For years scholars and geiuses have debated the most important topics of our time: Does god exist? What's the meaning of life? Can a digital version of Jenga possibly be better than regular Jenga? Well we can now finally move past the hypothetical phase and into cold hard reality (at least on that last question).

During last week's E3 I had the chance to try out an alpha (read: very early) build of Jenga for the Wii, and I'm both happy and sad to report that it has a lot of potential, but it's got A LONG way to go. Playing the game is simple, you put the pointer on the block you want to move, squeeze the buttons and use the Wii-mote to move the piece around. Some pieces move easier than others naturally and when you get a piece out you simply place it on top.

Since it was such an early build the one thing that glaringly needs help is the physics. It may seem like a simple Jenga game but anyone who's played it in real life knows the game all comes down to physics and gravity. Pieces lean on each other and are inter-dependent of one another. Without a very solid physics engine in the background there's no way the game is going to know what pieces are set tight and loose, and how those relationships change with each piece removed.

Also a problem is the inability to test out moving pieces before grabbing one. Jenga players know you usually do a fair amount of tapping, poking, prodding and cajoling the pieces before selecting which one to try and remove. Without the touch of the actual piece it's pretty hard to simulate the same feeling digitally.

I suggested they take a look at Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis. It may seem like a weird choice but hear me out. In Table Tennis, you used the analog stick to place your shots, holding the stick left to aim towards the left of the table. The controller would begin to vibrate more and more as your aim got to the edge of the table (there was no representation on screen of the shot location) so you had to so it be feel. I think adding in this vibration system would give you some tactile feedback when you were trying to move various pieces around. But that's just my 2 cents.

Interestingly enough, I ended up playing analog Jenga (read: Real) at a bar with some new friends that night. In the couse of many games it became pretty obvious that there's something about the social atmosphere, watching the tower wobble and watching your friends attempt to channel their inner surgeon to steady the hands. I'm just not sure a video game version can be a good substitute for that. Of course, I never would've guess that a digital UNO would work either and that game is awesome on XBLA.

We'll be watching this one, it's goofy and fun enough to stay on our radars. With some work (and a low price tag) it could be worth it. Hey if nothing else it makes the clean-up easier.

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