N-Gage

The N-Gage was a "handheld console" made in 2003 by Nokia and attempted to beat Nintendo's Game Boy Advance by being both a video game console and a mobile phone. It also had an MP3, Real Audio/Video playback and PDA features. It could play standard Series 60 software and Java MIDP applications.

Why It Wasn't N-Gaging

 * 1) Actually, it isn't a handheld console. It's just a mobile phone with game console functionality shoehorned in, since it needs a SIM card to work.
 * 2) The buttons for the phone were not well suited for gaming, and gamers were uncomfortable using the phone feature. It wouldn't be until one year later, 2004, when the N-Gage QD would fix this problem, but by then, the brand had gained a poor reputation.
 * 3) In order to insert a game in the original model, gamers had to remove the cover and the battery to get to the slot. Fortunately, they fixed this in the N-Gage QD by adding a hot-swappable memory card slot on the bottom of the device.
 * 4) By the time the N-Gage was discontinued, it had a library of 58 titles, with 56 of them released to North America. By then though, Nokia had started working on smartphones and started the N-Gage service, putting the N-Gage into smartphones. This lasted until 2010, when the service was discontinued.
 * 5) Like most Nokia phones, the N-Gage was mostly infamous for its appearance, which resembled a taco and was "remembered as a mildly humorous internet joke" according to GameTrailers.
 * 6) *According to an engineer who worked at Nokia, the inspiration for the N-Gage system's design was actually goatse. We kid you not!
 * 7) *However he also stated that the designer actually made it as a joke, but the management accepted it anyway.
 * 8) The screen was tall but not very wide, it has a size of 2.1' and a resolution of 176 X 208, which is the common size and resolution for Symbian S60 phones at the time until early 2006.
 * 9) Unlike the Nokia 3300 (which is based on this phone's design), the speaker and the microphone were located at the side of the phone. This resulted in many calling it a "Talking Taco" or a "Sidetalking N-Gage".
 * 10) Its copy protection was cracked almost immediately, which made the system unattractive to third-party devs.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) To be fair it did have some good games from good franchises like Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc but it is actually a 2D game unlike its console versions and Sonic N, which is actually a port of Sonic Advance for the Nokia N-Gage and Crash Nitro Kart, which is based on the GBA version.
 * 2) Despite being poorly executed, the concept of a gaming phone was very good, and would later be adapted by Sony, Asus, ZTE and Xiaomi.
 * 3) The phone has 3D capabilities, which is pretty impressive for a phone from 2003.
 * 4) The QD model fixed most of the issues that the original model had, like it has a hot-swappable memory card slot, better button layout and a new theme that replaced the generic S60 theme.
 * 5) It's the first handheld to use plastic cases for their cartridges instead of the cardboard cases that handhelds at the time used
 * 6) On top of that, the game cases has storage for up to 4 cartridges that you can store inside, which is great if you want to travel with the games but you don't have space.
 * 7) It uses a normal MMC memory card slot rather than a proprietary cartridge slot, meaning you can install N-Gage games if you want on a memory card.

Trivia

 * The N-Gage sponsored a monster truck in 2004 that ran in Antwerp, Belgium for one show.

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