The beauty of the App Store is that developers aren’t afraid to attempt combinations of ideas and concepts that would be too ludicrous or risky on most other major platforms. Before today, I had never considered that real-time strategy and beat ’em up games could come together to form a destructive combo, but I’m extremely glad that Defend Your Turf (Free) – from the efforts of sole developer Stephen Folkes – has taken this exploratory leap. You guide a faction of nondescript red characters to battle a team of opposing blue alternatives, but have to use a variety of attacks, techniques and weapons to defeat them in entirely creative and edgy environments such as a dump and a parking lot.

Defend Your Turf contains 36 levels – twelve of which are available for free, and the other 24 unlockable by a single in-app purchase – and a 3-star grading system, so there certainly is a lot of longevity in beating up hordes of opposing gang members beyond the initial novelty of the unique combination of genres. The pixel graphics also perfectly complement the retro arcade gameplay, and the game’s humor in taser takedowns and other creative ways to come out victorious in this battle for some unspecified cause definitely strikes a chord with me. The setting – which outlines a team of guys in red hating another group of people dressed in blue, and fighting in ‘a small town somewhere on earth’ is also very clever, whether it’s as a satirical take on the setting of many RTS/beat ’em up titles, or perhaps a deeper look at gang violence and conflict in general.

I’m probably looking into it a little too much, but at the end of the day, if a game that lets you drop cars onto people’s heads doesn’t win you over, I don’t know what will. Defend Your Turf is available on the App Store right now, and I’d definitely recommend giving it a try, regardless of whether you are a fan of real-time strategy or beat ’em up games, or if you just want to support the hard work of a one man development team from the glorious city of London. Let us know your impressions of Defend Your Turf on our forum thread.