A subgenre of real-time strategy video games, “Tower Defense” games generally involve a set of enemies moving along a fixed path towards a goal. The player’s job is to set up towers along that path that destroy, damage, or otherwise hinder the enemies, preventing them from reaching their target. While there are games that fit this mold going back quite a way, the genre didn’t really take off until about 2005, when such games became mainstays of gaming culture.
There are quite a few interesting ways to vary the formula, one of which is the “Tower Offense” or “Reverse Tower Defense”, where you play the invading force moving down a path, and have to mitigate the obstacles that the computer has thrown up to stop you.
I love tower games. I’m normally pretty crap at real-time strategy (I can’t beat Starcraft 1′s story mode without cheat codes), but I can kick serious pixel and polygon at these. I love the concepts these games play with, I love the variations, and I love how many levels of a game feel like an intricate puzzle that’s actually fun to work out the solution to.
So, without any further ado, here are my top five favorite Tower games:
5) Villainous
The first game in my list is one of the aforementioned twists, a “Tower Offense” game. You are an evil overlord, sending waves of Goblins and whatnot to attack castles and villages. You have a variety of units to attack with, but only the Goblin Raiders can score you points when they make it to the end of the road – everyone else is just there to shield, heal, or otherwise make things easier for your Goblins to wade through enemy fire. You can’t actually damage any of the towers attacking you, but you can cast spells to stun them so they won’t attack for a bit. The tricky part of this game is that you usually have to send your attackers through multiple times to get enough points to pass the level, and the towers do escalating amounts of damage on each successive wave.
This is a complex, but fun game. The power-up store is huge, with many new options opening up as you play. I had to grind the first couple of levels a few times to get enough gold to buy means of surviving the later waves, but before long, I hit my groove and started on a nice path to victory. The game is quite enjoyable overall, and is available to play for free online.
4) Plants Vs. Zombies
By PopCap Games
I will freely admit that the idea of turning a zombie apocalypse into a whimsical comedy game would never, ever have occurred to me. This game is a real feather in PopCap’s already festooned cap, and a delightful game to play. There was a period of about three weeks where this game CONSUMED my free time, until I’d managed to purchase just about every item from the in-game store and unlocked all the achievements that I cared about. The game seems quite simple on the surface, with its cartoony graphics and straight-forward layout, but don’t let it fool you. Some of these levels are murder, and the mini-games can get downright mean if you’re not careful. Completely worth the $9.99 price tag for online download.
3) Anomaly: Warzone Earth
I first heard about this game from a Twitter post by Ben Kuchera, and immediately took a look. I’m glad I did! This is another “Tower Offense” game, albeit a much more aggressive one than Villainous. It’s the Near Future, and Earth has been attacked by aliens in two locations, Iraq and Japan. In both areas, a dome of energy has appeared (the eponymous Anomaly), and you control a military convoy making its way through an urban maze to uncover the truth while destroying alien fortifications. This game isn’t just about soaking up punishment like you did in Villainous, this time your units are there to kick ass and chew bubble gum.
The control system is a novel one for me; your avatar is a lone man on foot, who acts as the spotter and guide for your convoy. He can place four items on the ground at your command: smoke bombs to hide your forces, decoy tanks to draw fire, repair fields that heal any unit that passes through it, and markers that call in air strikes against enemy towers. Your avatar can and will be shot at, although he’s a durable little bastard. Even if he does get shot too much, he just needs a few seconds to get back up again, though your convoy is vulnerable while this is happening. The game’s strategy is mostly about creating a balanced lineup of offense and defense for your convoy, and also choosing the right route through the city, which you can adjust on the fly. Your attackers will automatically shoot at anything hostile in range, so you don’t need to worry about manually picking out each and every target.
My one complaint about this game is the voice acting. Most of the voicework does its job just fine, but when you get to the Japan stages, your team of Australian-voiced soldiers suddenly meet their Japanese liaison… and he talks like one of the Trade Federation Aliens from “The Phantom Menace.” It’s not good. I cringed whenever “Captain Tanaka” had any lines of dialogue, but this is otherwise a superb game. Anomaly: Warzone Earth is available for $9.99 for online download, and is a solid Threat To Your Wallet.
2) Kingdom Rush
Another discovery due to social media, this game got a lot of attention very recently when Felicia Day gave it a mention via Twitter and Facebook. It’s a free flash-based game, like Villainous above, but I would’ve been willing to put down good money for this one. The concept is simple: an evil wizard is sending waves of evil enemies against your kingdom, and you must man the defenses. You have four types of towers to choose from: Archers do low damage but have a high rate of fire. Mages do the exact opposite, hitting hard but slow. Artillery is even slower, but does area-effect damage, and Soldiers deploy directly onto the enemy’s path, doing melee damage and slowing the enemy assault. You have set areas where you can build towers, and you also have two spells you can cast – a Reinforcements spell to summon two extra melee fighters, which recharges about every ten seconds, and a spell to rain fire from the sky on a target area, which takes about ninety seconds to recharge.
Despite only having four tower types, the strategic options here are deep. Which towers are best for which part of the path? Do you deploy lots of little towers along the path, or do you concentrate on only a small number, leveling them up to create a lethal choke point? I was particularly impressed with the melee soldiers, as you can place them anywhere in a certain radius from their tower, and that placement is absolutely critical to a successful strategy. Another important point comes in the powerups – once you get a tower to a certain level, you can set it down one of two paths, each with very different attack options, which broadens your options even further as the game continues.
Made by an independent development team from Uruguay, I was extremely impressed with this game. I want more! I want new levels, I want an eventual sequel, and I want to see Ironhide Studios become an established brand name in gaming. Best of all, I did mention that it’s free, right? You have nothing to lose, and only entertainment and joy to gain. Not a bad deal whatsoever.
1) Defense Grid: The Awakening
This game was my original introduction to Tower games. In the winter of 2009, Steam was having one of their massive holiday sales, and I picked this up on a whim. BEST PURCHASE EVER. I have put more hours into this game than Final Fantasy X, and considering how addicted I was to the Blitzball mini-game back in the day, that’s saying something. The level of polish on this game is just beautiful to behold, and everything works great. The level designs are both challenging and fascinating to look over just as landscape art. The monsters you fight against are visually distinct and fun to shoot, the different towers and the ability to shape the enemy’s path on some levels make for a gargantuan number of strategic options, adding greatly to the replay value as you try different approaches. Finally, the voice acting by Jim Ward as your AI assistant is top-notch, adding just the right touches of humor, triumph, and melancholy at the appropriate moments. I cannot think of anything bad to say about this game whatsoever, and I gladly declare this game (available for $9.99, not counting DLC) a wonderful Threat To Your Wallet. I WANT a sequel to this game, I want it like a mouse wants his cheese.
Those are my top favorites, but if anyone else has any great Tower games that they’ve enjoyed, please let me know about them! I’m always looking forward to new challenges.