Battle Bugs

Classic 1994 pausable real-time strategy with some of the best MIDI music out there, punny mission titles and not that difficult to learn. You get an army of various bugs (US), sometimes with additional throwing weapons and you need to either defeat the enemy (THEM) or capture enough food on the small map to win. Many missions are asymmetrical puzzles, where you have to play to the strengths of your army and exploit weaknesses of the enemy. There's also local multiplayer, but I didn't try it. Price on a sale is great for all the fun involved and it doesn't take too long to finish, so you can quickly move on to the next game.

This is more a tactics puzzle than a strategy game, though that should not take away from how amazing it is. The attention to detail and the love poured into this game is staggering, and all this is on top of a solid base game that gives you a few hours of thorough joy and, occasionally, keyboard-biting for a few of the more frustrating levels. The replay value is limited but there - some levels allow multiple paths to victory, but in general, you should only boot it up again after a decade or so, when you have forgotten most of the optimal solutions. UI is very precise and granular, which makes the required micro a bit tedious in bigger battles, but without any actual random chance involved, overall this is a plus, if not a necessity. A strong recommend, though admittedly tinted by nostalgia; one of my first games, I spent a whole summer vacation with a buddy figuring out how to get all the medals...