Imagine being present at the pitch for Tetris – poor old Alexey Pajitnov must have had his work cut out there: "You’ll love this concept! There are these coloured shapes that come down the screen, and you’ve got to fit them together to form solid lines." "Then what happens?" "Well, erm, more coloured shapes appear... and you make more lines." "Uhh-huh..."

Sometimes the simplest games can be incredibly compelling, and Steam Brigade adopts this design philosophy. Inspired by the ancient Apple computer classic Rescue Raiders, it’s a side-scrolling strategy game that involves pressing a few keys to create units at a factory. These then chug automatically across the 2D landscape towards the enemy’s factory, and vice versa for his troops, with the first army to get an engineer unit into the opposition’s factory being declared the winner.

There are some twists to this barebones formula, the main one being the single unit you’ve actually got control over – an airship. This moves wherever the mouse is clicked, and dangling down from the ship is a large magnet that can pick up units (yours or the enemy’s). Some highly amusing tactics stem from this – there’s nothing like grabbing an advancing enemy tank and dropping it to squash several infantrymen and an engineer just as they’re about to reach your base.
 

The other twist comes in the form of bunkers and heavy guns. These can be manned by certain troops to act as blockades and support artillery respectively. Control of them is vital, and the nitty-gritty of Steam Brigade is working out combinations of units and tactics to conquer important choke points. Wresting a triplet of anti-air batteries from a skilled opponent’s grasp isn’t easy.

Also worthy of praise are the stylised steampunk visuals, and the sheer addictiveness of the missions. And perhaps most importantly, Steam Brigade is priced at a mere fiver, and you really can’t argue with that sort of value.