The conceptually brilliant (and arguably excessively cheerful) Quarrel is what happens when Boggle and RISK have a child.
The setup might sound familiar: Up to four armies share adjacent territories with one another, and dominating a Imatch comes down to wiping out the other armies before they eliminate yours.
In this case, though, a battle comes down to eight random letters and one chance to build a better word than the opposing army.
The more troops you have occupying the conflicted square, the more letters you can use to build your word, and the winning battalion can (depending on circumstance) take the square completely, whittle it down to one opposing troop, or make opposing troops switch allegiances.
Quarrel's cheerful presentation is a bit too caffeinated for its own good, but the actual game is a polished execution of a seriously great idea.
You can play a base game of Quarrel for free, but most of the good stuff - a campaign, match customisation, daily challenges, most of the maps and characters - is available only in the deluxe edition.
Unfortunately, neither edition includes any kind of multiplayer, which might be a deal-killer given the influences in play and the state of word games on iOS.
The AI is reasonably good, but here's hoping multiplayer tops the to-do list for future updates.
Downloadable Game of the Week
For: iPhone/ iPod Touch/iPad (universal app)
From: Indiagames Limited/ UTV ignition
iTunes store rating: 9+ (infrequen/ mild cartoon or fantasy violence)
Price: $US5 for deluxe version; lite version available for free
