Galcon Fusion is the essential real-time strategy game--the genre boiled down to it's essence. It's a simple game that remains addicting and fun despite being able to count the rules on one hand.

The game screen is set up as a randomly generated bunch of planets. Each planet is randomly sized, and the size determines how fast it can produce ships. You start with one planet and 100 ships and move about the game board conquering neutral planets, which produce more ships, which can conquer more planets. Simple, huh? But there's another player (or 2 or 3) which has the exact same setup and is trying to conquer planets on that other side of the screen. It's a race for the planets.

Galcon Fusion exposes the fundamental dynamic of RTS games: Expand, get resources, repeat. To beat an opponent, get more resources faster than your opponant does. It's a beautiful simplicity and is a primer for the mechanics of any RTS game out there: No matter how complicated the game, they all boil down to these basic mechanics. These core mechanics also obsessively fun. For a game that can be completed in less than a minute, I can't count how many hours I've spent at my computer and iPhone sending little ships to their doom.

Such a simple game allows for many variations. There's a mode called “Assassin,” where you're given a target player and the first player to wipe out their target wins. Another called “Stealth,” where you can't see enemy ships moving in space. There are tons of gameplay modes available and they all work in multiplayer.

Multiplayer is really lots of fun and it opens up a world of strategy and tactics unavailable in the single player game. It works great and it's a blast to play. It doesn't support using your Steam account--you need to create an account specifically for the game--but it's still a ton of fun, and I'd recommend it if you buy the game (it's not available in the demo).

There's also an iPhone version that is probably one of the best iPhone games out there.

Why You Should Check This Out: Galcon Fusion is the distilled essence of real-time strategy games. The latest update has way more multiplayer options than before; new, higher resolution graphics; several interface improvements from the iPhone version; and Steam support with achievements. A game of Galcon can take less than a minute, yet it's addictive, simple and loads of fun.