Cricket is ok, I had it for awhile long ago. Just make sure you pay the bill, or you get a $35 reconnect fee. My roommate had it recently and apparently the service has gotten much better of late. It is a good deal compared to others, not quite as great service, but much cheaper.
The iphone is cool, but the google phone is probably cooler, and more unique. If you consider that you are going to pay about $65/mo ($780/yr) for service for a decent plan, dropping the extra a $200 for a really cool phone is not much. I just wish you could break up the cost of it over a year. Maybe you could ask for one from you parents for christmas or birthday or something?
Text is the most important for game, get a plan with at least 500 texts a month (this includes incoming). Of course you need voicemail. Having the ability to send/receive pics is really nice, too. On that subject, get a camera phone - even the free ones have a camera these days. That way you can always have a camera in-field. Cell phone service is definitely too expensive, but totally necessary these days. One way to save money is to cancel your land line (if anyone still has one of those these days). There's no reason to have both.
