Nokia's N-Gage mobile gaming service goes live

The re-vamped gaming platform fired its first shots this week, but you'll need one of Nokia's high-end N-series phones to join the action, and—for now, at least—the selection of games is pretty slim.

The Finnish phone giant quietly launched the revived N-Gage, which we first caught wind about back in August, on Thursday; the official announcement is slated for Monday.

Ready to get to gaming? You'll need one of these five phones: The N81, N81 8GB, N82, N95 (check out my review), or the N95 8GB; support for the N73, N93i, and N93 is coming "soon," according to Nokia. You can download the N-Gage app from Nokia's N-Gage Web site, or directly over your phone from http://n-gage.mobi/d.

As for the games...looks like we have 19 on tap, although only five ("System Rush: Evolution," "Asphalt 3: Street Rules," "Brain Challenge," "World Series of Poker Pro Challenge" and "Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep") are available for download.

Among the "coming soon" titles: "EA Sports FIFA '08," "Tetris," "Brothers in Arms," "Mile High Pinball," "The Sims 2 Pets," and "Pro Series Golf."

About 25-30 games should be live by mid-year, according to Reuters, with another 30 or so ready by year's end.

I tried some of the N-Gage titles back during CES and came away impressed—no, we're not talking PSP-quality graphics here, but the 3D shooter I played was head-and-shoulders above the typical mobile fare.

Any N-Series owners out there want to chime in?

Related:
N-Gage site
Nokia opens mobile gaming service N-Gage [Reuters, via Yahoo! News]