Shattered Horizon creator Futuremark Games Studio has been teasing a trio of games, but the most interesting one of the bunch was revealed this afternoon. Unstoppable Gorg is a tower defense title that draws heavy inspiration from World War II-era sci-fi and the new theatrical trailer released certainly proves that FGS has a handle on the gag.
To get just a tad more specific, Unstoppable Gorg will have you protecting the entire solar system from alien attack. In order to beat back the alien hordes, you’ll be tasked with deploying satellites around planets, moons, and even space stations. Curiously, and this is a point made very clear in the announcement materials, you’ll be able to grab and move your satellites after placing them down.
"With Unstoppable Gorg we have been inspired by classic sci-fi films to create a game of flying saucers, rubbery aliens, dodgy effects, and earnest heroes,” an FGS representative said in a statement. "[It] builds on the core tower defense mechanics that fans love while shattering the genre's conventions to provide exciting new experiences."
Shattering genre conventions is something Unstoppable Gorg will need to do in order to succeed on the App Store. There are a billion other tower defense games to choose from, all of which have benefitted design-wise from the genre’s sudden explosion on the ‘Store. Here's a free weapon idea, Futuremark: cat cannons. No other game I know of has them. Oh, wait, here's another one: nets, like the kind Cyrax throws. I know, I know -- I'm a genius.
No release date has been set, by the way. Thus far we’ve only got a general 2011 release window for iPad, PC, and Xbox Live Arcade.
The best thing about the iTunes family of storefronts is that it carries Sharon Stone’s moody and moving flick “Last Dance.” The second best thing, which is more relevant to our interests as a site on the Internet that deals with games, is the stunning amount of video game sales.
This week in particular has an awesome sale. Publisher Com2uS is slashing the prices of every single one of its offerings down to 99 cents. Get those wallets outs, dogs. It’s time to put those debit and credit cards to good use. Let’s take a look at the list:
That's a lot of solid games going on the cheap. If you'd like a suggestion, I'd say you should jump ALL OVER Tower Defense. It's an awesome game with tons of levels, hours of play, and fun challenges. The most recent update also patched in some balance tweaks, which means that you can finally finish "Vulcan," AKA the impossible-level-that-I-poured-four-hours-into pre-patch. Of course, you can't go wrong with most of these at this price point, either.
War Grimoire [$1.99 / HD] is a tower defense title with the trappings of a great genre-based game, but its execution of fundamental elements and basic design are holding it back.
Instead of lingering on the bad, I’ll note what drew our all-seeing eye to the project in the first place: its visual flair.
War Grimoire's world is a vibrant one, enriched by traditional fantasy and Japanese comics and cartoon tropes. In this genre in particular, it’s unusual to see a well-budgeted game shoot for something outside of space marines, bugs, and ravaged worlds.
Character has a place, too. Instead of traditional towers, soldiers of all builds -- including archers, mages, and dragons -- are the pillars of defense. While it does default to dull monsters, there are some creative enemies that end up attacking your armies in ways I’ve never seen in a tower defense title before.
One of the more remarkable aspects is tower placement. Most levels allow you free reign with placement. It’s like the wild west of tower defense titles in this regard. Enemies pile in from all over the place, and you’ve got to be wise with your limited resources, but near infinite placement of long-distance soldiers and close-up fighters.
I also want to make note of the RPG tie-in. As in most tower defense games, you can upgrade your ‘towers’ while a level progresses. In this, however, you can take it a step further by upgrading individual class weapons and skill trees with points earned from the battles you’ve won, or hey, even lost.
In the pre-release images for War Grimoire, we saw massive battles: huge numbers of enemies and soldiers smacking each other in a centralized area. It looked chaotic, but in the fun, manageable sort of way. There was reason to the placement, at least.
In execution, battles fall apart. They’re in fact, too chaotic. Enemy pathways are clearly enough defined from the get-go, but then they take odd turns that you can’t anticipate if you haven’t played a level before. Worst case, they take odd turns that you flat-out can’t defend because it’s impossible to earn enough in-level currency to defend these points.
Disorganized chaos is the tip of the iceberg in a title otherwise riddled with much smaller design issues. The UI is needlessly heavy, games don’t always save properly, the English translation is terrible, and in general, success is measured by trial-and-error.
I’d love to see this game patched with a couple of updates. It has a bright future if the core is tweaked and massaged.
Heads up: Tower Defense: Lost Earth [$.99] for iPod Touch and iPhone is 66 percent off for a “limited time.” So, until... whenever, you can grab it for 99 cents, which is a few dollars shy of its regular price of $2.99. The HD version of the game for iPad remains $4.99.
Lost Earth is a fantastic tower defense game -- and it should be considering that it’s the only tower defense game that can carry the name “tower defense.” In our review, we laud its kitchen sink approach to level design and compliment its other strengths at length.
I’ve been picking at the game since its release while doing my thing on the elliptical at the gym. My big takeaway is that the campaign possesses a good mix of new concepts and smart tweaks on the few-and-far-between revisited elements. It's almost like the StarCraft II of tower defense games in this regard -- you're constantly being given a new object to play with or new approaches to tackle. Sure, I’ve got some qualms with the enemy balance on some levels (Vulcan, I hate you), but overall it’s a solid TD experience.
Hopefully, we’ll see the HD price plummet at some point in the future -- it’s definitely the superior version of the game courtesy the enhanced screen real estate.
