Command & Conquer: Red Alert, EA Mobile’s port of the popular RTS franchise, is available from the app store. With its great control scheme, easy-to-use interface, and strategic gameplay, who needs a console when you can have the war at your fingertips wherever you are?

C&C: Red Alert gives you the option to play as either the Soviet army of the Allied forces. Each side engages in a campaign with 5 missions to play out against the other side. While somewhat brief, we felt that the gameplay was exciting, immersive, and enjoyable. At your base camp, you’ll need to build tanks and train soldiers for combat. You’ll need to make strategic use of your resources to defeat the enemy, which typically involves overtaking their base camp and wiping out their units. This seems to involve creating massive amount of tanks and attempting to overrun the opposing forces, as soldiers can be easily wiped out by prism towers, the opposition’s firepower, or even being run over by tanks and having zeppelins dropped on their heads.

The game’s interface is actually quite nice. The build bars are nestled in the lower right corner, allowing you to erect buildings, create weapons, and train men at the push of a button, no matter where your current focus is. The upper right corner contains a map of the entire location, indicating your current view with a highlighted box and color coded units. Moving around the map is as simple as swiping your finger to pan (though this felt a bit slower than expected at times) or tapping a location on the map to snap to your desired view. Both the build bar and map can be tucked out of view with a tap, allowing you a greater view of the gaming area. The left side of the screen allows for quick and easy grouping of forces for moving troops more effectively. There are three squad buttons to allow you to create groups of units and add them to each squad for ease of deployment.

All controls are touch-based, with moving units and targeting enemies being handled by specific taps and double-taps, which are all outlined in the info section of the game. In general, the controls felt like they worked well and were pretty intuitive. Sometimes, units would bunch up, making it a little more difficult to target the individual or group that we wanted, but there are pinch zoom options which helped to ease the congestion a bit. The graphics are terrific, utilizing specific looks for each different type of unit, various environments, and nice animations. The game looks very much like the console version did. Sounds are also great, with a rocking tune playing in the background that’s upbeat and gruff enough to fit the scene. Voiceovers are crisp and clear and the sound effects of weapons being fired and objects being blown up create nice atmosphere.

There is also a Skirmish mode with two maps and the recently added multiplayer via Bluetooth or local wi-fi. We were unable to test the multiplayer option. We had few qualms with the game, though our biggest gripe, other than the difficulty in sorting out what’s what when a large group of units engage in sort of a rugby scrum, is the reliance on DLC to add content that probably should have been included in the first place. It’s one thing to release a free game and ask for a dollar or two to add some content to the game, effectively creating a “full” game for a couple of bucks. It’s another thing entirely to price a game at the high-end of the premium pricing structure with such limited content and require DLC to achieve a level of content that one would, and should, expect for forking over a substantial amount of cash in the first place. The terms DLC and premium price go together like peanut butter and tuna fish. This was a very disappointing decision on EA’s part.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert Pros:

• Great control scheme
• Easy-to-use interface
• Strategic gameplay
• Upbeat and gruff tunes
• Crisp voiceovers and sound effects create nice atmosphere

Command & Conquer: Red Alert Cons:

• Reliance on DLC to add content that should have been included in the first place – a very disappointing decision on EA’s part
• Difficult to make out what’s what in a rumble
• A bit of screen congestion

Regardless, replay value is pretty good due to the different strategic options that you can choose, the fun skirmish mode, and the recently included multiplayer options for players lucky enough to know someone close by who owns the game. A few other RTS games have popped up recently on the app store, but none with the history or polished presentation of Command & Conquer: Red Alert. At $6.99, you are paying a bit much for what comparatively amounts to a little. We are thrilled to have Command & Conquer on the iDevice, no matter how pared down it is, and we’ve had a blast with this 4-Dimple snarling beast.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert gets our AppSmile 4-Dimple rating: