Gage application and plays promising titles such as Metal Gear Solid Mobile (also available on Verizon phones). Even more promising, Konami and Capcom are due to deliver other powerhouse titles to the N-Gage, such as Street Fighter II.

Will bringing in big titles to N-Gage really help sales? Perhaps. But, at the very least, it is turning a few heads by bringing in some worthwhile titles.