I like flashy cars and I take a great interest in them generally. I’m not looking to meet a handsome rich man who has a Vantage, rather I’m looking to be a rich woman who can buy one herself, so needless to say I was fairly interested in the new Nokia N-Gage title Glimmerati. The premise of BugBears new game simply oozes appeal. You play a wealthy playboy who is out to gain fame and respect in the high society racing world of Glimmerati. To do this you need to make friends and influence people, all with the help of your outstanding driving skills and this title makes it absolutely great fun trying. When you first start off Glimmerati, you’ll quickly realise that this game is going to impress on a lot of different levels. Yes, it’s a game on a mobile phone, but to be honest there seems to be enough depth in this title to hold its own on some of the actual handheld consoles.

Acquainting yourself with the president of club Glimmerati is one of the first tasks in story mode and you’ll no doubt chuckle at Maxwell Caine, the Sean Connery-esque rich guy who welcomes you to the fold, offering you opportunities galore. You’ll meet with him often in your rise to the top and he’ll introduce you to some funky characters along the way that can also either help or hinder your drive towards fame and fortune. The characters in this title are brilliant because they’re all so completely individual and have their own personalities. Bugbear has included a ton of speech also and I kept reminding myself that all this speech was on such a small little game card. Fantastic. One of the slight annoyances I had with the characters were that the women are ultimately all flirty, tarty types but this was at least slightly eliminated when I realised that some of these women could indeed kick your playboy ass, always nice to know.

As you actually begin racing, you’ll notice that the story mode of this title is a little different from many available on the N-Gage. It’s non linear and you can actually pick and choose which challenges you want to take, all of which are available from your office. Basically the challenges have different skill levels attached to them and various forms of gameplay also. Each character will offer a different challenge with a different prize, these can range from new cars to something simple like a cocktail being named after you or making front page headlines. The beauty of this style of play is that the story mode is actually intriguing and it keeps you interested in racing. You’ll go from avoiding paparazzi in car chases to filming stunt sequences for rap stars videos in a matter of minutes and this keeps the game moving along nicely. The actual characters are shown in cut scene fashion but it works well, especially with the speech and the racing in the game is very well done indeed.

As you play the driving challenges, you’re sure to be impressed with the in-game graphics. The variety of backgrounds (Monaco, The Alps, Paris and more), are well done and the top down 3D racing is great. Your little car zooms around at 60 frames per second, which although not sounding much is plenty for the N-gage. You can always clearly see what’s happening and I didn’t notice any serious problems with the presentation of the title. One thing I would perhaps have to mention is that it’s completely pointless relying on the guidance arrow, as at times it’ll throw you completely and you’ll end up crashing straight into walls or dead ends. Also the camera angle is top down (often reminding me of Micro Machines) and although this works most of the time, it does throw the occasional need for sharp breaking your way. All of this of course just adds to the longevity of the game as it’s not always completely straightforward and does become increasingly hard as you manoeuvre your way through the upper echelons of the Glimmerati club.

This of course ties in with the handling and controls of the game and without referring too much to the N-Gages obvious disadvantages as a control system, I have to say that I found the buttons easy to use and generally ‘in the right place’. There’s nothing worse when you’re playing a game and awkward buttons are used for moves, Glimmerati thankfully doesn’t have this problem and overall the controls are very tight. They feel responsive and actually do immerse you in the gameplay, never really detracting from it.

Another outstanding aspect of Glimmerati is the sound. Again, I refer to the fact I was reminding myself over and over that all this speech was contained on one small game card. It’s a great effort and the voice acting is superb. Even though the Sean Connery like president is amusing, it doesn’t detract from the fact that the actors here have done a good job and the developers have really gone all out to show that there’s no real need for tons and tons of subtitles with no actual voicing. Brilliant. Even the music on Glimmerati has the right ambiance about it, pounding out 70s and 80s inspired music just seems to fit in well with the idea of the upper class and their elite circles and the theme track known as ‘My Superstar’ couldn’t be more apt really. Getting it right, all the way down to the little details, even the cars sound good as they screech around corners and rev up their engines. It honestly is a sound piece of work (no pun intended) and even deaf gamers can enjoy this title although they will miss out on the joy from hearing so much speech on the N-Gage.

Now, a lot of female gamers are probably going to be a little shocked at what I have to say here, but I’ll do it anyway. Glimmerati is a sexist game…… but it’s bloody great. Yes, it has the typical irritating playboy references and of course it’s all about the male ego and hot women at the end of the day but it’s so good you can forgive it all of its pre-pubescent sexual references. The women do look slutty, but they can race and Penelope is one of those interesting Miss Moneypenny types who clearly have the skills and the smarts to outdo any male challenger who might come along. For once, I found myself forgiving the developers and feeling sorry for them that they had to make the women so clearly enticing and titillating because at the end of the day, this game is so good it really didn’t need to go down that route. Still, as a saving grace, as I mentioned, the women may be hot but they can at least some of them still leave you swallowing their dirt as they zoom off in front of you.

Overall, the combination of intriguing storylines and great racing gameplay in this title make Glimmerati a must have for anyone who owns a QD. The game has extra play options on it such as online features and arena play so you can hook up and play with other wannabe playboys. The great thing about Glimmerati is that it can be completely immersive where you’ll find yourself wondering where the hours have gone as you continually strive to make it to the next level of the fame ladder, or you can simply pick it up and play for five minutes, returning when you have more time. The lighting effects and the great GTA styled graphics make it brilliant to look at and the sound adds to the overall enjoyment of playing this game. Trust me on this, if you only own one game for your N-Gage, make it this one.