Galcon

Developer: Phil Hassey
Publisher: Imitation Pickles
Release Date: 2007
Systems: PC (reviewed), Mac, iPhone
ESRB Rating: N/A
Official Web site

In a nutshell: Real-time Space Risk

0:00 A glowing write-up on Boing Boing Gadgets combined with a "free to play in your browser" price point made this one a no-brainer for me.

0:04 Four minutes spent registering for the site and installing a bloated Firefox plug-in... Still better than the average PS3 game...

0:05 On to Practice mode first to figure out what the heck is going on. A simple, one-page instruction screen pops up. Click a planet, use the scroll wheel to choose a percentage, then right-click another planet to send that many ships in real time. Seems relatively simple.

0:07 The tutorial level is already done ... exceedingly simple, of course. Really liking the interface ... makes it easy to keep track of the situation without having to scroll around the map or overly interpret what you're looking at. I like the little "pshew!" sound the ships make when they attack a planet, too.

0:09 Tutorial 2 is a little tougher, but not substantially. The game recommends taking the big planets with a few ships, then using their production powers to gain a tactical advantage. I'm a bit shocked by how fast this strategy works.

Read the full review at Crispy Gamer