Space Guerillas

In the Valley of Origin there are legends recounting a bitter struggle between Yorgor's villainous robot army and a band of brave guerrillas. Now, after four generations of peace, the legend is coming alive. Having obliterated the population of the planet Dolorres, Yorgor has assembled his troops for the return trip to the Valley of Origin, and he has furnished them with one instruction: leave no survivors.

Meanwhile Princess Daria, the only surviving member of the Dolorrean royal family, is out for revenge. Taking command of the loyal guerrillas whose home planet is now in jeopardy, the feisty princess leads a paramilitary campaign that takes place in barren desert, icy tundra, and the yawning expanse of outer space.

Why so much space devoted to plot rather than the turn-based, strategy-loving gameplay? Because it's our job to let you know what the game is like and while most games are predominantly for playing, Space Guerillas is just as much about the drama.

Each level opens with a talking head conversation between Daria and the guerrillas, enlivening the tactical scenario by embedding it in a broader narrative sequence. During the action the heads will frequently appear in response to some scripted change in circumstances, and after you've beaten Yorgor's robots they return to celebrate.

The game's help pages are filled with cartoonish images and lavish, if awkwardly translated, descriptions of the gameplay, cast, and the various weapons and unit types. Although these pages do give some space to the more mechanical aspects of Space Guerrillas, describing unit types and the uses they can be put to, the play mechanic remains ultimately simplistic.

For instance, there are no weapon selections to make, very few unit types, plenty of linear missions that often involve working your way up a narrow corridor of available battlefield, a scarce number of useable landscape features, and an inflexible points system (that is, you can't trade off moves for attack points or vice versa). You either move, or you shoot – that's it.

Yet, despite Space Guerilla's minimal approach, completing a mission isn't simply a matter of throwing units at units until the opposition is vanquished. There is actually a game in there. You must judge your approach, choosing whether to allow long-ranging but insipid craft to venture too far from the protection of your sluggish destroyers or to restrain your faster vessels and arrive for battle as a single mob.

Make the wrong choice and the result is generally failure, which makes for an experience that is both demanding and straightforward. You need to employ a token amount of tactical awareness, but success tends to revolve around ensuring you have sufficient manpower to absorb the enemy's retaliatory strikes when it's your turn to play sitting duck.

Ultimately, the graphics are detailed, the music is fair, the story solid, and the action is pleasingly accessible, if a little basic. Those in search of a complex and interesting strategy game, then, will have to keep looking, but for most there's more than enough in Space Guerillas to earn it a place on your phone.