Sony game phone strikes odd balance

By ROBERT EVATT World Staff Writer 

Anyone remember the N-Gage? In 2003, Nokia tried to marry a cellphone with a full-fledged video game system. The resulting taco-shaped, button-infested mass was, in a word, horrible, and nobody has tried since. 


At least until now, with Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play. This new device, which goes for $199 on Verizon Wireless' network, blends an Android smartphone with the controls of a portable gaming system. Unfortunately, this stone only kills one bird and slightly wounds the other. 


Let's start with the exterior. When closed it looks like your standard Android smartphone, with a dominant touchscreen and the four small Android navigation buttons. It's thicker than just about anything on the market, but it's nothing that will destroy your pants pocket. 


But rotate the Xperia Play to the side and slide the bottom out, and you've instantly got an array of PlayStation-like game controls. There's the directional pad, four buttons and even the shoulder buttons in the back. 


To save space, the PlayStation's two analog sticks have been replaced by two circular touchpads, which I'll talk more about later. 


Everything you'd expect from a phone running Android 2.3 is here. You can download hundreds of thousands of Android apps, take pictures and video, customize your home screens and even place phone calls if you're feeling crazy. It all runs fine. 


But the selling point is the games, and for the most part, the phone's controls work well. The d-pad and buttons do their job admirably, and anyone who has used a game controller will be set without a second thought. 


Unfortunately, the circular touchpads are a different story. When I played Gameloft's first-person shooter "Modern Warfare" knockoff "Modern Combat 2," the touchpads had me stumbling around like a drunken and easily killed lemur. I got a little better with practice, but I still found myself wishing for the tactile feedback you get with thumbsticks. 


The games looked great - then again, they look great on other Android phones. Nearly all of the three dozen games available that use the Xperia Play's controls are regular Android games that use the buttons rather than the touchscreen. Some play better than the vanilla versions and some don't, but regardless, you've seen them all before. 


The lone unique offering for the Xperia Play is "Crash Bandicoot," the 3D platformer that first came out for the original PlayStation. The game plays well, but it's an odd showcase for the phone, since the 15-year-old game really shows its age alongside the more advanced Android offerings. 


Sure, the phone just came out, and Sony briefly mentioned a handful of exclusive games at last month's Electronic Entertainment Expo. But there's no indication of when they'll arrive, and Sony seemed a lot more interested in plugging the upcoming PlayStation Vita, the successor to the PlayStation Portable, than upcoming smartphone games. Not an encouraging sign. 


At this point it's hard to recommend the Xperia Play. If you're a gamer, both Nintendo and Sony's portable game systems offer much more robust and unique gaming experiences on the go. If you're not a gamer, there's better and cheaper Android phones out there. Maybe things will improve with time, and at least it's better than the N-Gage.