A new game from the developers of Puzzle Forge 2 (Free) hit the App Store this morning, and it has so thoroughly knocked my socks off I had to peel myself away from playing to write something about it. Ever since I got totally sucked into Civilization VI on my PC, I’ve been looking for something similar to play on my iPhone. There’s games like Civilization Revolution 2 ($4.99) and other similar titles, but they never really clicked with me for one reason another. A Planet of Mine (Free) is pushing all of my buttons.

First off, the game is totally free to try. You can play through both a super basic tutorial as well as a shockingly in-depth but eventually limited game mode that serves as the perfect teaser to pay $4.99 to unlock the rest of the game. (You can also buy individual $1.99 packs to unlock things piecemeal.) This is my favorite way to buy games these days, but it does seem a bit like the developers are giving a bit too much away for free, which I suppose is a good thing for us.

Anyway, the best way to describe A Planet of Mine is imagine GodFinger 2 (Free), but replace all the freemium shenanigans with shockingly complex 4X gameplay that still retains all the ease of playing that comes from a well designed mobile game that’s made to play on a small touchscreen. For instance, instead of manipulating a complicated 3D map, the game is spread across easy to manipulate 2D planets. Buildings and resource collection take place on individual slices of these 2D planets. The whole UI works incredibly well.

Around the time you run out of slots to build on on your home planet, you’ll likely also have advanced enough to head to the stars to find neighboring civilizations which you can either decide to become friends or foes with. There’s a ton of different races, each with their own slightly different play style through various unique perks and starting bonuses, and the sky seriously seems to be the limit with how much you can expand if you pay the five bucks to unlock the infinite gameplay mode.

I’m not much more than a few hours into the game so far, but I absolutely love everything I’ve seen. Folks on our forums seem to dig it, and all signs are pointing to A Planet of Mine being the ultimate sleeper hit of the week. If the idea of a pocket-sized 4X game that totally works and costs you nothing to try out is at all appealing to you, download this game immediately.