Solid Ngage — Metal Gear

Is it a lost classic? A cynical cash grab? Or simply a technical marvel that no one asked for? I recently dug my old N-Gage out of storage (side-talking stance and all) to find out. Let’s rewind. The early 2000s were a wild west for mobile gaming. Nokia believed gamers would buy a hybrid phone/ handheld to compete with the Game Boy Advance. They were wrong, but the attempt was noble. After the success of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty , Konami wanted a piece of the portable pie. They handed the reins to a team tasked with squeezing the essence of tactical espionage into a device with a 2.1-inch, 4096-color screen.

Score: 5/10 (8/10 for ambition, 2/10 for wrist cramps) metal gear solid ngage

When you hear the words “Metal Gear Solid,” your mind probably jumps straight to Shadow Moses Island, the psycho mantis fight, or Snake hiding in a cardboard box on the PS1. You probably don’t think of a taco-shaped mobile phone from 2003. Yet, tucked away in the dusty graveyard of gaming history lies a bizarre artifact: Metal Gear Solid (Mobile) for the Nokia N-Gage. Is it a lost classic