Tidewatch Command

Tidewatch Command drops you on a chain of islands and asks you to hold the line against waves coming in from the sea. It's a real-time strategy with a light tower-defense backbone, and it earns its difficulty honestly rather than by overwhelming you with numbers.

The clever bit is the tide mechanic: water levels rise and fall, opening and closing lanes, so a layout that worked last round can fall apart. Managing that on a phone works well thanks to a pinch-zoom map and a pause button that lets you plan without pressure. We lost a few missions purely because we forgot to reposition before the tide turned.

Performance was smooth, and the game is smart about pausing background activity, so it didn't drain much when we tabbed out. Landscape mode is the way to play it — portrait cramps the map too much.

What we liked

• Tide mechanic keeps layouts fresh
• Pinch-zoom map and useful planning pause
• Runs smoothly even on older phones