I totally would not use that as a phone.

That top one should be a "Caption This" in Otter.

Read some reviews of the games before buying them all. Some of them are pretty crappy from reviews. For instance, EGM mentioned that the puzzle games were nearly unplayable as they're the type where you have to match up colors, and its really hard to tell some of the colors apart (like blue and purple) on the small screen.

Sonic is supposed to be bad too, as with the verticle screen you can't see far enough ahead and constantly run into enemies and pits because of this. There's another "letterboxed" mode, but they said it's squashed, and as it's framed on all sides on the already tiny screen, the image is about the size of a "postage stamp."

Super Monkey Ball and Tomb Raider looks like the safest bets. Virtua Tennis might be OK, EGM mainly mentioned that the AI sucked and it was sluggish.

Might be better off to just buy a couple, and wait for the next batch of games like Splinter Cell etc. But it's your $.

Just picked up my N-Gage with Pandemonium, Bubble Puzzle, and Monkey Ball..

Some first impressions...

- The system itself it pretty thin. Its not as bulky as I had imagined it, and it fits rather snugly in my pocket.

- Changing the games is NOT THAT HARD. Seriously, you open the back, remove the battery, slide the card in, put battery back in, and put the case on. It took me less then 10 seconds to do it for the first time!

- The screen itself is very bright and rich with colors.

- Pandemonium looks VERY good on the N-Gage. It runs smoothly, and overall a top launch title.

- I do NOT know what EGM and everyone was smoking when they said the colors were hard to tell apart on Bubble Puzzle. I played a few rounds and has no problems at all telling the colors apart from one another. Did EGM get test builds? There is no way they have the final version as all the colors are very easy to recognize and I even have very bad eyesight.

More impressions later....

A handheld game system that's actually useful. Cool. If I could get work to pay for one, I'd go for it.

Few more impressions...

- Every game comes inside its own 'box' which is actually a little amray case. Nintendo and Sony should look at this and incorperate it into its next handheld

- Something I did not know was that every N-Gage games comes with three things inside the case. The game itself, the manaul, and a little plastic box that can hold 4 games. This is a very good idea considering I would NEVER want to carry thing little chips in my pocket for fear of damage or losing. I had already thought of putting them in an old GB Case, but no need for that

- The N-Gage comes with a 30 day free trial (upto $50) to T-Mobile, and free gaming access. The lady screwed up and gave me $100 instead, hehe.

- The gaming online is SO cool! The only game I have that allows this is Pandemonium. I raced someone elses ghost, and WON. After that, I was allowed to taunt them.

More impressions later...

... and people used to say that teenagers spent way too much time on the phone.

Besides the games, how is it as a phone?!

GizmoDVD have you called anyone yet?

Just for the record, I am in no way interested in ever purchasing something like this. It's way too much money for some novelty that is going to wear off rather quickly. If I was given one as a gift, I would either sell it or give it back. The though of alway carrying a video game/phone with me is kind of weird.

As far as the cases, I disagree. Nintendo and sony should concentrate on making the media itself durable enough to carry on it's own. I love being able to cram a few GBA games in my pocket and not have to worry about storing and keeping track of the case of the game I'm playing with.

Yeah, based on the look on that guy's face, this thing might have a very compelling feature that we haven't heard about yet.

I know its just me, but I wouldn't be caught dead talking on one of those.

Very ugly phone. Hopefully its a decent game system.

So you really do have to turn it sideways to use it as a phone...

Yes, ive used it as a phone. Its much better then my Erricson t68i. I also went and picked up Sonic N and Puyo Pop today. Only left now is Tomb Raider.

Outlaw, you do NOT have to have it like a Taco, you can hold it just like any other phone.

OK, what's the joke with the Penny Arcade? Am I just clueless; is there anything funny about that strip at all?

Penny Arcade = trash

Nokia was basically paying people to go around and hype the N-gage. This is what happens when Tycho meets one of them. As you can see, he is not to receptive to this form of advertising.

....

The fact that it takes less than 10 seconds doesn't matter. You have to do 6 different things every time you want to change games.

Plus if you do it on the subway you could get bumped and lose the cover and/or battery.

Hmm.. this thread is starting to make some sweet, sweet sense now.

LOL!

Penny Arcade rocks. The strip sometimes does call for some prior knowledge of the characters or a reading of Tycho's accompanying text though.

And on that note...