While tower defense is one of those genres that I can't seem to get enough of, even I have to admit that it's high-time for some innovation. Enter Go Home Dinosaurs [$4.99 (HD)], the latest title from Fire Hose Games and a TD game that looks to carve its own niche.
While a first glance might lead one to believe its primarily for kids, beneath the playful, cartoony exterior lies a game that expertly combines tower defense with puzzle elements, making it one of my current favorites of the genre.
Apparently the love for BBQ is so great it extends across time periods and species. As such, Dinosaurs puts you in command of an army of gophers that must guard their delectable BBQ pit against an onslaught of hungry dinosaurs.
When it comes to basic tower defense gameplay, Go Home Dinosaurs plays similar to many other titles. Dinosaurs run down a pre-set path towards the BBQ pit with two pieces of dynamite acting as last-second defenses against impending BBQ devouring. Meanwhile, players place a variety of gopher-manned weapons around the path in an attempt to drive the dinos towards extinction. A coin system rounds out the gameplay, allowing players to earn currency in-game (no IAPs) and purchase supplemental towers with limited, but powerful effects.
Heads up: Firehose Games's tower defense title, Go Home Dinosaurs, is currently worming its way through international App Stores. It'll be available alongside a bunch of other brand new games around 11PM EST here in the states. As we've covered before, it will be launching at $4.99, which seems like a good deal for a pretty fleshed out game.
In case you've missed our pre-release post a couple of weeks back, here's a re-cap: Go Home is a pretty standard tower defense title with a couple of notable twists. For one, you don't just place turrets, you control an autonomous one that you can move around a level freely to cover any defensive gaps. For another, the level design sorta resembles a puzzle game's. Turrets are shaped like jigsaw pieces, basically, and you can only put them where they fit. Finding the perfect spacing and locking the right pieces into each other is an essential part of the late-level strategy.
All this, of course, is wrapped up in a cheery premise with whimsical visuals. We liked the game a lot after we busted out of the tutorial phase (which was way too easy). If you've been feening a new tower defense joint, this might be up your alley. Hit up our TA Plays and see if it clicks with you.
You can always follow your favorite games and add them to your Watch List on our app [Free], by the way. On nights like tonight it's pretty nice to get a notification whenever they release. Feel free to add Go Home Dinosaurs if it looks good to ya.
Being a creep ain't all that bad. Well, at least, that's what the Anomaly series has taught me. If you're not familiar, these are tower offense games. Both have you play as the horde of dudes descending on a bunch of turrets instead of the other way around. It's a neat twist that literally turns the genre on its head. And if you haven't seen or played either, now's a good time to jump on the train. Both Anomalies, Earth [$3.99 / $1.99 / $3.99] and Korea [$3.99], are on sale for a limited time.
The reason for the sale, by the way? Anomaly 2 is coming to PC soon. In fact, it's hitting in just two weeks. Nothing like drumming up interest by basically giving away a game's predecessors.
We don't know if Anomaly 2 is coming to iOS, by the way. We've just shot over a note. Who knows! Maybe we'll see it. Until, then, though, have fun with these two games. They're both great. The first, if you remember, even grabbed our GOTY runner-up award a few years back. Ah, memories.
Firehose Games's PC tower defense game, Go Home Dinosaurs, is a game about protecting an army of gopher's midsummer stash of BBQ from a toothy, slow-walking horde of prehistoric foes. Let that sink in for a moment. In the upbeat, ridiculous world of Go Home, gophers and dinosaurs come together to fight over delicious meat after the dinosaurs try to take said meat from the gophers. It's a crazy conceit, but it works because Firehose embraces it totally and molds a uniquely irreverent look and feel for a tower defense game around it. Also, Go Home isn't slouch where it counts: mechanically, it's a solid TD game.
And now it's coming to iPad. Firehose Games has revealed to us that it's heading to iPad 2 and up later next month for $4.99. Neat!
If you've played a TD game, like, ever before, you'll feel pretty at home with this one in short order. In every level, a conga line of dinosaurs descend from a spawn and walk along a lane. Your job, as the gophers, is to put down turrets that'll stop them. Easy!
