Outwitters: An OutSTANDING Turn-Based Strategy Title
The closest game that I would compare Outwitters to has to be the old Advance Wars titles on the GBA. In Outwitters, you have a main base to defend, one or two spaces to spawn new units, and must balance attacking the enemy base, defending your base, and scouting the enemy through a fog of war - similar in concept to Advance Wars. Unlike Advance Wars, you do not get to move all of your units each turn. You generate a resource called Wits each turn, and use these Wits to spawn new units, move your units, attack, or use special abilities like healing. You can win a game by eliminating all enemy units and blocking their spawn hexes, or by destroying the enemy base - and as bases don't have much health, one decisive turn can end a game.
The graphics have a pleasant, cartoony style to them, and the music is fantastic - a bouncy main title song plays at the main menu, and the three different map themes (each corresponding to a respective team) each have their own song as well. The units for each team all look different, yet they have details that remain the same - for example all soldier units carry a pitchfork-like weapon, and all medic units have a cross symbol somewhere on them. The animation and sounds for movement and attacking are smooth and enjoyable, and defeating an enemy unit causes them to disappear in a satisfying and team-centric explosion.
Most free games on the iPhone nowadays have in-app purchases that improve the gameplay or allow you to speed up your game, but they don't always feel like something worth spending any money on, even if you enjoy the game - Outwitters is an exception! Outwitters currently has three different teams; Scallywags (fish pirates), Feedback (robots), and Adorables (stuffed animals) - with more teams in the works. The Scallywags team is unlocked by default, and you can purchase the other two teams - you can also purchase the Uber Pack to unlock all of the current teams and every team they release in the future.
Each team that you own will also give you some maps themed to that team to play on. The maps are varied in size and start you off with different amounts of units, with a different amount of bonus hexes, spawn hexes, and terrain pieces, making you develop strategies for each map separately. Some maps have walls that block movement and line of sight - others will also have pits that block movement, but not line of sight - sniper units can shoot across these hexes.
The units filling each role on the three teams are identical - they have the same sight range, movement speed, health and attack strength, meaning that there is no imbalance between the teams. Each team does have a unique unit available to them, and each one is widely different between the teams - these units can be very powerful if used properly but are vulnerable, and cost a large amount of Wits to field.
Outwitters can be played in three different modes - Pass and Play on one device, Friendly Play with Game Center friends or random players, and League Play (ranked games) against random Game Center players on randomly chosen maps. Both League and Friendly play support in-game chat (to all players or just to your partner) and easy Game Center friend requests. With League play, your first 5 matches in the 1v1 or 2v2 brackets will place you in one of five "Tiers of Skill" to place you where it seems your skill in the game fits - this should ensure that all players will eventually be playing consistent games against people around their own ability, and not seeing a rookie player getting paired up against one of the most veteran Super-Titan ranked players.
If you've played games such as Words with Friends, or Draw Something, you understand how the turn system works in Outwitters - you take your turn, submit it to the server, and the other player will take their turn when they choose to - you can also have several active games at a time. This works great to make this a pick-up-and play game, perfect for killing off a couple minutes here and there throughout the day if you're busy, but can be frustrating if you want to play turns one-right-after-the-other. If an opponent goes four full days without taking their turn, the game will automatically cause them to forfeit and give you the win, just as if you had completed the match.
I've saved what I feel is the best feature of Outwitters for last: Replays!
Outwitters has built-in full replay functionality, both while in-game and once the match is over. You can use this replay in a match to go back one turn, several turns, or even to the start of the match, and try to estimate where your opponent's troops might be hidden, which can help make your decisions on what to spawn or where to attack. Once the game is over you get access to a full replay with no fog of war, allowing you to see every move made by yourself or your opponent so you can refine your strategy for future matches, or see where you went wrong. You can also copy a link to the replay which can then be posted elsewhere to allow others to look up your game for fun or critique!
Overall, I've given Outwitters a 9.5. I don't believe a game can ever truly earn a perfect score, as there is always a way to improve. The only negatives I see in the game are the lack of a 'confirm attack/cast' option(there IS one for movement however) and the waiting aspect in the turn format - I would like to see a gametype you could join where your time limit is much smaller, say 15 minutes or so, to facilitate those who want to designate some time to active play. One Man Left reps are active on the forums, and seem responsive to player comments, so it's possible we will see these features in the future.
So in closing, if you are a fan of games such as Advance Wars I would recommend downloading Outwitters - it will cost you nothing to try it out, and you may find yourself as addicted as I am!