wienerdog

A spy could slealthily put it in an iPhone case, run into someone who works for Apple and is testing an iPhone prototype, and swap it with the prototype, then sell it to the highest bidder.

I think it clearly depends on the intent of the creators and audience.

it's possible the semantics of "video GAME" is Ebert's true hang up. Some of these interactive experiences are used purely for sport and competition (game), like Modern Warfare or sports games. However, an interactive experience that has no specific goal other than an emotional response from the experience could be deemed art.

If you play something, it's a game. Role play is a game, sports are a game, but what is a virtual reality experience that doesn't keep score? What is an interactive experience that simply exists to stimulate an emotional response or tell a story? Do I need to lose my sense of self for something to be art? Certainly not, because my response to a painting or film could very well define the painting as art.

Yeah, I'm kind of tired of people slamming the App Store model or saying the iPhone or iPod touch isn't for games. It's not perfect, but it does allow indie developers to be creative and publish quickly to a wide audience. It's incredibly convenient to have on hand for short gaming sessions. And just because a game's short, doesn't make it bad.

Levi, is a PC a game platform by your definition? Especially ones bought from bigbox retailers, loaded with junkware and an antivirus program draining resources away from gaming?

What about a Mac? It doesn't have a large library, but you can play many games on one.

I'd say the iPhone/iPad Touch is a great game system for casual games and has a growing library of more advanced games built for it. It is a gaming system.

This is great! I grew up on Alpha-Beam with Ernie and Big Bird's Egg Catch on Atari 2600.

Man, I hear that! The benefit of NES was that controllers were built more solid and were cheaper to replace. I can't play games that are so hard, I get really angry with the repetition. As an adult, my time is much shorter, so easy or normal is about as challenging as I want to play. Gaming needs to remain fun and not become a frustrating chore. I have plenty of those already.

The Apple iPhone Texas Hold'em game is pretty good. I'd be happy to see what else they come up with, even if it's a "casual" game.

What a lot of haters don't understand is that a broadening of the handheld gaming industry doesn't hurt "gaming". Lazy developers that don't design software to take advantage of each platform's strengths hurt gaming.

I initially thought that too, but then remembered the frequent glitches while playing online, friends would suddenly disappear from on side of the screen, or lag, only to appear elsewhere or die as a result.

It wasn't our Internet connection, either, because other online games ran fine. LBP was ambitious, but felt like it didn't have the gameplay polish I would expect from a $60 game.

I don't have any concern that jumping will feel responsive and that the game performance won't hurt the experience with a Mario game. That justified the $50 to me.

You can turn that off in the system settings, you know.

Just ordered this from Amazon for $36. Didn't think it was worth it for $50, but Amazon had it for $46 and Nintendo sent a $10 coupon code to me in the mail.