tower defense

Vampire Rush Review: High stakes tower defense action on Windows Phone

Games

By Paul Acevedo, Wednesday, Apr 10, 2013 at 10:10 am

Tower defense is one of my favorite genres because of its versatility. There are so many variations between TD games, from the wholesome simplicity geoDefense to the undying awesomeness of Plants vs. Zombies. Sometimes developers even combine tower defense with action games, allowing players to run around the field attacking enemies in addition to the strategic planting of towers. Zombie Attack 2 did just that a couple of years ago, although somehow the game still ended up a big, stinking pile of boring.

Vampire Rush, the latest Nokia exclusive Xbox game for Windows Phone 7 and 8 comes from Chillingo and Lithuanian developer A-Steroids. While it doesn’t quite achieve its full potential, Vampire Rush does manage to provide the right blend of strategy and excitement that Zombie Attack 2 so woefully lacked. Read on for our full review!

Boom Brigade 2 for Windows Phone 8, alien invaders beware

Games

By George Ponder, Monday, Mar 18, 2013 at 9:07 am

Okay... Windows Phone developers 10tons have produced some fantastic games for Windows Phone 8 devices. You have King Oddball, Tennis to the Face and now you can add Boom Brigade 2 to the list.

Boom Brigade 2 is a tower defense, top down shooter where you have to defend your bunker from invading aliens. The game has thirty missions, a collection of bonus survival missions and a handful of upgrades to keep you busy. As always with 10tons games, graphics and animations are top notch and Boom Brigade 2 comes in as another great addition to the Windows Phone gaming library.

iBomber Defense Review: WWII strategy made simple

Games

By Paul Acevedo, Friday, Dec 28, 2012 at 8:55 am

Slowly but surely, Nokia and Electronic Arts continue to pump out Nokia-exclusive Xbox Windows Phone games. These titles also include games from Chillingo, a popular mobile publisher owned by EA. The latest Chillingo-published exclusive iBomber Defense comes from Scottish developer Cobra.

Originally an iOS game, Cobra’s tower defense title has since branched out to other platforms like Steam and Windows Phone. Fans of the genre should be thankful for that, because other than some performance issues and rough Achievements, iBomber Defense is the best traditional tower defense game in the Xbox lineup.

iBomber Defense sneaks onto Xbox Windows Phone as a Nokia exclusive

By Paul Acevedo, Saturday, Dec 22, 2012 at 9:51 am

It’s always a good time to be a Nokia owner, but especially when a new exclusive app or game comes around. We’ve just received another surprise exclusive, this one turning up quite randomly on a Friday evening. A little advance notice would be nice, but it’s still good news for people with Lumias in their pockets.

The newly released Xbox Windows Phone game is iBomber Defense from Chillingo (EA) and Scottish developer Cobra Mobile. Like Jet Set Go, this one wasn’t part of the first 20 exclusive games announced by EA, so there could be even more titles included in the exclusivity deal that we don’t know about.

geoDefense is backing up Windows Phone as this week's Deal of the Week for Xbox LIVE

By Rich Edmonds, Wednesday, Jul 25, 2012 at 1:06 pm

geoDefense has returned as this week's Xbox LIVE Deal of the Week on Windows Phone. Previously taking the title back in November 2011, it's good to see the futuristic light show tower defence game returning with a discounted price tag. The much loved Xbox LIVE title now has an older brother, geoDefense Swarm, but many still power up this classic while on the move.

geoDefense puts the player in charge of forming a tower-based defence around a generated path. This path is where creatures and critters will make their way along to the end where a number displays the remaining lives. Should a creep make their way to this point, a life will be deducted. A solid strategic mind is required to ensure the placement of towers, as well as types used, prevents these pests from making it.

Windows Phone Game Review: Wizard Wars

Games

By George Ponder, Wednesday, Jun 6, 2012 at 3:58 pm

Wizard Wars is a simple, yet challenging tower defense game for your Windows Phones. In the game, Wizard Wars pits the power of wizards up against an invading horde of Wrorcs that are trying to destroy your castle.

