I reviewed the best game on the iPod a few months ago on Macapper. Here’s the review:

iPod games up to this point have been lackluster and unoriginal. The card and board games I have seen before don’t seem to be worth the $5 asking price. Harmonix, the creators of Guitar Hero and upcoming Rock Band, are out to change that with their new iPod game, Phase.

Phase is the first music based game on the iPod (unless you consider iQuiz music based) and takes advantage of your existing iTunes library. No paying for overpriced downloadable content like on the consoles. With Phase, a playlist in iTunes is created to upload the songs you want to play during the game. Uploading takes a little bit longer because more song information is needed, presumably to align the game play with the music. Phase does come with music (including a song by Freezepop for the GHII fans), but picking your own music makes it so much more fun.

Game play is simple. The left, center, and right buttons are for matching the green circles and the scroll wheel is used to follow dotted blue trails. The mixture of the two controls make this game challenging, but enjoyable. There are the usual difficulty levels and the harder the difficulty the better the game plays with the music you’ve uploaded. There are two game types, “Quick Spin” and “Marathon.” Quick Spin is for playing quick games and the Marathon game type is for playing songs that increase in difficulty. I tend to play Quick Spin the most, Marathon takes much longer to finish.

Phase plays beautifully on my 5.5 generation iPod and will also play on the new iPod Classic and Nano. Apple has still left out games on the iPhone and iPod Touch, but I don’t think this game would be the same on a touch screen. Phase’s ability to play any song proves that custom songs can be done on the iPods, so it’s just a matter of time.

Harmonix’s Phase is in the iTunes Store now and well worth $5. This music game is perfect for Guitar Hero fans or someone who wants more out of their music library.

Phase was and is still is a great, cheap, time-waster for the iPod.