I will stand alone and actually defend the puny thing. It's got its ups and downs, the screen is definitely smaller than it should be, but the phone itself is quite powerful. One of the nicest features is that the OS can multi-task. There are a hefty amount of other features for it and equally as many possibilities as the GP32 for example. Of course the results will not be as good as GP32s in terms of homebrew, and the first N-gage has some obvious design flaws (which can be corrected through mods soon available on my site for those remotely interested), but those that badmouth it often haven't tried it for more than 5 minutes. From the games I've tried (THPS, red faction and tomb raider), they're not all that bad. THPS and TR remain extremely faithful to the console counterparts (THPS is actually packed with a lot more features than the 64 or even PS version initially had).
The control issue is still there, but i personally prefer more buttons over less, and it only takes a couple hours to get used to the pad to avoid slipping to a wrong button.
The system has some flaws for sure, but what I respect about it is that it's not "cheap". Maybe the design was a bit rushed, but the actual fire-power of the system itself is quite impressive. Too bad the fire's slowly being put out with little support and the DS and PSP coming out relatively soon.
