With the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War 
fast approaching, it probably won’t come as a surprise that PBS has plans to rerun Ken Burns’ acclaimed series on the War Between the States.
What might be a bit more unexpected, though, is that the network plans to offer a free stream of the series’ first episode to showcase its PBS App for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. The stream will become available March 24 for a 10-day window.
When Nintendo’s global president Satoru Iwata rocked this 
year’s Game Developers Conference with his controversial comments about developers of social and mobile games, there were a lot of questions. Was the company showing fear? Was it being too rigid in its thinking? Was Iwata actually right on the money?
A few people, though, were asking a more practical question: If the company felt this new breed of garage developers (like Rovio in its early days or Tiny Wings developer Andreas Illiger) were undervaluing their games, why not establish an opportunity for them to sell to the Nintendo audience at higher prices?
Nintendo’s latest handheld 
is a hit in its home country.
A big hit.
The Nintendo 3DS went on sale Saturday in Japan and has already virtually sold out throughout most the country, with more than 371,000 units reportedly purchased in the first two days. That puts the system on a faster sales track than the indomitable Nintendo DS, according to some calculations.
Not since Angry Birds first hit the App Store 
has a title so captivated the iAudience, and Tiny Wings deserves the praise. It’s a game whose success lies in its simplicity — the controls consist solely of touching the screen at the right time. That might sound a bit thin, but this is the type of game you’ll find yourself playing for long, long periods. It is, in many ways, Zen-like. Beyond the core gameplay, there’s an added bonus: the various islands you’ll explore change every day, giving the title an incredible amount of replayability, as you can’t simply learn a pattern and repeat it time and again. Tiny Wings is one of those rare games that makes you feel good as you play, letting you root for the chubbly little bird on screen and share his joy when he takes to the sky.
When the makers of Cartoon Wars set out to make a sequel, 
they decided not to simply copy the formula that was successful the first time around — and that bet has paid off with Cartoon Wars – Gunner. The game is feature-rich and blends action and adventure with role-playing elements, as you decide which weapons to upgrade and which to buy. The inclusion of magic items helps shake up the nonstop shooting, but only a little bit. Ultimately, the gameplay does tend to wear thin as you do the same thing again and again — only with different weapons. Also, while the controls are acceptable, they tend to get stuck occasionally, which is frustrating. The game is a fun diversion and good for short play periods, but not something you’ll want to play for hours at a time.
With Apple taking an increasingly large bite of the 
mobile gaming space, Sony has taken out the big guns in an effort to win back market share.
The company has unveiled the Xperia Play — better known as the PlayStation Phone — at the ongoing Mobile World Congress.
Due in March, the device will be available exclusively through Verizon in the U.S. market and will lead the charge of cell phones capable of playing PlayStation titles.
Traveler’s Quest is an oddity in the iOS world — a massively multiplayer 
single-player game. You compete mainly against yourself (although there is Game Center ranking) to find buried “treasure” (and bury it yourself) in your neighborhood and wherever you might roam. The game makes finding hidden items easy, but if you’re the one burying the treasure, you’ll get gold the longer it remains hidden. While the goods are virtual, the locations are real — and tie in with Google maps in a very innovative fashion. It’s a wonderfully addictive game, but suffers greatly if there aren’t many people in your area playing, since you rely on them to bury items in the first place. (Bots bury treasure occasionally, but it’s much more fun when real people do so.) If you’re fortunate enough to live somewhere that the playing population is thick, though, you can lose hours searching for the virtual goods.
DoodlePhrases, as a concept, seems like a lot of 
fun. Unfortunately, the game is tripped up by a couple of factors. First and foremost is the inconsistency with how precise you need to be with your answer. If you see a pony wearing sneakers and type “horseshoe,” you’re wrong — but type “horse shoe” and you get the points. It has subjective judging that penalizes you for being slightly imprecise. Also, if you’re a slow typer (or have big fingers and are prone to typos on the iPhone or iPod Touch, you’ll chew up a lot of time inputting your answers, which is never fun in a timed game. If you love thinking creatively with words, it might be worth the risk; otherwise DoodlePhrases is one you can pass.
That didn’t take long.
Verizon has halted pre-orders of the iPhone after less than a day, saying that they have sold out of their pre-sale units. Your only chance to get one now – short of waiting for the restocking, of course – is to wait until Feb. 9 at 3:01am and try to grab one online or show up at your local Verizon store at 7am on Feb. 10.
WordUs2 (which, as far as we can tell, has a 
superfluous number at the end) is a love it or hate it game. It’s full of puzzles that can confound, stump, and aggravate you one minute, and fill you with a sense of euphoria the next. With a spartan, efficient design, it’s an easy game to learn to play — and if you’re the type of person who lives for word puzzles, it will delight you. But be warned that if you’re just a casual fan of the word games genre, the in-game dictionary can be full of baffling omissions (despite its claim of containing thousands of words) that can turn fun into frustration. In either case, it’s a great time-killer, potential vocabulary builder, and certainly has the potential to chew up several hours.
Chris Morris: Journalist 