Wizard Wars is a nicely animated game that has thirty levels of play. Each level can be replayed to better your previous score, giving Wizard Wars plenty of gaming. In addition to the tower defenses, you can buy special items to give you an edge over the invading hordes. It may not appeal to everyone but Wizard Wars is a nice way to pass short bits of time with and an overall nice addition to the Windows Phone gaming library.

geoDefense Mango update adds Live tiles and more

Games

By Paul Acevedo, Friday, May 18, 2012 at 5:29 pm

geoDefense Swarm is out now and doing quite well, if reader comments and my own enjoyment are any indication. But the original geoDefense, which also happened to be the first good tower defense game on Xbox Live for Windows Phone, is still loved by many. As such, Critical Thought Games recently released an update to make geoDefense even better for current and future consumers.

geoDefense version 1.4 release notes:

60fps on devices that support it (previous cap was 30fps)
Live Tile (pin the game tile to the home screen, will flip to show progress)
Live Secondary Tile (hold down on level in list and it'll make a quick-jump live tile on home screen)
Supports Fast Application Switching
Fixed a bug with the targeting logic of locked laser towers (This was a big deal on some levels.)

Mango features are the standout additions. Many of us swear by Fast App Switching, so it’s great to see another popular Live game add that support. If only they would all follow suit (*cough, Plants vs. Zombies, cough*). Can’t go wrong with Live Tiles, either.

geoDefense is an easy-to-learn and addictive tower defense game. See our full review for details. The game costs $2.99 and there is a free trial. Get it here on the Marketplace.

geoDefense Swarm is live and hexagonal on the Windows Phone Marketplace

By Paul Acevedo, Tuesday, May 15, 2012 at 7:41 pm

Tower defense addicts, you can stop scratching and relax at last. geoDefense Swarm from Critical Thought Games in now on the Marketplace!

It also has the same balance issues as before (tower costs and abilities vary from level to level), but said issues didn’t keep its predecessor from winning many gamers’ hearts. Here’s a tip to get you started: switch the difficulty from Hardcore to Novice in Help & Options if you want to ease into things and take the stress out of those Achievements.

geoDefense Swarm costs $2.99 and there is a free trial. Get it here on the Marketplace.

Thanks Zebrasqual for the tip!

geoDefense Swarm bringing the Creeps to Xbox Live on May 16

Games

By Paul Acevedo, Wednesday, May 9, 2012 at 12:50 am

Now that Feed Me Oil, this week’s Xbox Live release is here, we’re neck-deep in oily physics puzzle goodness. But that doesn’t mean gamers don’t look to the future as well – especially those who’ve had their fill of physics puzzlers already. Kudos then to Microsoft for announcing next week’s Live release: geoDefense Swarm from Critical Thought Games.

geoDefense Swarm is the sequel to fan-favorite tower defense game geoDefense. The new entry switches from predefined enemy routes to a grid-based field. Enemies can approach from all directions, so players will need to construct mazes in order to keep them at bay. Like its predecessor, Swarm features an appealing neon geometric look and easy to learn gameplay. It will also likely suffer from balance issues, but said issues didn’t keep its predecessor from winning many gamers’ hearts. Most excitingly, the Windows Phone version of Swarm includes a new tower, a new creep (enemy), and new challenges. We’ll find out what those challenges are next Tuesday or Wednesday when the game debuts.

geoDefense Swarm comes to Xbox Live on Wednesday, May 16 – if not the night before, as many Live releases have done lately. It will cost $2.99, the same price as its predecessor.

Source: PlayXBLA

Thanks to Sam for the tip!

Windows Phone Game Review: BlastCannon

Games

By George Ponder, Thursday, Mar 15, 2012 at 8:22 am

Here's a fun Windows Phone game to pass the with. BlastCannon is a simple, yet challenging game that has you defending your base from falling asteroids.

BlastCannon has a simple, minimalistic design and game play but as you progress through the various gaming levels, the pace of the game picks up. It may not have flashy graphics or complex controls but BlastCannon is a challenging, entertaining game for your Windows Phone.

Windows Phone Game Review: River Pirates

Games

By George Ponder, Monday, Feb 6, 2012 at 8:52 am

The majority of the Windows Phones tower defense games take place on dry land. River Pirates is the latest tower defense game for your Windows Phone that adds a little water into the mix.

River Pirates has an invading horde of pirates sailing up river to attack your stronghold. You defend your keep by placing a variety of defenses along the river's banks to prevent the pirates from navigating the river from one side of the screen to the other.

River Pirates is a simple tower defense game that has enough challenge to it to keep you interested. Graphics and animations are nice but also simple. There's just not a lot of pop to the game but for some reason River Pirates kept pulling me back in.

