Hands On With Nokia's new N-Gage titles

Nokia is showing off a huge range of games for its next generation N-Gage platform at E3. (In case you've not been paying attention, next year you'll be able to download and play N-Gage-branded games on a high-end Nokia smartphone, rather than having to buy a separate N-Gage gaming handset).

What struck me most when I visited Nokia's stand at E3 was the breadth on offer. It's not just hardcore console type games – there's a real spread, which will be important if Nokia is going to appeal to a wide range of players with its new platform.

First up was Pro Series Golf, a very slick-looking drive-'em-up that's taking on Tiger Woods at his own game. Pro Series Golf feels very smooth, with all manner of whizzy fly-throughs making it clear that this is not just a regular mobile game.

It did take me a few minutes to get comfortable with the controls, however; swinging and hitting is simple, but lining up putts is a bit tricky at first. (This is obviously my excuse for seven-putting on every hole until Nokia's producer helped me out.)

Pro Series Golf will have five licensed courses and some real golfers, including Sergio Garcia and Annika Sorenstam, but it will be more interesting to see what Nokia does with connected features to set it apart from the likes of Tiger Woods PGA Tour Mobile.

System Rush Evolution is a futuristic racer, the follow up to System Rush on the original N-Gage. You zoom through tunnels collecting power-ups and trying to destroy the other vehicles along the way.

What strikes you first is that it's absolutely zippy – I mean really, really fast. The backgrounds feel more solid than System Rush's often wireframed look too, and it's bolder and more colourful. I struggled for a while with the 'trace' feature, where you have to line up behind someone and a red electric thing links the two of you until they explode. Which is fine, but then it kept happening to me. That aside, for a one-thumb racer with blistering speed, this is looking truly dribbleworthy.

Space Impact is a 2D vertically scrolling shoot'em'up. How 1980s, you might think, but it does look great fun. Stupid numbers of bullets on-screen, lush parallax-scrolling backgrounds, and power-ups galore. What's not to like?

But arguably the most enchanting title in Nokia's next gen armoury is Creatures Of The Deep, a fishing sim (wait! come back!) with a touch of fantasy thrown in.

You pilot your boat around, choose where to cast, and then wait for something to bite – which thankfully seems to happen quite quickly, so you're spared the hours of waiting about. There's plenty of fish to catch, along with treasure chests, mini submarines, or old boots, and the producer hinted at some big monsters and even a Loch Ness level, which would be fun. Catching the fish is just a case of holding down '5' until the line gets tight, then letting go for a bit, and so on.

Without wanting to label the game as a technical demo, perhaps the most impressive thing was the scenery. I spent a good five minutes just rotating my boat cooing at the clouds and the rippling water – Creatures Of The Deep really does show off the capabilities of cutting-edge handsets.

And there'll be all manner of connected malarkey when it eventually comes out. Global fishing tournament, anyone? Anyone?!