Insect Warrior Tactics

Remember a few years ago when there was a spate of animated movies featuring bugs? There's a reason for that, actually; it's fairly easy to animate chitonous creatures in 3D, since the body sections are rigid. And it's also fairly easy even for an indie developer to use 3D, if what they're animating are bugs. Which no doubt was one of the reasons Wahoo/NinjaBee chose insects for the heroes of this title. The choice is a fortuitous one, though, since it lends itself to the developers' light humorous touch -- which was very evident in their earlier (and excellent) tycoon game, Outpost Kaloki.

Band of Bugs is a "tactics" game -- like Final Fantasy Tactics. Played in isometric 3D over a square grid with elevation differences, each turn you select one of your characters, move it, deliver an attack (or use a skill), and optionally change facing. Elevation and attacking from the rear or flank provide bonuses. Different bugs have different capabilities, and effective use of combined arms (that is, combining different capabilities for maximal impact on the enemy) is very important.

The game contains a 20-level campaign game, a configurable skirmish mode with several different maps, and three stand-alone levels; it also allows multiplayer online play, either over a LAN or the public Internet. And there's a level editor so you can build and share your own levels (a handful available at present on the developer's forums).

On the whole, it's a charming, quick playing, occasionally humorous and entertaining little title in a genre that's no longer widely supported.

Not infrequently, you run into somebody posting about whether or not open-source development can possibly work for games, and usually concluding that it can't. Very likely the poster has played NetHack, but I guess Rogue-likes don't count. But. What about Battle for Wesnoth?

Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based fantasy game in which you control a set of heroes and armies, building up over time to defeat AI-controlled opponents. A slew of campaign and scenarios in the game itself provide probably hundreds of hours of gameplay, but an active community provides innumerable new mods and campaigns you can download. It's been localized for something like 20 languages, and ported to just about every viable OS still in active use. And it is, of course, utterly free, both in the "free like beer" and "free like freedom" senses; the source code is open and available.

Big, Compelling Fantasy Battle Game with Virtually Infinite Replay

At its base, Battles of Norghan is a miniatures-like fantasy battle game, in which you command armies of diverse fantasy races and unit types in "i go/you go" turn-based combat. But unlike other games that do something similar, Battles of Norghan overlays a sport league metaphor; initially, you are competing for the trophy of a minor league, and ultimately strive to build up both the power of your units and the reputation of your team until you can strive for and win the ultimate "Cup of Glory."

Consequently, rather than playing through a series of set-piece, custom designed battles, you have an enormous amount of control over what sorts of units you deploy--and you never know quite what you'll go up against in the next battle, because your opponents' forces are governed by AI choices and a degree of randomness.

Engaging TCG-Like Computer Game

Bellatorus is obviously inspired by trading card games (TCGs) like Magic: The Gathering, but it isn't a -trading- card game exactly; you get all the cards with the game (and can download more from the developer's site) and edit decks with the provided editing utility--then play out games, either against remote opponents or an AI.

In other words, all the cards are available to you at all times, and you don't have to pay for more.

Unlike Magic, Bellatorus doesn't have land cards. Instead, the three resources in the game (crosses, skulls, and lumber) are produced by three different kinds of workers (priests, liches, and workers). You can hire more workers on any turn (up to 3 of a single type), but of course lose your opportunity to play a card on that turn if you do. In addition, each type of worker requires a building for support (churches, graveyard, or lumber mills)--each supports 5 workers of the same type--and building a new building takes a turn. And you can spend a turn "working" to produce resources. One nice fillip; you can discard a card for a replacement on a turn you spending hiring, building, or working, so if you have no useful card to play right now, you can do something else helpful.

Cosmic Encounter!

Cosmic Encounter! For those of us who encountered the game in our youth, the words have something of the ring of "Oklahoma!" The ebullient American spirit! The vast vistas of, um, outer space. The late nights in dorm rooms or at science fiction conventions studying cards and back-stabbing allies... A brilliant game then, and in its Internet version, a brilliant game still.

Return of the Beloved Amiga Classic

Largely a remake of the much-loved Amiga game Defender of the Crown (later released for just about every platform available in the late 80s, including the NES), Heroes Live Forever updates the game with better graphics, fully digitized music, and a new gameplay element ("tactics" cards that give you special benefits during battles).

In Defender of the Crown, you play one of several great lords in England, attempting to unify the realm under your own rule. Conquering provinces produces tax revenues that you can use to increase the size of your army (but you have only one "army" which follows you, milord, about, and can purchase new units only at your castle, meaning you become vulnerable over time unless you return home frequently).

Turn-Based Fantasy Goodness

Once upon a time, and not that long ago, games like Disciples II or Heroes of Might and Magic were mainstays of the industry, being featured and lauded by game magazines and loved by huge numbers of gamers. Termed "turn-based fantasy" games, they featured a tasty combination of exploration, construction, and combat, with a bit of story thrown in.

The Best Puzzle Game of All Time

Or so says the Mathematics Association of America, and who are we to disagree?

To call it a puzzle game is inadequate, however; the DROD (Deadly Rooms of Death) games are sui generis, and about the only quick way to describe them is as "Gauntlet meets Sokoban."

Caravel Games describes the DROD (Deadly Rooms of Death) series as "dungeon crawls for thinkers," and that's what they are--an oddly compelling combination of puzzle solving and the dungeon experience.

Empires & Dungeons is a simple turn-based fantasy game in which you build armies and conquer the territories of AI-controlled opponents. Unlike most turn-based fantasy games, it includes a Rogue-like "dungeon-crawling" aspect (but with graphics), and exploring the dungeons is important for levelling up your hero and gaining honor points, which are necessary to construct some buildings and build some units. Graphics are somewhat retro 2D tiles, but there's a lot of gameplay here for the price.