Review : Pac-man for iPod

Last night I upgraded to iTunes 7. I actually had to go to the local library and use their Wifi since the new versions of Quicktime, iTunes and the iPod Updater would have taken too damn long over my weak ass dial-up access. The reason why I really wanted to do this as soon as possible is to tryout the iPod games now available from the iTunes Store. I purchased Pac-man and Tetris for five bucks a piece and was a little taken back to see how big the actual files are. Pac-man is around five megs and Tetris was over five megs. It is clear that they are going after the casual gamer market that is currently be served by Xbox Live, web games and cell phones. This are some nice games that you can play while listening to music and I could really see me entertaining myself with a nice game of Pac-Man or Tetris the next time I am stuck on the ferry going across the Puget Sound with only an iPod in my pocket.

It is pretty spiffy that Apple is now selling small games for the iPod and they are rather inexpensive. The game section in iTunes was pretty clear that these games can't be played on a Mac, PC or any other iPods than the generation five iPods. Those are the ones with video playback. I am slightly shocked to see that Apple is not supporting the iPod Nano with additional games since they just unveiled a new iPod Nano at the same event that they unveiled the games.

Pac-man loads quick and looked great on the iPod. The menu are full of all the options that you would need like the ability to turn off the game sound effects, pick a level or adjust the screen brightness.

I was surprised to see how well the iPod touch-sensitive click-wheel can be used as a game controller. You can control Pac-man by pressing the wheel down or moving your finger of the wheel in the direction you want to go. Namco has put an on screen diagram of the joystick to show you what direction you are going at any given time.

There was a clock display in one corner and the battery display in the other. That is nice that you don't have to quit the game to check the time.

It would be really awesome if Apple would open up their iPod game developer SDK and allow indy game companies to make their own games for the iPod and sell and distribute them via iTunes.

Overall it was pretty slick. I can't wait to see what other old games are ported or new games designed for the iPod. I can't imagine people getting an iPod just for games but if you already have one it might be worth a fiver to be able to play Pac-man when you are bored some place.

Thanks to dan benjamin for the picture