Apple introduced iPod games about a year ago, and fortunately, the collection wasn’t left to flounder. Apple has added a few new titles, which is proof of Apple’s commitment to iPod games - a big deal to longtime Mac folks who are familiar with Apple’s less-than-stellar gaming history. All of these games are $4.99 (except the 99-cent iQuiz) through the iTunes Store, and you need a fifth-gen video iPod or a new iPod classic to play them. (Sudoku also works with the new third-gen iPod nano.)

 

iQUIZ

This is a slick game show with several trivia modes with stock movie, music, and TV questions, but the Music Quiz 2 component is the easy favorite. Players identify songs based on audio clips, name an artist based on album art, pick the year a track was released, and more. Difficulty varies randomly with each question - the game doesn’t know if it’s playing a title lyric or an obscure instrumental lull, but it generally hits the sweet spot between too easy and too hard. If your tracks are fairly well tagged, this game is all hook.

 

 

 

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LOST

In an angled, top-down adventure game, you lead Jack through several short events based on the TV show. The interface works surprisingly well. Players lightly press on the scrollwheel to move, and tap the center button to get special abilities. However, the game is rarely interesting, even with show staples like the smoke monster and the mysterious hatch making appearances. Most of the action feels like you’re running errands, many of which are unrelated to the show. At least they nailed one aspect of the series - the game ends with an abrupt “To be continued….”

 

 

 

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MUSIKA

Musika artistically pushes colors and patterns across the screen, slowly presenting a letter. If the letter is in the title of the song playing, hit the center button to score. If not, pass with the forward or back button. Several consecutive answers catapult your points higher. This simple concept suits the iPod and almost works for a game but ultimately grows stale without more rules. Smooth, bold graphics are the biggest draw. You might have the most fun just watching animated leaves blow into letters with the Visualizer mode.

 

 

 

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ROYAL SOLITAIRE

Sharp design and great art make this solitaire bundle excel. Even the menu screens show an animated character pointing at options instead of plain-text highlights. Once you deal the deck, 10 games (including Klondike, Free Cell, and Yukon) hold any solitaire fan’s interest. The scrollwheel moves between cards, while the center button makes selections. This interface is sufficient, but it’s sometimes hard to move through long stacks and quickly make a selection. Bonus: You can listen to your iPod music as you play.

 

 

 

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SUDOKU

The sudoku craze has subsided, but this iPod game nails almost everything we could want in sudoku. Crisp menus and graphics elegantly present thousands of these number-placement time-killers. Beyond the traditional game, which is available in several difficulty modes, you can manually enter puzzles from a newspaper, book, or magazine. Using the wheel to scroll across the 81 squares can annoy, but this complete puzzler even lets you place possible solutions in a square’s corners. The game can also solve puzzles for you when you’re totally stumped.

 

 

 

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THE SIMS BOWLING

The Sims tie-in adds little depth to this simple but fun bowling game. Players earn money to buy a few small prizes a Sim might enjoy, but the focus is on bowling. At the lanes, time the center button with a few consecutive swinging meters to take a shot. The right touch sets power, angle, and spin. After a few warm-up rounds, we were hitting strikes fairly often, but not easily enough to bore us. As a quick diversion, the bowling is fun even if you don’t care about The Sims.

 

 

 

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THE SIMS POOL

Loosely tied to The Sims, the game has you create a basic character to play pool. Set up shots in 8-Ball and 9-Ball games by using the scrollwheel to move your cue to different angles. A separate aim gauge adds spin, and you time the power with an onscreen meter. The controls work, except we wanted to stroke the cue stick with a back-and-forth wheel gesture. There are a few upgrades to earn and buy for your Sims characters, but the engaging gameplay will satisfy pool fans.