Jared Rea

The above is a screenshot taken directly from my first generation iPhone of myself playing Super Monkey Ball, which was then uploaded using the Mobile Flickr App. I need a 3G iPhone, why?

This is all quite fantastic as the last thing I wanted to do at the moment was camp out overnight in San Francisco for a $300 dollar phone that critics are already pooh-poohing. Do I want 3G? More than little Johnny Q wanted a new heart. But do I need it? Ai-Ai screaming off into a colorful abyss says no, not yet.

Whenever any product updates to the latest and greatest version, people love to talk about how it’s like getting a whole new whatever, but upgrading the iPhone to 2.0 is huge. I can finally chat on AIM without relying on some crappy website that may or may not actually work. I can upload my pictures to Flickr and not simply email them. I can blast catchy tunes at my girlfriend from across the apartment. It’s a whole new world, people.

But of course, what interests me most are the games.

Super Monkey Ball, as expected, is rad and hard and everything else that makes Monkey Ball great. The tilt functions take some getting used to (I believe it calibrates itself to the center each time you start it up) but after that it’s smooth sailing. It also doesn’t hurt that I’ve ignored the series since the original GameCube game. This is, of course, the must own of the lot.

The other game I picked up was Critter Crunch which, unbeknownst to me, was the mobile game of forever. It’s pretty good (not to mention adorable) on the iPhone, but the touch screen does hold it back just a bit. Swiping from side to side does take some getting used to and it has led to more than a few mistakes. Have you spotted the theme yet? Playing games on the iPhone takes some getting used to, but damn am I excited for what the future holds.

We’re all screwed when Peggle drops.