Download Discounts for Jan. 13: Into the Blue SD, Protector: The Planes, Bombalaa

Three free games are on offer for today’s Download Discounts, and they’ll all give you plenty of ways to waste a little time using your iPhone. We’ve got a turret defense/Flight Control hybrid, a tower-defense/RPG hybrid and a challenging hand-eye coordination game for you today. Read all about them and enjoy below.

Into the Blue SD (iPhone, iPad) Free (was $0.99)

You’ll pull double duty in this stationary turret defense game, where you’re charged with defending a space military base while also directing ships to land, all while being besieged by enemy red fighters. It’s part Flight Control and part Missile Defense, and it can get hectic.

You’ll be able to upgrade your defenses and capabilities as time goes on and increase or decrease the difficulty of the game’s eight stages to keep the challenge engaging. Into the Blue includes two different game modes to mix up the experience, and supports Open Feint for leaderboards and achievements.

Protector: The Planes (iPhone) Free (was $1.99)

Tower defense missions abound in Protector, which adds lots of role-playing game elements and customization, plus a swords-and-sorcery motif, to the tried and true turret formula. You’ll place various kinds of forces along paths to take on enemy units, including knights and wizards, to fight on your side, and they’ll level-up and become more powerful as you fight.

Strategy and smart allocation of units and upgrades is key in Protector, as you’ll need the money you earn from slaying enemies to tune-up your units and buy new ones. The action can be paused at any time to allow you to work on your strategy and reset your forces. There’s a lot to do in this deep game — for costing nothing, it’s nice how much content you’ll get.

Bombalaa (iPhone) Free (was $0.99)

This very challenging hand-eye coordination game comes with four different game modes, and each forces you to quickly identify what you’re seeing and tap the right answers that are printed on a group of bombs. Take too long to answer a question, and the bombs explode. Blow too many bombs and you lose the game.

It gets tough in a hurry. The “numbers” game mode, for example, starts out by asking you to just tap the number you see, then tap combinations of numbers. Before long, you need to replicate mathematical phrases, and then you’re asked to do the math necessary to get the right answer at the top of the screen. “Directions” is similar, starting out by having you match the arrows you see on the screen, and then requiring you to actually direct a car around a map. Grab this one while it’s free if you’re looking for a time-waster that doesn’t make it easy.

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