Gaming on an iPod

When Steve Jobs first unveiled the iPod, it was a beauty. It was an mp3 player, oozing with style. Nobody expected the iPod to shrink with each generation, leaving us with a bright and flat mp3 player that not only played songs but also played videos.

Soon people were glued to their iPod screens. Even the Nano is now video-capable. In buses, trains, parks -- wherever -- the iPod is king. Now with these new video-capable iPods, it wasn't long before Apple had the great idea to make games available and "playable" on the iPod.

Today the iTunes store offers not only music and videos, but also games. Some popular games offered on the website include Sudoku, Mini-Golf, Yahtzee and Cubis. Old-school games like Pacman and Scrabble are also available.

The big question is this. How do you actually play on a tiny iPod? It's not like a PSP that has buttons for gaming. Playing on an iPod is reliant on the one solid feature in all iPods: the click wheel. A quick shift of the wheel is all you need while playing. It's that simple.

Realizing the vast market offered by Apple, a lot of gaming companies are now looking to provide the iPod crowd with their games. This means that 2008 is actually the year of the games for iPod.

Popcap Game's popular Peggle and Sega's crowd favorite Sonic the Hedgehog are two of the games recently announced for iPod. With the iPod gaining momentum in sales (as it has done so since it was first announced), it's possible that more games will be made iPod-ready to fill the demand.

And it's not just the trivia type games, too. Some free iPod games sites offer only trivia games, but the best new games for iPod are the action games that rival those playable on your PSP. Okay, maybe not that much, but it's at least better than those games available for cellphones.

It's going to be a long journey for these games, but it would certainly be a win-win situation for everyone, especially for Apple-heads who can't seem to let go of their iPods.

By: KD Choi
Published: 04/10/08