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Don’t get me wrong, here. There are plenty of great games on the iPhone. I’ve reviewed many of them and played even more. Some have been fun for a few minutes at a time, some were fun for a few weeks, and a couple have been on my phone since the launch of the App Store. Without intending disrespect to app developers, what the iPhone doesn’t have is the type of game I can’t wait to get home to play. I have yet to download an app and suddenly want to take the afternoon off because I need to play it now. There are no Fire Emblems, no Legends of Zeldas, and no Resident Evils.

Now, the reasons for this are many (and kind of obvious) at the moment, and I may address those down the road. I’m also happy to try out and write about any games you feel could generate this type of excitement amongst gamers. For now, though, in this series of articles, I just want to take a look at some games and developers who would help push the iPhone in the right direction if they were to pick up their iPhone 3.0 SDK. And I’m going to start out in the least likely of places: pinball. Specifically, LittleWing.

I hear what you’re saying. You’re saying, “Kirk, I was totally with you there for a moment. But dude…pinball? What kind of gamer are you?” Well, I’m a gamer who enjoys pinball. I’ve got pinball on my Nintendo Wii, I’ve got a solid state Flash Gordon machine in my office, and I’ve got LittleWing games on my Mac. The beautiful thing about pinball machines (and pinball sims) is that they’re exactly what you want them to be; you can play for five minutes to kill some time, or you can play for two hours to kill an evening if you get into it. What’s more, pinball done right is perfectly suited for the iPhone. You can have a static board or a board that pans up and down with the ball(s), and neither will too heavily tax the graphics capabilities. The plunger and flippers could all be handled with touch screen controls. The screen can flip over to interactive scoreboard arcade/action sequences. Perfect. (In fact, now that I think about it, Gameloft came pretty close with Mystery Mansion Pinball. Right game, wrong device.)

There are already quite a few pinball games available for the iPhone. Some look pretty good, but some look…well…99 cents, and this is why I want LittleWing developing iPhone Apps. They not only understand how to make decent Mac games, but they understand pinball, too. They get it. I always felt like their first interest was in designing a great table…one that would be loaded with quarters if sitting in a truck stop off I-80 or in the back room of a mom-and-pop pizza shop. As the their tables took on the look of modern graphics, they never loss site of the core experience that makes pinball so much fun. I’ll admit they have yet to create a table I like as much as Crystal Caliburn and Loony Labyrinth (their second and third games), but I can also state that I’ve never been disappointed by any of their titles.

In fact, if I were LittleWing, that’s the direction I’d take. Rather than create a new table for the iPhone, I’d just port Crystal Caliburn, Loony Labyrinth or Angel Egg. Stick with 2D…nice and rectangular and flat. Easier to port, easier to play. Charge a few bucks, make some money, then look into porting over the 3D games or developing a new one specifically for the iPhone and iPod touch. Suddenly, I’m not playing games on my iPhone just to kill some time, I’m making time to play games on my iPhone. It’s not Grand Theft Auto, okay, but I’ve got to start my wish list somewhere, and I think LittleWing headquarters in Toyoma, Japan is as good a place as any.

Products [LittleWing]