Today (March 30, 2011) I received what may be the final N-Gage-related email ever sent by Nokia.

In the email, Nokia reminds us that its N-Gage Store has been shut down since January 1, 2011, and that March 31, 2011, will be the last day you can activate your games through the store.

It seems like Nokia has finally gotten around to admitting announcing that its mobile phone-handheld gaming platform and service, N-Gage, is dead. Nokia is consolidating all future mobile apps into the Ovi store.

Nokia is essentially forgetting about the N-Gage name, allowing the site, games and N-Gage application to operate on the hardware that will currently run it but not supporting it on any new devices or developing any more games for it. Instead, the company is putting its focus into the Ovi Store and trying to compete with Apple’s App Store. Along those lines, Nokia announced that 200,000 people are signing up for Ovi each day (for 140 million worldwide users) and 2.3 million Ovi apps are being downloaded each day.

Title: Mile High PinballPrice: $9.49 ($2.99 for 1 day, $6.99 for 7 days)System(s): N-GageRelease Date: May 5, 2008Publisher (Developer): Nokia (Ideaworks3D)ESRB Rating: “Everyone”Pros: Nearly endless pinball action. Great sound effects and pretty decent bumper action. Good pinball-on-the-go game.Cons: Some boards feel too congested while others have too few but annoying features. Ranked game only as good as your wireless connection.Overall Score: One thumb up, one thumb sideways; 84/100; B; * * * out of five.

Developed by Ideaworks3D, Mile High Pinball takes that idea to a new extreme offering a tall stack of boards for wannabe wizards to conquer with their thumbs and often, but not always, overcoming the obstacles of a cell phone screen.

Click through for the full review…

While the ill-fated N-Gage phone/handheld gaming device quietly disappeared into the night, Nokia has brought back the name as a mobile gaming service. While gamers have every right to be skeptical, it looks as though the service will have at least one big name title behind it.

N-Gage will be home to Japanese publisher Konami’s mobile titles including the upcoming Metal Gear Solid Mobile. The game takes place between the first two Metal Gear Solid titles, and features some surprisingly good 3D visuals and what look like classic…

If you weren’t already confused by Nokia’s repruposing of the N-Gage name, get this. Nokia has also announced that it is launching a new web service, Ovi, that combines both the N-Gage service and the Nokia Music Store.

For now the home page has one of those long Flash videos that tries to make the site look cool in lieu of anything useful. Once through the annoy-imation, the links are active, though most of the pages are barebones PR info that makes it sound like Nokia wants in on the social networking game as well.

To go along with newly reimagined Nokia N-gage platform/service, Vivendi Games Mobile is releasing another game in the Crash Bandicoot franchise.

VU previously released a port of Crash Nitro Kart as an N-Gage cart in 2003. The details for the new Bandicoot game were pretty sparse, only indicating that it will follow “the original storyline where the crazy marsupial must save the world” and be filled with the usual antics and humor found in earlier games. No word on release date, exact game title or pricing.

Nokia has announced that I-Play will develop casual games for the upcoming N-Gage platform coming Fall 2007, proving once again that the N-Gage name will live on.

If you thought the N-Gage was extinct you are partially correct. The N-Gage gaming phones have almost gone the way of the Dodo bird but the name will survive in the form a mobile game service with content compatible on Nokia Nseries and other S60 3rd edition devices.

The first two games by I-play will be World Rally Championship and Super Mah Jong (from the makers of Jewel Quest), and will be available in 2008. I-play specializes in what it calls “one-thumb” mobile games.

Recent rumors regarding a possible redesigned PSP has been making the web rounds this past week.

Dubbed the “PSP Slim” by Kotaku, at least a couple sites agree with some of the changes that could occur:

• A slimmer case design with the same hardware.

• A UMD slot instead of flip open tray.
• Some flipping element for the screen, though it will likely remain the same size and LCD (though some suggest LED).
• Improved battery life.
• Built-in Bluetooth…