Windows Phone Game Review: ByeByeBrain

Games

By George Ponder, Monday, Jan 16, 2012 at 8:50 am

Yes... it's another zombie, tower defense game for your Windows Phone. But don't be too discouraged. ByeByeBrain is a wonderfully animated addition to our zombie/tower defense game line up.

Armed with five different, upgradable, volunteers to defend your city from the invading horde of zombies, the game takes on the typical tower defense goal. Prevent the hordes from passing from one side of your Windows Phone screen to the other. As you wipe out the zombies you earn cash and for each zombie that survives your onslaught, you loose a life (you only get twenty of them).

geoDefense is the Deal of the Week. Ghostscape and Shuffle Party are the new Xbox LIVE titles.

By Daniel Rubino, Monday, Nov 28, 2011 at 10:28 pm

Although the last few Deals of the Week have been "meh", this week's is pretty exciting. geoDefense, the futuristic tower-defense game with wowee-zowee sound effects will be going on sale from $2.99 to (we're guessing) the usual $1.99 price-point starting this Wednesday, November 30th.

In our review, we summarized the game as thus:

"geoDefense may not be the absolute finest tower defense game on Xbox Live (that honor goes to Plants vs. Zombies) but it is still a terrific title. Nothing it does rocks the boat, but that makes the game easy to understand and get into. Spikes in difficulty and the variable nature of tower costs and powers are minor annoyances that keep geoDefense away from perfection. But the game offers plenty of strategic fun and easy Achievements at a relatively low price, so strategy fans should lower their defenses and consider an immediate purchase."

The game is quite a lot of fun and well worth the $2.99 price. At $1.99 it's a steal, meaning we think you should give that trial a spin now so you'll be ready to purchase come Wednesday night. Seriously, once you upgrade your laser to max and hear that thing fire, obliterating everything in its path...you'll be sold. Or at least we were. Try out geoDefense right now here in the Marketplace.

And don't forget this week, Ghostscape and Shuffle Party will be both available as new Xbox LIVE titles, with of course the latter only being available in the U.S. for now. Sorry.

via: @KarlStricker; Thanks, DarkSynopsis, for the heads up.

Arcane's Tower Defense gets a Mango update and a free version

Games

By Daniel Rubino, Thursday, Oct 20, 2011 at 8:00 pm

We love Arcane's Tower Defense. It's easily one of the most elaborate and polished indie games we have on Windows Phone. So we're pretty psyched to see it get a Mango update, enabling fast-app resume. On top of that, we hear another update is coming in a few days with some bug fixes, new campaigns and new features.

In addition, if you didn't want to pay the entirely reasonable $1.99 for the game, you can now get a free, ad-supported version that is also Mango-ready. It's the exact same game except we hear the paid version will get some new campaign maps.

All in all, if you enjoy tower defense games with a hint of World of Warcraft, we implore you to give this game a spin. You won't be disappointed. Pick up the paid version (w/trial) here or go for the new free ad-supported version here.

Peep the video of it in action after the break...

Hyper Defence XT - Review

Games

By George Ponder, Monday, Sep 26, 2011 at 7:03 pm

We first mentioned Hyper Defence XT when it first hit the beta stages. The Windows Phone game has now hit the open Marketplace and our first impressions hold true.

Not much has changed with Hyper Defence XT since we last visited the pre-release version. The tower defense game is set in the fictional Outpost 26 where you have to defend the outpost from invading aliens. There are a wide assortment of weapons to buy and upgrade to wipe out the invading hords.

Continued after the break.

Zombie Attack 2 is the Xbox Live Deal of the Week, still rather boring though

Games

By Paul Acevedo, Wednesday, Sep 14, 2011 at 8:30 am

If you ask little old me, last week’s Xbox Live sale game was a bit of a dud. This week’s deal game isn’t much better. Zombie Attack! 2 is on sale for $1.99, down from $2.99.

Zombie Attack! 2 is a tower defense game in which players actually control a human survivor who runs around and builds the towers. A fine idea in theory, but the execution leaves much to be desired. A few criticisms from our review: Clunky controls, a complete lack of music, a bug that can make sound effects refuse to play, help screens that clearly refer to the iPhone version’s tilt controls (absent here)… It’s a zombie-filled mess.

