If you’ve ever tried Line Rider you will appreciate how amazing this video is. The simulator starts with a blank white screen that users can draw lines on using the mouse. Once you have your lines drawn, a little sledder will start going downhill at your upmost left line. There is no eraser tool and the physics dictating how your sledder will react are very sensitive. If the lines are too steep, he will wipe out. If they are not steep enough, he won’t have the necessary momentum and will get stuck. That’s to say nothing of the wild jumps, loops and scenery that this user has created. Bravo!

Here’s some other great creations:
Underwater Theme
Spelunking

This guy won $1,000 from a bar in Akron, Ohio last night for his Halo-themed halloween costume. Bonus points: the needles on that needler glow in the dark.

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!

Oh man. 1up.com has an updated song list for the forthcoming Guitar Hero 2. If you thought the original release was diverse, check out this list!

• Nirvana; “Heart-Shaped Box”
• Primus (original recording); “John the Fisherman”
• Stone Temple Pilots; “Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart
• Anthrax; “Madhouse
• Motley Crue; “Shout at the Devil”
• The Police; “Message in a Bottle”
• The Pretenders; Tattooed Love Boys
• Spinal Tap; “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight
• Heart; “Crazy on You”
• Allman Brothers Band; “Jessica”
• Lynyrd Skynrd; “Freebird”
• Avenged Sevenfold; “Beast and the Harlot”
• Dick Dale; “Misirlou”
• Lamb of God; “Laid to Rest”
• Alice in Chains; “Them Bones”
• Reverend Horton Heat; “Psychobilly Freakout”
• Black Sabbath; “War Pigs”
• KISS; “Strutter”
• Butthole Surfers; “Who Was in My Room Last Night?”
• Van Halen; “You Really Got Me”
• Guns N’ Roses; “Sweet Child O’Mine
• The Rolling Stones; “Can You Hear Me Knocking?”
• Rush; “YYZ”

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