MetaTools has released MetaSquares, the company's first iPhone title. MetaSquares is touted as "deceptively simple to play, but hard to be expert strategy game". The game is available for download via the iTunes App Store.

Try to build squares by placing your pieces on all four corners. Points are earned based on the size of the squares captured.

Noted puzzle and computer game designer Scott Kim, whose puzzles were featured in "Scientific American" magazine, created the initial concept for MetaSquares during the mid 1990s, which generated a huge following on the Mac and Windows America Online platform prior to the emergence of the internet.

MetaSquares players enter an eight by eight board with one goal in mind - create more squares than their opponents. Using game play features such as tapping, double tapping and swiping that are designed specifically for the iPhone, players can go head-to-head with their iPhone toting friends or challenge the progressively more difficult artificial intelligence opponent. MetaSquares offers consumers of all ages and skill levels a quick (games are usually two to three minutes long), fun and challenging experience.

The designer of MetaSquares, Scott Kim (aka: ‘Puzzle Master’), compared the game with tic-tac-toe, “but instead of trying to get three in a row you are trying to get four in a square. Two players take turns placing pieces on an 8 by 8 board. When a player gets four pieces at the corners of a square, the square is drawn in and the player gets points. Squares may be any size or tipped at any angle. Bigger squares get more points.”

MetaSquares is available for download now for $2.99 on carriers via iPhone or by visiting the MetaTools website, www.metatools.com, and clicking on the iTunes(TM)App Store widget.

Consumers without iPhones can preview MetaSquares online for free at www.metatools.com/iphonemsq/ on Apple computers or via Firefox Web Browser if accessing from a Windows PC.