Kingdom Rush

GAME DESCRIPTION

Tower defense goes itty-bitty in Ironhide Games' Kingdom Rush, but the crash are no less fierce! Foul creatures are storming the area, and if you want your rolling green fields and placid sheep to keep looking all idyllic and whatnot, you're going to have to take up the pallium of protector and set to work defending the countryside from swarms of orcs, goblins, and other nasties. Combining snappy, addictive gameplay with a stellar design and sense of style, Kingdom Rush is a real winner and a serious contender to wear the crown for the defense genre.

Enemies appear from one side of the screen and march along a path towards the other. Place towers on patches of land alongside the paths, choosing from several types that each deal a different type of damage... important to consider since some foes resist one type but are weak against another. Big brutes like orcs can wade through your troopers, for example, but don't hold up to a magical bolt to the face from your mage towers quite as well. Best of Casual Gameplay 2011You'll need cash to fund your defenses and tower upgrades, naturally, which is gained by defeating enemies, but you've also got an ace up your arm in the form of special abilities that can be played in each battle... call in reinforcements where you need them the most, or go with the good ol' fashioned Rain of Fire if you are a more sentimental sort. These specials are on timers, so use them as much as you want, but think before you throw them out there. You'll want to really strive to complete every level as quickly and tidily as possible, since doing so earns you stars that you can spend on the valuable upgrade tree between stages. If you're feeling particularly tough, you might also want to try replaying levels you've currently beaten in Heroic or Iron Challenge mode

Analysis: Kingdom Rush is an absolute treasure of a defense game, and probably one of the best examples of the genre to date. Not only does it look and sound great, but the gameplay with assurance strides that invisible line between being too complex and just strategical enough for players to really sink their teeth into. This is not to say that the game is simple; slapping towers down willy nilly without giving much thought to how they might play off one another's strengths is a good way to get yourself thoroughly massacred in short order when adversaries really start swarming in higher numbers. Since you can not only change the difficulty for each stage before you play it, however, but also reset your upgrades any time you please to tweak your strengths, it's unlikely that you'll ever find yourself at a stalemate and unable to proceed.
Talking of which, it does not take long before the game kicks off your training wheels and starts challenging your lunch money. At first you might find yourself wishing for a button to speed up the play, but after a few stages as new adversary types are introduced and you have to manage and potentially tweak tower location on the fly against huge swarms of adversaries, the last thing you'll want is for it to move more quickly. Some levels do tend to drag a little, with so many waves made up of so many baddies, but it still doesn't keep the game back from being a joy for fans to play. If you love tower defense and covertly think huge bushy ogres are adorable, you need to check Kingdom Rush out. It's a excellent, peppy, beautiful little game that will steal your time and your heart!... no, I mean literally! Really, dude, that bandit is about to cross the finish line!

• Control
• Screenshot

[1] - Select/Cancel Rain of Fire spell.

[2] - Select/Cancel Reinforcements spell.

[3] - Select/Cancel Lightning Bolt spell (Premium content only)

[4] - Activate/Cancel Sunray Tower.

[SPACE] - Cancel any selected spell/power/rally point.

[P] - Pauses the game.