Foursaken Media's Block Fortress [$0.99] is one of those games that could last you forever. It plops you into a Minecraft-like block-based sandbox, tasks you with creating the most impenetrable fortress possible out of those blocks, and then sends wave after wave of enemies in to see if your creation will indeed stand up to the test. Oh, and while these enemies are attacking you're thrust face-first into the action by dropping into your created map in first-person mode, allowing you to help blast away at the baddies yourself. It's pretty great stuff.
The ability to create your own levels means that Block Fortress is really only limited by your imagination (and a device's technical limits), and today Foursaken extends the game's legs even further by updating it with the ability to upload and download user-created maps right into the game.
In Block Fortress's sandbox mode, you're given basically endless resources to create the craziest fortress possible. With today's update you can now upload your creations for the world to see, as well as download the maps that other people have made to test them out yourself. A simple "thumbs up/thumbs down" rating system helps ensure that the best maps are readily visible, and already there are tons of maps available to download.
Block Fortress is awesome, but it's also a pretty complicated and challenging game. Once you get warmed up to it, though, it's an amazing experience. To help you out, we commissioned some tips from the developers, and an avid player of the game submitted his own set of tips as well. Check those out for a closer look at the strategies behind Block Fortress.
Besides the level-sharing functionality in this new update, there's also a boatload of tweaks, fixes, new block types, and more that you can read about in full in the App Store's update description. To top it all off, Block Fortress is currently on sale for just a buck, so now is definitely a good time to give it a look if you have not done so yet.
The reveal trailer for Kingdom Rush: Frontiers the other day got us thinking about how awesome the original Kingdom Rush [$0.99 / $2.99 (HD)] is, so we decided to give it the Rewind treatment in case any of you guys might have missed it. We played through the first few levels and made some insanely poor tactical decisions along the way.
As a tower defense game, Kingdom Rush does just enough to feel a little different from the rest of the pack. There's a hero mechanic, which allows you to take in a lone unit that can seriously wreck house. You control him as you would an RTS unit and move him around the board wherever needed. The barrack mechanic is also cool. Barracks spit out soldiers, which tie up enemy mobs so your turrets can deal damage longer.
What probably put Rush over-the-top is how cohesive the entire experience is, as well as Ironhide Games commitment to supporting its title. Content updates are still coming down the pipe. In fact, we saw the release of another last week.
Anyway, Kingdom Rush is a neat game that a lot folks really dig. If you're looking for a long, support tower defense game, this is probably it. Check it out.
If you've got your finger on the pulse of everything that is Kingdom Rush, you probably already knew that a new Kingdom Rush game called Kingdom Rush: Frontiers is coming down the pipe. Creator Ironhide Games has been teasing it for a bit on its blog, releasing a few vague details and images every now and then. Earlier this week, a teaser trailer for the game hit the web, and we thought it was cool enough to show off to you guys.
While not showing off anything mechanical, the trailer at least shows off some new art and the promise of a new, "untamed" frontier that we'll be pummeling bad dudes in. Also, it shows off a dude with a lightning sword. Who doesn't dig that?
Frontiers is due to hit this coming Spring. We'll definitely keep our eyes out for it.
There's been a lot of talk lately about Block Fortress [$0.99] and for good reason. Rare have we ever witnessed a game that manages to combine tower-defense, first-person shooters and creative sandboxing genres all in one game. Foursaken Media's Block Fortress not only successfully accomplishes such a feat, but manages to do it in such a way that truly makes its sum greater than its (individual genre) parts. There's a lot of love about Block Fortress, making it a game that really needs to be checked out.
Simply put, Block Fortress is a game about survival and defense. Players place a barracks on one of several pre-set maps, and are charged with defending it from hordes of enemies. Generally, gameplay is divided into two phases. The build phase tasks you to fortify your barracks with walls, turrets, and a variety of other attachments. This is also the time to purchase and equip weapons and items for your character. This lends way to the attack phase, which starts the enemy waves and puts you into FPS mode, letting you get into the action and supplement the defense of your barracks.
Meanwhile, while Block Fortress features three game modes, I found the most appealing to be Survival, which starts you off with limited resources and challenges players to build up resources while defending against waves of enemies. The other two modes, Quickstart (which starts you off with a ton of resources to instantly build the fortress of your dreams) and Sandbox (which gives you total control of building and enemies) are also great additions and provide entertaining alternatives with emphasis on creativity.
