Wow! What the heck happened to Call of Duty for the N-Gage? What looked like a promising first person shooter turned out to be one of 2004's absolute WORST games; a shame considering that the console version isn't half bad. However, big brother isn't enough to save this miniature piece of tripe.

Call of Duty for the N-Gage is the type of game that looks great on paper. Here we have a WWII first person shooter that features 11 single-player levels, over 10 authentic weapons (including the M1 Garand, the Thompson, the BREN LMG, and the Luger), the ability to play as an American, British, and Russian soldier (so you can get different perspectives on the war and travel to places such as Berlin and Stalingrad), and wireless multiplayer via Bluetooth for up to four people (including N-Gage Arena support where you can unlock weapons). On top of that, the game has decent music and the voiceovers come through loud and clear, so I really had high hopes for this one...

And then I played it.

Oh man! Someone beat Call of Duty with the ugly stick, and I don't mean a few taps. I mean they swung that sucker behind their head and let loose for all they were worth again, and again, and again! This game is probably one of the ugliest portable games that I've ever seen. Everything is a pixilated mess so you can't tell what anything is, and the pop up is ridiculous. Things appear out of nowhere just a mere ten feet away. The character models are equally appalling, and when your squad mates pass by you can oftentimes see right through their bodies.

Call of Duty's graphics are atrocious, no question, but they're by no means the worst part of the game. That prize goes to the gameplay itself. Super choppy, the game is slower than a turtle. This means going forwards and backwards, strafing, reloading, and shooting takes forever. Aiming is also a chore, but of course, the AI doesn't have a problem getting a bead on you so dying and restarting becomes an important part of the overall experience. The game's so broken that any interest I had with experimenting with the weapons was immediately snapped in half and cast aside.

To its credit (and as I previously mentioned), the game sounds really good. The voices, gunfire, and music are great, but that stuff's not enough to hide Call of Duty's laughable gameplay. I'd say that the N-Gage can't do 3D, but having seen Ashen, that's simply not the case. It's obvious that the developers tried to do too much with the hardware, and the result winds up being one of the most pitiful games that I've ever seen.