I had my eye on Skee-Ball in the iTunes App Store for nearly a week before I decided to fork over my 99 cents to buy it. I thought the idea of a skee-ball game for the iPod Touch or iPhone seemed way too simple. What intrigued me was that this game is one of the most popular games on all of iTunes, and it's unusually high ratings made me think there must be some fun to be had from playing it.

The last time I played a real game of skee-ball was probably before I had my first girlfriend. It's like a miniaturized version of bowling, only with holes instead of pins. You use small baseball-sized balls to throw down a track where they hit a ramp at the end and launch upward. On the back of the ramp are several holes with point values associated and the higher ones are the hardest to reach. You have nine tries per game, and the object is simply to get as many points as possible.

You play this game by flicking your finger across the screen in a motion that corresponds with how you wish to toss the balls up the ramp. How quickly you move your finger will determine the amount of power, but it keeps things within reason. In the real game, you can go major league on the thing and smash the balls into the backstop, but this game keeps things in check. It's much easier to undershoot than overshoot. I also found that if you approach from the left or right it is easier than trying to shoot straight up the middle.

Once your ball gets in the air, you can actually tilt the iPhone or iPod Touch in order to help steer the ball, but doing it too much will almost guarantee a miss. Additionally, some of the holes will light up as targets and you will get a bunch of bonus points for hitting them. At the end of the game, you will earn tickets just like you do in the real thing. These tickets can be used to ‘buy' silly little items that change frequently, and sometimes you can get ball upgrades, too.

The graphics in this game are really good and it was designed using a physics engine to accurately represent the motion of a real game of skee-ball. I have to admit that the balls do move very much like the real thing, although the timing is slowed down once the ball is in the air so you can move, if needed. From the scraped wooden track to the soft round target areas and lighted scoreboard, this game looks exactly like an old school skee-ball game you might find in the arcade room of a bowling alley. The animation, like the controls, is incredibly smooth.

Sound effects are pretty minimal in this game and there's no music. You will hear the sound of the ball rolling on the board, plus a little jolt when it jumps the ramp and another sound when you score. I usually play the game with the sound turned off since it doesn't really add anything to the game.

There's a very good reason why Skee-Ball is one of the most popular games for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It's incredibly easy to play, very addictive, and genuinely fun. You can play an entire game in about ten seconds or spent countless minutes playing over and over again. For only 99 cents, that's too much fun to miss.

Recommended: Yes