Apple's newest iPod is anything but a simple music player. Instead, the new iPod touch has cemented its place as a mobile application powerhouse. While the device fits many different niches and could be used as a replacement for traditional Palm OS style PDA with its calendar and contact list management, Apple instead has focused marketing efforts on the "funnest" part of the device: Mobile gaming. But can the iPod touch and iPhone be serious contenders in the mobile gaming arena? Probably, but only if they don't repeat the mistakes of the past.

While many have tried to unseat gaming powerhouses Nintendo and Sony, most have come up short. Recently Nokia made a gaming push with its N-Gage phone, which took a literal approach to converging the traditional mobile game console with a phone. The resulting original two N-Gage phones had cartridges that could be installed in the phone, but bad usability design and poor game selection left the platform rather weak. Unsurprisingly, Nokia's direct assult on the gaming establishment ended with Nokia abandoning N-Gage specific devices, and instead opting for an N-Gage platform which actually runs on multiple phones.

Rather than taking Nokia's direct assault approach and sizing up the market as Apple vs Nintendo vs Sony, Apple needs to instead present iPhone and iPod touch gaming as a different and unique experience from traditional mobile gaming platforms. That's not to say that it needs to feel simple, it just needs to feel different and special. Cell phone games, for instance, have traditionally been extremely casual experiences, offering simple games like Bejeweled or Tetris with little depth. The iPhone / iPod touch has plenty of casual game experiences, but the platform also has much more robust gaming experiences that offer more depth than simple puzzle games. Titles like Super Monkey Ball and Cro-Mag Rally offer multiple characters, multiple levels, and Cro-Mag Rally even offers multiple players using the device's built-in WiFi.

While some iPod touch and iPhone games offer similar experiences to traditional games in terms of depth, game developers would be wise to innovate with new gaming experiences rather than simply porting previous games to the platform. Without a traditional hardware control scheme, mobile gaming experiences like the ones found on the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP don't work as well on touchscreen only devices like the iPhone and iPod touch. The iPod touch and iPhone screen might be large, but adding a cumbersome control scheme that offers no haptic feedback makes playing games with traditional controls rather cumbersome.

Instead, games for the iPhone and iPod touch should be unique, and developers shouldn't shoehorn old concepts into a new package, but rather create new experiences from scratch. Take, for example, Electronic Arts' approach to Spore Origins. On desktop computers, Spore's first stage of the game requires pointing and clicking. Rather than implement a similar and obvious point and touch interface for the iPhone / iPod touch version, EA opted to use the accelerometer, allowing players to simply tilt the device in their direction of choice, creating an interesting and intuitive gameplay mechanic. iPod touch and iPhone games require innovative thinking, but if done correctly the experiences can be extremely fun and interesting. Developers can't expect to create the same style of games they've been creating for the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP and expect them to sell on the iPhone / iPod touch.

Before game developers and publishers can sell games to consumers, Apple first has to sell the device to gamers. At $229 for the baseline iPod touch, and $200 plus contract for the iPhone, the devices are much more expensive than the $130 Nintendo DS and the $170 PSP. Eager parents will likely think twice before spending over two hundred big ones on a simple gaming device for their little ones, and without a guarantee that the device will survive the drops and scratches of their children, $229 is a big investment for parents.

However, just because the devices aren't kid tested, mother approved doesn't mean they won't sell to more careful adults. The iPhone is already seen by many as an excellent multimedia playback device disguised as a phone, and interesting games have started to give the iPhone a positive reputation for gaming. Ask any iPhone owner what his/her favorite game is, and each iPhone owner will likely be able to name at least one. Since iPhone-toting adults aren't exactly the same market as DS buyers who play Pokemon, the iPhone and iPod touch gaming will likely expand the gaming audience outside of the typical Nintendo DS and Sony PSP gamers, encouraging developers to take chances and make fun games for all gamers.

If you're an iPod touch or iPhone gamer, we've compiled a list of some of our team's favorite games. Got some we missed? Be sure to leave them in the comments.

Obsessable's favorite iPhone / iPod touch games

Find any of these games by heading to the app store on your device, and searching for the name. Most of them are cheap, if not free, so give 'em a try.

• Labyrinth
• Tap Tap Revenge
• BubbleWrap
• Knots
• iBowl
• FS5 Hockey
• Monkey Ball
• Aurora Feint
• le Blob
• Wurdle
• Bomberman
• Spore Origins
• Scrabble
• Lux Touch