iPod Games - First Impressions

I have a weakness for Mahjong. I’ll admit it. You can have Sudoku, I’ll take the tiles. Considering this, I decided to download the new Mahjong game from the iTunes Store for my 5G iPod. Games on the iPod? Can this really work? Well, at least in the case of Mahjong, yes, yes it can.

The games download quickly (much quicker than films) and get their own spot in the source list on the left side of the iTunes application. Games aren’t listed the same way as music and videos. They get their own backdrop and include a summary of instructions and tips. It’s a nice way to organize and looks really good.

Mahjong plays well and makes good use of the scroll wheel. The graphics look good and the play styles are interesting, there is even a “pass n’ play” mode for 2-player action. The best part of all is that you can actually listen to your own music as you play the game. The music that comes with Mahjong is good, but giving the player the ability to customize the soundtrack was a great move. I just played a round while listening to the Easy Star All Stars’ Radiodread and it worked great. No slowdown or problems with the audio that I could detect.

Because of the iPod’s design, I imagine that there will be a limit to the iTunes games catalog. There just aren’t that many titles that I can see making the conversion to a scroll wheel and one button. That said, some of the games that are already on offer including Tetris and Bejeweled should be quite popular!