Given the amount of downtime I sometimes have at work, and riding the train around Tokyo, I recently finished two more iphone games. Both games, while not perfect, were well worth what I paid. One was a puzzle game and the other a Real-Time Strategy, or RTS.

Get the gears and get out!

The puzzle game was one that has made its round on the AppStore; Boxed In. You are a Robot and you have to push boxes around the stage to clear a path or on to spots that will unlock gates (In the picture you can see the spots outlined by a color, that will make the corresponding colored block disappear). The game is very simple and has an easy learning curve. It starts off simple and increases in difficulty. Towards the ends boxes that look like they are the obvious choice to use to unlock a space will turn out to only get in the way later. A bit of planning is required in the later stages.

Before you can leave a stage you must collect all the gear pieces (Hey, you’re a robot. I guess that’s what robots eat when they are drinking oil). This is what makes the stages more challenging, because sometimes you have to clear a path one way, and then go back and make one to the exit. I didn’t find any level overly difficult where I wanted to throw my iPhone across the train, but they were stimulating enough that I didn’t feel like an invalid.

There is a “lite” or free trial version on the AppStore you can try, but for 99 cents you can’t really go wrong. If you want something you can play while waiting in line somewhere or even even for longer play sessions, then check out Boxed In. My Score 8/10 for your money.

This is Joe killing a naughty robot.

Next up, I played Robocalypse. A fun little RTS that has a humerous plot revolving around some robots that have gone rogue and your army that goes after them to foil their global domination. The story is pretty straight forward and often pokes fun at itself. The characters often point of flaws in game design, like why would a villain leaves keys to a gate on our side of it. By not taking itself seriously you can laugh along and focus on the gameplay. The gameplay itself is rather straight forward.

Like most RTS, you click on buildings and then the type of units you want to build or upgrade. Moving around your units is done through actions flags. This is different from a lot of RTS like StarCraft or Command & Conquer where you click on a unit or group of units and tell them where to go or what to attack. Action flags signal a task that you would like done. You can lay out several action flags and your forces will split up to accomplish different tasks. Hero units are different and you can give direct commands to them, similar to traditional RTS games.

The action flag system works well, but I have some complaints with it. At times I want all of my forces to go attack an area. To accomplish this I usually need to lay down several flags around an area. If I lay down one flag only a portion of my troops would move to the location. By laying down several flags at a location I guess my forces are divided up and each goes to a different flag. The end result is what I want, but it would be nice if there were a way for me to designate the number of troops I wanted at a location. Overall though I found the game to be enjoyable and worth the download.

I have not played the DS version, but I believe this is a port. Since the price difference between the two is great (29.99 for DS and 4.99 on the AppStore) I would recommend the iPhone version. My final score would be 7.5/10. If I had greater control over my troops I’d probably bump the score up a point. Downloadable additional missions would be nice as well.