iPhone Game of the Day: Rogue Planet

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Mass Effect meets grid-based strategy and all we want is more

Game: Rogue Planet
Price: £2.99/$4.99
Size: 82.3MB
Buy it now from the iTunes StoreUS/UK

Let's face facts: iPhone gaming is at its best when you're not depending upon imaginary control sticks and buttons being drawn onto the screen. And if Rogue Planet is any indication, iPhone is at its very, very best when it's being used to play a gridded, turn-based strategy game in the vein of Advance Wars, but with a sci-fi art style cribbed from Mass Effect and a plot that borrows a bitfrom Battlestar Galactica and Terminator. That enough hardcore gamer references for ya?

Rogue Planet begins with your ship more or less crash-landing on a desolate planet where civilization has been overrun byevil machines intent upon wiping out carbon-based life. Being human, this doesn't fit with your plans to keep breathing so your rag-tag group of space soldiers sucks it up and sets about reclaiming the world using your own soldiers, tanks, and other assorted vehicles with guns strapped to them.

Gameplay itself is tight and strategic, thanks to commander-specific special moves and a few clever map designs - one mission with multiple choke points and enough resources for both sides to keep cranking out units took us forever to beat. Our only real complaint is that it's sometimes tough to tap the exact square you want thanks to the complexity of the onscreen details. Small price to pay for the liberation of humanity, we say.

Jul 29, 2010

Eric Bratcher
Eric Bratcher
I was the founding Executive Editor/Editor in Chief here at GR, charged with making sure we published great stories every day without burning down the building or getting sued. Which isn't nearly as easy as you might imagine. I don't work for GR any longer, but I still come here - why wouldn't I? It's awesome. I'm a fairly average person who has nursed an above average love of video games since I first played Pong just over 30 years ago. I entered the games journalism world as a freelancer and have since been on staff at the magazines Next Generation and PSM before coming over to GamesRadar. Outside of gaming, I also love music (especially classic metal and hard rock), my lovely wife, my pet pig Bacon, Japanese monster movies, and my dented, now dearly departed '89 Ranger pickup truck. I pray sincerely. I cheer for the Bears, Bulls, and White Sox. And behind Tyler Nagata, I am probably the GR staffer least likely to get arrested... again.