Now you can play games on your iPod

Your iPod blasts music, shows vacation photos and plays movies. It now does something else that seems an entertainment no-brainer: It runs video games.

It was only a matter of time before Apple's ubiquitous digital media player would have the ability to keep us just as occupied with simple games like "Tetris" as it does pumping out the Killers. And with the latest generation of iPods' ability to run video comes the option to download games off iTunes and play away.



Video-game giant Electronic Arts is on the cutting edge of creating games for the iPod, and, after checking out its offerings, we are impressed with its initial batch of titles that can be played on fifth-generation machines (don't bother if you have an older version).

The classic puzzle game "Tetris" looks much better than the monochrome original did for the Game Boy all those years ago, thanks to bright colors and decent sound effects. And like the other iPod games, you control those tiny blocks the same way you search for songs: with the circular scroll pad and middle button.
"Mini Golf" is a fun little romp in a colorful miniature golf course that features obstacles including creatures that have an appetite for golf balls. The exotic music on this one is a particularly nice surprise.

And "EA Mahjong" brings the classic tiles to life on the iPod's screen without being too hard to see.

EA also just released Sudoku and Solitaire titles to keep you equally occupied. The games cost $4.99 each and can be downloaded at the iTunes store (go to www.apple.com/itunes/store/ and look for "iPod Games" in the upper left-hand corner).

These don't have the depth of play that you'd find in titles for dedicated game systems such as a PlayStation Portable or Nintendo DS, but that's not the goal here. These titles, rather, are for the person who wants to squeeze in a little play time here and there, and to that extent, they — and the medium they're played on — are a great fit.

"Star Trek: Legacy" boldly goes ... eh, whatever

Proof positive that Nintendo has a lock on heavy-duty whimsy, "WarioWare: Smooth Moves" for Wii pretty much exemplifies what Wii is all about. Like "WarioWare" titles before it, "Smooth Moves" is a collection of "microgames," some 200 of them, actually, each using the system's crafty Wii-mote in totally exclusive ways: tilting, swinging, stabbing, swatting, balancing, mashing and manhandling the thing like no other controller ought to be handled. With it, you invoke in-game activities like sawing logs, thumb wrestling, picking noses (seriously), pumping iron, shaving and cranking.



It's a testament to the Wii-mote's wide-ranging motion-sensitive sensibilities, if nothing else -- also a fine example of its minute-motion precision, with most activities easily actuated within a forearm's radius of your starting position. If you ever snap your wriststrap and send the Wii-mote flying off to shatter the chandelier, that pretty much makes you a clumsy oaf and has nothing to do with the hardware. You probably shouldn't be handling power tools or small children, either.

In spite of the game's obvious content abundance, on the whole, it's too short because each game, delivered in thematic clusters, lasts but a couple of seconds. That doesn't exactly add up to hours of fresh gameplay.

Similarly, "Smooth Moves" sports only a token two-player mode (played from a single Wii-mote plus the nunchuk attachment for the second player, or by passing the Wii-mote around like a hot potato), which is short-lived, anticlimactic, offline only and feels completely like an ad hoc afterthought, though the game clearly begs for more "Wii Sports" -- or "Mario Party"-like interactivity with at least two players, ideally more, right out of the box.

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