Shall we play a game? WarGames: WOPR may be the best 99 cents you spend all week

Any self-respecting nerd out there has seen WarGames at least 30 times. If not, hit up Netflix and come back when you're appropriately familiar with Joshua and the WOPR and Global Thermonuclear War. (And that applies to those of you too young to have ever seen the 1983 Matthew Broderick/Ally Sheedy flick.)

WarGames: WOPR brings the characters and rough storyline of the movie to your Android (and iOS) phones and tablets. The game itself is a basic puzzle game -- you make strings of three or more objects to remove them from the board. But you also have to defeat an opponent. You're the WOPR, playing against characters from the film. Launch missiles to beat them, collect cash, and basically try to destroy the planet in simulation. There are power-ups to be purchased along the way, and you'll have to snag them wisely to beat the latter levels. (And, of course, there's in-app purchasing to get more in-game cash so you can get the upgrades quicker.)

I've been surprisingly entertained by WarGames: WOPR. Maybe it's the fun of seeing the characters again. Maybe it's the sound effects, which have been pulled straight from the film. Maybe it's just the nerd in me remembering how cool it was to pretend we could use our modems to dial in (kids -- have your parents explain) to some strange company and learn its secrets. Or change our grades. 

Either way, this might well by the best buck you spend this week. And unlike the message of the movie, where the only winning move was not to play, you're going to have a hard time putting this one down.

We've got a slew of in-game screen shots for you after the break.

Download: WarGames: WOPR

Phil Nickinson