Nokia N-Gage booth at CGA Asia 2007

Nokia's N-Gage game is being displayed on LCD screens hooked to several N-series handphones. Although the games rather simple in gameplay and are pixelated on the LCD screens, they do show promise for games available on handphones.

Some of the games on show are:-

Hooked on: Creatures of the Deep (fishing game)

Asphalt 3: Street Rules (racing game)

Mile High Pinball (pinball game)

Space Impact: Kappa Base (side-scrolling shooter)

EA's FIFA 08 (football game)

Nokia's online suite, OVI

Nokia OVI is a three in one internet services that will allow its members to access an online music store, the N-gage games as well as Nokia Maps. While N-gage games and Nokai Maps have been available from Nokia's website for sometime now, the Music Store is a wholly new product.

In a move that competes with Apple's ITunes Music Store directly, Nokia's very own Music Store is obviously targeted for high speed users. Owners of HSDPA handsets can purchase 192KBps DRM protected WMA tracks from Universal Music Group and several other unnamed labels. Buyers will be able to stream their purchase over the cellular networks and two-way sync with their PCs, which is not available from Apple's ITunes store, and this could be the edge Nokia OVI has over ITunes.

Other application within OVI includes the revamped and tuned N-Gage games, which is now dedicated to games on the N Series 60 handsets. PC users can head to http://www.ngage.com/ to download a free application that allows you to browse, try and buy the games for the said N Series handsets, which as of now are N73, N81, N81 8GB, N93, N93i, N95 and N95 8GB. Games currently listed as The Sims 2 Pets from Electronic Arts, Asphalt 3 from Gameloft and Crash Bandicoot from Vivendi Games Mobile as well as Nokia's own titles like Snakes Subsonic and System Rush: Evolution.

Prices are not made known, so we will have to wait till November when OVI is made available in selected markets.

Nokia introduces OVI, and unleashes new multimedia models

In Nokia's Go Play event in Singapore yesterday, Nokia have rolled out their own internet services brand, OVI. Meaning "the door" in Finnish, OVI will be the gateway to access Nokia's Music Store, N-Gage games and Nokia Maps.

At the same event, Nokia also introduced four multimedia phones, all to be available in the last quarter of 2007. These models are the N95 8GB, N81, 5610 and 5310 XpressMusic models.

Details of OVI and the new models will be up shortly.