We've seen tower defense games incorporating FPS elements, but nothing to the degree of Block Fortress. The first-person shooter element is fully featured, with a variety of weapons to purchase during the course of gameplay. Meanwhile, the building element is also full featured, with a wide dearth of customizability in both structural choices and defense options coupled with secondary essentials such as power blocks (necessary for anything requiring power), lights (essential at night) and farms (allow you to replenish health). Sure, the FPS controls still suffer from the perpetual issues that seem to occur on touchscreens and the construction menus can be a little obtuse, but the sheer amount of potential and the fact that the game as a whole actually works far outweighs these minor nuisances.
As if the near limitless possibilities for construction weren't enough, Block Fortress's long-term upgrade scheme showcases just how much depth the game can offer to dedicated players. Each weapon and turret (along with certain building blocks) has the potential to be infused with modifications, which can be built with rare minerals that are mined and gathered during normal gameplay. Modifications have the potential to dramatical change the way you play the game, and are an essential component to pay attention to for players looking to truly succeed. One complaint lies in the relatively slow rate of accumulation for rare minerals (particularly at the beginning of the game) but an IAP shop, coupled with the optional nature of mods makes it less of a showstopper.
I'm a huge fan of what Block Fortress has to offer, especially when it comes to the sheer amount of potential strategies that can be employed. While there's obviously some tactics that'll succeed better than others (and with that said, I highly suggest checking out our previoustips postings), a lot of the appeal lies in being able to try whatever you wish. In this regard, Block Fortress has everything needed to offer plenty of replayability. In fact, the only thing truly missing is some sort of co-op multiplayer mode, and it's something that I hope that can conceivably be added at some point in the future.
Of course, if the appeal of Minecraft-like construction (or the controls of iOS FPS titles) doesn't suit your fancy, it's hard to imagine that you'll particularly enjoy Block Fortress. However, for those that are intrigued, Foursaken's latest is a game that simply has to be experienced. With plenty of depth, replayability and a great melding of genres, there's plenty to check out and enjoy.
Unsurprisingly, like anything with even a hint of Minecraft mixed in, Foursaken Media'sBlock Fortress [$0.99] is absolutely ripping up the iTunes charts. Brad and I bumbled around a bit in game for a TA Plays, there's a stupid-huge thread in our forums, and we've even had the developers share some tips. Well, TouchArcade reader and apparent Block Fortress pro-level player who goes by "Giggles Grimm" sent us some of his tips, and we figured we had to share them with the rest of our community. Keep in mind, these tips are a little more advanced with some assumed knowledge that you as a player have spent some time with the game. Trust me, it'll all make sense once you do.
There are a lot of themes that have been overdone in iOS -- zombies and retro-themed visuals, to name a few. However, one area that hasn't been fully explored is Greek mythology. Chillingo'sFury of the Gods [$0.99]Â looks to address that by combining well-known ancient mythology thematics with interactive tower-defense gameplay. While Fury's difficulty curve seems to lend itself a bit too much towards IAP, the core game is enjoyable and adds some nice touches to the traditional tower defense genre.
Putting you in the role of three ancient gods, Fury tells the tale of the human race rebelling against their former saviors. As mankind rises up and attempts to attack the gods, you'll utilize various powers and mythological creatures to repel the attacks and put humanity back in its place. Narratively, Fury sounds very much like a certain blockbuster movie series. However, originality aside, I still enjoyed the overall theme. The same goes for the visuals, which do a great job utilizing the Unreal engine to create some decent mythological environments. I only wish the game had more than just three locales, as each one looks great.
Foursaken Media's recently released Block Fortress [$0.99] has proven once again that the development studio comprised of four brothers are masterful at blending different genre elements into one cohesive package. Their previous releases like Bug Heroes [Free] and Heroes and Castles [$1.99] made a similar point, but Block Fortress takes it to another level.
It's a base defense style game, but built inside a Minecraft-like world of blocks. This actually lets you construct your own fortress around your base and outfit it with various weapons and defenses. Oh, and did I mention that once the waves of enemies start coming after your base, you're dropped into the map in first-person mode to help blast away at the baddies yourself? Because there's that too.
The mashup of genres in Block Fortress seems to be a winning formula so far, as it's currently ripping up the top of the charts and is one of the hottest games in our forums. It also means that it's a complex game, and when you're first starting out learning the ropes can be a daunting task.
