Galcon answers a question I’m sure we ALL were asking: “What if we could play RISK with planets instead of countries?”

Ok maybe only I was asking that, but this is still one of the best strategy games I’ve ever played, mobile or otherwise.

The concept is simple. You start out with a green planet that has a certain number of spaceships on it. You tap on that planet to select it, then tap on an enemy planet to send a percentage of those ships to attack (25%, 50%, or 75%). If the planet you are attacking has fewer spaceships than the number you sent to attack, then you capture it (it turns green). Every planet you own will make more spaceships for you to attack with, and the larger the planet, the faster they make ships.

The game’s greatest victories are it’s simplicity and brevity. I used to have Age of Empires on my WinMo phone, and a full real time strategy game really suffers when you don’t have a full mouse and keyboard, and it would take FOREVER to load, so I would never play it on the go (and why play it from my phone, when I can play a REAL RTS when I’m at home).

Galcon controls succeed at keeping the game easy to play without sacrificing complexity and strategy. Plus a typical round of Galcon is usually only a minute or so long, which is perfect for a casual distraction. In line at the supermarket? Play a round of Galcon. In line at CostCo? Play three rounds of Galcon. At the DMV? Well… Maybe bring a movie too…

I really wish the game had a campaign mode as there’s no story behind Galcon, you just get right into blowing things up. However the sheer number of game options and skill levels is impressive (try “Beast” mode on a moderate difficulty… yikes…). Add to that the ability to play in local and online multi-player matches, and you have $3 WELL spent!

Now if only I could get Mitchell on this game so I could CRUSH him…