Jim Lynch: Off the Top of My Head…

Well you don’t generally expect to read something like this about Apple.

I didn’t expect much from games on the iPhone. I had visions of casual games, perhaps a fancy take on solitaire or a version of poker that takes advantage of the handset’s touchscreen. Surely not a true mobile gaming experience.

Boy, was I wrong. For the last few days I’ve been sampling some of the games available from the iTunes Store on the iPod Touch, and I’ve been stunned at how elaborate and involved they are. On the iPod Touch I’ve played a version of Gameloft’s Real Soccer 2009 that rivals the version of the game on the Nintendo DS, and I didn’t even miss the buttons. I’ve seen demonstrations of Sim City, forthcoming for the iPhone and the Touch from Electronic Arts (ERTS), that look more elaborate and sophisticated than any versions I’ve played before on a desktop PC or console.

They’re immersive, addictive fun. And it’s now readily apparent to me that the iPhone and iPod Touch are well on their way to becoming an important force in handheld gaming. When you consider the ease and reach of Apple’s (AAPL) online method for distributing games, Apple could do in this category what it did in online music, causing big headaches for the genre’s established players, Sony (SNE) and Nintendo.

Apple’s come a long way in short order. In the three months and change since the iTunes App Store opened for business, it’s already home to some 1,500 games, compared with fewer than 300 titles for Sony’s PlayStation Portable and about 600 for Nintendo’s handheld console, the DS.

They have made a lot of progress with the iPhone and iPod Touch though in terms of gaming. I’ve found numerous games that have played really, really well on a device that wasn’t necessarily thought of as a gaming system.

And the good thing about the games in the app store is that a lot of the initial releases have come down in price significantly. So you can get a whole lot of gaming goodness on your iPhone 3G or iPod Touch for very little money. I’d like to see more free games (ad supported if necessary) available though as I like reviewing them on my iphone software review blog.

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