With that in mind, we reached out to Foursaken to get some tips and suggestions straight from the people who made the game and understand it inside and out.
Block Fortress [$0.99] is a blast. It's a sandbox tower defense game that plays like Minecraft, except with guns. Across the game's modes, you're tasked with plopping down a base and defending it against waves of armed and armored goblins. You can erect walls, dig moats, and build turrets in order to do this. You can also take the fight to the goblins with your own weapons, if you're feeling froggy. For the most part, a good chunk of the experience revolves around resource hoarding -- you need to gather the cash that goblins drop and use it to effectively to defend and fix your base as the horde morphs from sword-carrying idiots to aggressive gun or bomb-toting maniacs. The push and pull feels frantic, but fun and the action is surprisingly solid.
Oh, and like any good sandbox game nowadays, there's also a crazy crafting system. As you play, you can plop down mines over precious resources. As you gather these, you can mod your weapons and make them stronger.
If you're thinking that there's a lot to this, you're right -- there's a ton of stuff going on with this one. But, it's definitely worth a look. Check it out:
Here's a real treat. One of the most popular and beloved tower defense games, and really just one of the most popular games in general, Plants vs. Zombies [$0.99] and its iPad counterpart Plants vs. Zombies HD [$0.99 (HD)] are both currently free for the first time ever.
Plants vs. Zombies is an institution in the world of video games, but in case you're unfamiliar it sees you strategically placing various types of defensive plants in order to keep waves of undead from breaking through and munching on your brain.
It can be a highly strategic and challenging game, but Plants vs. Zombies is also great at explaining itself and gradually ramping things up, and is the kind of game that even non-gamers can easily pick up and get totally engrossed in. That's probably why it's so darn popular.
Anyway, if you somehow haven't picked up Plants vs. Zombies at some point over the last few years, or if you're a fan on a different platform but haven't yet grabbed a copy for your phone or tablet, then now is your chance. My only gripe is the lack of widescreen support for the iPhone 5, though that's a minor thing. Hopefully PopCap will add support in the future, or maybe we'll just have to wait for Plants vs. Zombies 2.
You can check out our original review of Plants vs. Zombies or see what's shaking in the forum thread, but no matter what don't miss this chance to snag an absolute classic for free while you can.
As you can imagine from its title, i-Free's I am Vegend: Zombiegeddon [$1.99 / Free] doesn't take itself seriously. Blatantly spoofing tons of references from popular mobile gaming titles, Vegend also employs this philosophy in its gameplay, combining action with tower defense elements from a multitude of sources. While this leads to a game that should be innately familiar to those that have played iOS tower defense titles, Vegend still manages to leave its own mark as an enjoyable and amusing game worth checking out.
I Am Vegend tells the tale of a zombie apocalypse that threatens to destroy the whole world. It's up to the 'Vegendary Heroes,' a group of vegetable heroes to take on the enemies and save the world. Players control the Vegendary Heroes in a pseudo-tower defense like manner with each mission giving you control of up to three Heroes. Players switch between each hero and simply tap on the screen to aim and fire each of their weapons. Each hero also has to reload between volleys, encouraging folks to utilize each of their three heroes strategically as weapons are reloaded.
When 11 Bit Studios released Anomaly Warzone Earth [$1.99 / $3.99]Â on iOS in 2011, we were blown away by its unique 'tower offense' take on a genre that had grown stagnant. Fast forward a year and a half later and the first sequel to the acclaimed game has finally arrived. While Anomaly Korea [$3.99]Â continues to impress with the same great gameplay and concepts as its predecessor, folks looking for more than cursory improvements may be a little disappointed.
If you haven't had the pleasure of playing Anomaly Warzone Earth, I'd suggest checking out the review of our 2011 Game of the Year Runner-up for a succinct description of the general gameplay. I recommend this because Anomaly Korea plays like its predecessor in all respects. Players still lead a convoy of vehicles through enemy territory, destroying towers and clearing a path towards objectives and exits. Meanwhile, the same upgrade and power system provides limited customizability in terms of the vehicles deployed and the abilities used.
While tower defense is one of those genres that I can't seem to get enough of, even I have to admit that it's high-time for some innovation. Enter Go Home Dinosaurs [$4.99 (HD)], the latest title from Fire Hose Games and a TD game that looks to carve its own niche.
