In 2004, Nokia announced the first 3D fighting title for their N-Gage platform, to be released towards the end of 2005. What was unusual about this press announcement was the massive hype surrounding the game, unlike nothing seen before for any N-Gage game. Nokia were pulling out all the stops, promising national and global tournaments, fantastic 3D graphics, motion-captured Jeet Kune Do (practiced by none other than Bruce Lee himself) martial arts from Scotsman Tommy Carruthers and a revolutionary online ranking system never seen before on a handheld - the ELO points system. The ELO system was originally used as a chess ranking system, invented by Árpád Élõ and holds up reasonably well on the N-Gage.

The game rotates mainly around gathering ELO points by beating opponents into mush. Create a fighter and enter the story mode, where you travel around the world finding opponents and learning new moves. Losing a battle has consequences though - lose against a low ranked fighter and your ELO points will drop right down. Beat a low ranked opponent and you receive very few ELO points. Beat a high ranked opponent and you will gain a lot more. Things start to slow down once you reach past 2000 ELO points, when gaining points becomes a chore. Other modes include training, survival and wireless multiplayer. Training mode is extremely advisable, considering the amount of moves you will need to learn to beat some of the tougher opponents. There isn't much depth to the storyline, the basic plot is you, flying around, bumping into fighters, offending them and then being challenged to a brawl! Not very exciting, but the game makes up for that in other areas, such as the visuals and bouts themselves.

Possibly the most impressive thing about ONE is how it looks. This is the best looking game on N-Gage and one of the best looking handheld titles available now. The level of detail is stunning - where do I even begin?! Most importantly, the fighters look amazing. You can see facial features, you can see muscle details and best of all, everything is in beautiful real-time shading. There is no set menu of characters to choose from in ONE, which may startle the Tekken fans among us. Instead, you must go down the Create a Character avenue. I actually preferred this in the end; I could have my character looking exactly how I wanted, even creating a digital representation of myself if need be. Everything about your character is customisable, from skin tone, to upper and lower body wear, boots, accessories and hair colour. If you want pink pants and green hair, you can have pink pants and green hair. All you have to do next is send your multi-coloured freak into the streets for some good old-fashioned brawling.

Be careful not to get distracted by the voluptuous backgrounds. The fights are fast paced and end quickly, quicker if you are not careful, so try to keep your eyes on your opponent! Battling for your attention in the blue corner are 14 real world locations, rendered in full 3D. I have to admit I found a little pleasure in sidestepping around the arenas just to see the backgrounds move around and around, quite fluidly too. You begin in the dark streets, complete with neon lighting and dotted with litter. Soon enough you find yourself grappling on beaches, at airports, on oilrigs and even on a ship in the sunset! It really is a dream to watch; I doubt any future N-Gage titles will even come close to looking as good as this.

As I noted earlier, there are no set characters to choose from, but you won't take long getting used to your own character, as everyone has the same moves list. Doesn't that get repetitive, you might be asking yourself. Well, no, as the moves list is quite generous and expansive. Learning them all takes time and of course, patience. Considering the N-Gage keypad isn't exactly a simple 4-button job. Most of the keys are used; keys 3,6 and 9 change between different fighting stances, offensive, neutral and defensive respectively. Keys 5 and 7 execute striking attacks such as punches, elbows kicks and sweeps, depending on what combination of buttons you press. If you're good, you can pull off some sick combos, consisting of devastating flying kicks and crippling punches. In neutral and defensive stances, the game seems very slow-paced. But tap key 3 and the speed kicks up a whole lot of notches.

Offensive mode is the fastest and quickest way to take down an opponent, but it is not possible to block in this mode, so you must be on your feet and know when to utilise each of the three stances during a fight. Defensive mode is useless for speedy attacks, but works exceptionally well for grapples, while neutral is a nice balance between both offensive and defensive. Enemy AI varies from stage to stage, sometimes proving a little too easy or insanely difficult. But it makes for a challenge and a good reason to learn all of the moves contained in the game. Bouts last on average one minute, but lack any kind of action replay. Fighters strike a number of winning or losing poses, which is a nice addition and stunning to look at.

Let's talk online then; what has ONE got to offer? I feel somewhat let down by the arena functions in ONE, as very early on there was some talk of the possibility of downloading ghost versions of your opponents on the rankings to face off against. This sadly wasn't included in the final version and instead we are left with score uploading - upload your ELO points accumulated in the offline mode and the highest score on the ranks determines the player to be crowned The One. ONE offers a wireless battle option where you can face off against a friend or foe in real life, provided you are within 10 metres of each other. You decide the number of matches, round time and location, then fight! Very little lag and a short loading time frame make battles a breeze, and an interesting feature about ONE is that it takes full advantage of the system's wireless hardware, where it will search for other opponents within your wireless area and alert you if someone else with an N-Gage and a copy of ONE is in the vicinity.

There is a sinister vibe to this game, which is only emphasised by the soundtrack that accompanies it. Dark and echoing with a techno flavour is the only way I can describe it, but it works very well. During battles, the only sounds you hear are those of punches, kicks and the announcer. Some may find this a little too quiet, but to achieve such high quality graphics it is obvious that some sacrifices had to be made. One could also debate that this makes things a lot more realistic, due to the fact that martial artists don't usually fight to the tune of a techno soundtrack in real life anyway.

ONE isn't quite the perfect beat 'em up, but being the only 3D fighter on the platform right now, there isn't much choice available! However, ONE is a triumph for N-Gage in playability and visuals, pushing the system to extreme limits and delivering some amazing 3D beat 'em up action on the go. While the lifespan of the story mode is quite short lived, it is accessible enough for a quick bout any time, anywhere, which is something Nokia have perfected with their fledging mobile gaming platform. So, here's to the sequel… ONE: 2, anybody?

Reviewed by Dan Whelan for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).