Worse, the crux of the game involves completing 10 Challenge levels, which take 45 minutes to an hour each and are just super boring. Seriously, there are much better tower defense games on Xbox Live, including Plants vs. Zombies and geoDefense. One of the two even has zombies…

Zombie Attack! 2 is on sale for one week only. If you insist on picking up this rotting corpse of a game, you’ll find it here (Zune link) on the Marketplace.

geoDefense update fixes save game bug, restores balance to universe

Games

By Paul Acevedo, Friday, Aug 19, 2011 at 9:19 am

geoDefense, the Xbox Live tower defense game with Geometry Wars-inspired visuals, has been a bit buggy since its release. Chief among those bugs is the dreaded save data bug, which we reported on in June. This bug caused some gamers to lose all of their progress when replaying levels, and nobody likes that.

Thankfully today’s version 1.6 patch fixes the save data bug at last. No longer should anyone fear playing geoDefense and trying for higher scores. We’re glad to see Critical Thought Games continuing to hone its enjoyable strategy title.

If for some reason you want a more traditional tower defense experience than the exceptional Plants vs. Zombies, geoDefense is the place to look. It costs $2.99 and there is a free trial. Get it here (Zune link) on the Marketplace.

Hyper Defence XT - Preview

Games

By George Ponder, Friday, Aug 19, 2011 at 1:39 am

Hyper Defence XT is an upcoming gaming title headed to the Windows Phone Marketplace. We were fortunate enough to get a sneak peak at the game and found it to be an entertaining, slightly addictive tower defense game.

The premise is that you are defending Outpost 26 from invading aliens. Hyper Defence has 15 levels of play, 7 fully upgradeable turret defenses, collectable Hyper Energy power boosts, and an unlockable Survival Mode.

Game play is not unlike any other tower defense game in that you have to survive a certain number of waves in each level to advance. As you take out enemy forces, you earn credits to buy or upgrade your defenses.

Defensive placement is key (as it is with any tower defense game) and to purchase a weapon you tap, hold and drag the turret to the desired location. A green halo around the weapon indicates the location is suitable for placement. Weapons fire automatically when the enemy comes into range and to upgrade, simply tap on the weapon to pull up the upgrade menu.

Hyper Defence XT isn't too easy to become boring or too hard to become frustrating. The developer has found a good middle ground with regards to difficulty to keep the game interesting.

Hyper Defence XT is expected in the Marketplace any day now with a free trial and the full version running £.99 (about $1.60 U.S.). We'll update the post with the Marketplace links as soon as they become available. If you like tower defense games, Hyper Defence XT is worth checking out.

Arcane's Tower Defense now wowing people in the Marketplace

Games

By Daniel Rubino, Saturday, Jul 16, 2011 at 5:23 am

We've been waiting on Arcane's Tower Defense for what seems like forever. Actually, it was way back in October when we saw the first rumbling of the epic tower defense game, then a more detailed look in February.

Well, the game is finally a go in the Marketplace, selling for a fair $1.99. Unfortunately, there is no trial (sad panda) but if you like tower defense, just watch the video after the break--the game kind of sells itself and we have to say with our brief hands on: wow, epic, [insert superlative here]

Amazing music, great sound effects, excellent tutorial, custom maps. Folks, we may be jumping the gun here, but this could be one of those games, you know, a must have? Sure, you can wait till our review goes up, but we're gonna go ahead and suggest that if you like these types of games then just go ahead. Now excuse us, we're off to kill some goblins...

Update: One of the developers of ATD let us know in comments that there should be a trial version and that there's probably an error in the Marketplace. They're trying to fix it as soon as possible.

Update 2: Trial is now available! No excuses now.

Grab Arcane's Tower Defense here in the Marketplace for $1.99. Video after the break. Thanks, Eric I., for the tip!

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Arcane's Tower Defense incoming to Marketplace

Apps

By Rich Edmonds, Tuesday, Jul 5, 2011 at 5:57 pm

Arcane's Tower Defense is one of those games Windows Phone 7 users should look out for. Sporting fantastic graphics and extended playability with custom map creation. While we have a number of tower defence games already available on the Marketplace, this is a new twist which will hopefully raise the standards. Some features to take note of:

5 ages to unlock towers, talents, spells and improve their powers.

6 different and unique upgradable towers.

8 Spells to improve your defense.

19 Upgradable tower talents to boost your strategy.

And many different goblins with their own stats and abilities.

Plus an extra free application : a standalone map editor.

Arcane's Tower Defense will be available on the Marketplace in the next few days, for $1.99. We'll have a review up to follow. To recap on the release candidate gameplay, check out the video after the break.

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