Here’s a whopper of a freebie: ZeMind Games’ Starborn Anarkist (Free) is currently free for the next two days. Originally launched this past December, Starborn Anarkist sunk its hooks into me thanks to a very engrossing ship-building system. There are more than a dozen different ship shapes to build by dragging and dropping a variety of weapons, plating and other equipment onto a grid. The game does a remarkable job of making each ship feel wildly different from the next, and there’s a crazy amount of strategy tied to how you build out your ships.
The majority of parts and ship blueprints are locked in the beginning, and are unlocked by completing various in-game achievements. This is where Starborn Anarkist becomes an addiction. “Just one more game" I’ll tell myself, “I’m just about to hit a point threshold and unlock a new part!" Of course, it’s never just “one more game" because once that new part unlocks it’s time to try it out in some different ship builds and see what it can do. And hey, maybe that new part will give me a ship that will let me get just that much further than I’ve gotten before. And on it goes like that, until you realize the last two hours disappeared in a flash. Oh Starborn Anarkist, you cruel mistress.
Ahem. Anyway, what I’m saying is if you don’t already own Starborn Anarkist, then you definitely have to try it out while it’s free. It might take a while to grow on you though, as it did for me. The inertia-based gameplay and general crappy-ness of your early ships can be frustrating, but it’s worth sticking with. Once I came to grips with the gameplay and started unlocking new stuff, it was all downhill from there. Now it’s one of my very favorite iOS games. You can find out more about Starborn Anarkist from our original review, but there was also a huge update for the game last month that added even more cool stuff. There’s also a lengthy discussion in our forums. Starborn Anarkist has never been free before, and might not ever be free again, so be sure to check it out during this promotion.
