Triple Town is a gripping town planning game for the iPad

Triple Town is a clever town planning game that is simple to learn but still presents a serious challenge. Each turn you are given an item to place. Every time three or more items are placed together they are replaced by the next item up. So three patches of grass become a bush, three bushes become a tree and so on. The new item isn't placed randomly, it appears where the newest item went, so a certain amount of forward planning is required.

The game has a clever twist in the form of bears. These are placed in the same way as other items but they move around. When trapped, they are transformed into gravestones, or churches if there were three or more. Keeping track of the most recently placed bear to make sure the new church appears in the right place can be quite tricky. And if that wasn't enough there are also ninja bears that jump around the whole playing area.

There are some items that can help. The Imperial bot can be used to clear squares and is the only way to dispatch the annoying bears. Crystals act as jokers, changing to complete groups.

Tapping and holding on the screen shows a preview of what will happen when an item is placed. There is a storage space at the top left of the screen where an item can be left for a later turn.

The game is free to play on the iPad but you'll soon run out of turns. At this point you either have to wait for the turns to build up again or buy unlimited turns for £2.50. The delay on new turns is a couple of minutes, so just enough to make the cost of unlimited turns pale into insignificance. So you'll need better self control than us to resist the temptation.

It is possible to select the item you wish to place by spending in game coins. Coins are awarded for the number of turns a town lasts and for passing various achievements. Once again, it is possible to buy coins ingame. The individual transactions are very cheap, 2000 coins cost just 69p and will last a while, but could well mount up over time.