At WWDC, I had a chance to sit down with David Whatley, who brought us GeoDefense and GeoDefense Swarm, to discuss what he's got in store for us iOS gamers.
Whatley's path-based tower defense title GeoDefense is unquestionably the iOS tower defense game I've spent the most time with. There's definite appeal in its minimal, neon glowing graphics and relentless action. During our meeting, the author showed me an in-progress build of sequel GeoDefense 2, which is a tower defense game -- with a twist.
In the simplest terms, GeoDefense 2 is a tower defense puzzle game. The game features a pre-laid track along which the encroaching enemies file through, but each level starts off with a number of towers already in place. Your task is to arrange the towers about the playfield in the most strategically sound fashion, but there's a catch: you can only move towers across straight track segments and empty space; towers can't be moved over each other or over track corner segments. This arrangement lends something of a sliding puzzle feel to the strategerie of the game. To make matters either better or worse (we'll see...), new turrets appear with each wave.
Tower defense is a now crowded genre in the App Store, and a notable variation on the formula is welcome. I was very much intrigued by what Whatley showed me of GeoDefense 2, and am anxious to give it a go in its final, release form.
In addition to his GeoDefense sequel, which will be published through his studio Critical Thought, Whatley gave us an exclusive look at his upcoming title, Tiny Heroes, to be published by the other studio with which he is involved, Simutronics. In short, it's Plants vs. Zombies meets Dungeon Keeper.
In Tiny Heroes, you play the dungeon. The objective of the game is to defend your treasures by placing the defenses you've chosen about your dungeon corridors. Waves of classic heroes of various sorts and abilities -- thieves, knights, clerics, wizards, rangers, etc. -- begin to invade your dungeons in an effort to make off with the booty.
The defenses available are a bit more varied than those of the typical tower defense game. There are crossbows, crush chambers, pop-up pikes, allied monsters, bombs, and the like. The incoming heroes vary in their ability to deal with the different defenses; the thieves can sometimes disarm bombs, for instance.
For the creative defense gamer, a forge area in the game allows players to craft their own custom towers. Tiny Heroes will take advantage of the Retina display where available and the graphics look sharp. The iPhone version is set for an August 1st submission to Apple, with an iPad version to follow, in time.
There are, I think, four people left on Earth who don’t own the following titles from PopCap Games: Plants vs. Zombies [$2.99 / HD] and Peggle[$2.99]. If you don’t, shame on you sirs. If you do already have them, here’s some good news -- Peggle now supports the Retina Display and PVZ now has the Zen Garden. Both of these respective updates are available for free right now.
The news of the Peggle update broke yesterday afternoon, just about right when the update when live on the App Store. This update fixes, really, the only issue I had with the original game, which is to say, its muddy, out-dated visuals.
The Zen Garden is a different beast. It functions just like how it does in PVZ proper. It’s an interactive garden that gives you cash in return for your green thumbs. You earn plants in the campaign or by purchasing them from Crazy Dave. As you earn more cash, you’ll be able to unlock additional gardens, which in return, will give you more cash to buy all the high-priced action plants in PVZ.
New mini-games, as well as Game Center-linked achievements have been added to PVZ alongside the Zen Garden. That’s quite an update, eh?
There is no way to beat around the bush, so let's just get this out of the way from the start: Com2uS trademarking "tower defense," for Tower Defense: Lost Earth [$2.99 / HD] is a little bonkers, like if Call of Duty was granted a trademark and changed its name to First Person Shooter. Not only does it peeve off a bunch of developers caught in the legal crossfire, it also gives players incredibly lofty expectations for the final product when it's branded as the "officially trademarked" game of tower defense.
Thankfully, it delivers, albeit through a kitchen sink approach more than an innovative one. This is in fact a tower defense game and you'll get every single tower defense trope you've ever run into. The core campaign takes the preset route approach, where you'll set up your units on a grid and the enemies will take a predestined path. There are, however, seven different challenge stages that offer more variety, including several that utilize freeform defense where you create the enemy paths by obstructing the enemy's movements, like in Fieldrunners [$2.99 / HD].
You'll have nine different units to choose from, each of which act as you'd expect in a tower defense game and counter the ten different enemy types in different ways. Enemy diversity is limited to slow, fast, and slow then exploding-into-fast-creatures. Killing enemies and shooting at certain environmental structures yield crystals that can be turned into more units. Some of the stages have actual resource-gathering units associated with them, but don't expect it to be a major part of the experience. The limited units and enemy types means each stage has a relatively restricted number of ways to complete it, which is altered slightly based on the difficulty setting you choose.
There are three difficulty settings, each changing the number of enemies, your starting resources or the score awarded. There are also four different game modes, the standard defense mode, a survival mode, a resource gathering mode and an attack mode. The first three are pretty self-explanatory, but the attack mode changes the dynamic of the game in an unusual way. You'll have to defend by setting up towers as you usually would, but you'll also have to expand through the level to get your units close enough to a boss to attack it. At times it's more annoying than it is innovative, as the core game doesn't change and it ends up just adding a layer of grinding.
But for the most part, the game is well balanced and well paced and you probably won't find yourself getting stuck too often. There were a few levels that stumped me where I was wishing there was a help or skip function, but for the most part, if you follow the "rock, paper, scissors" approach to defending against enemies, you'll get through the campaign on the easiest setting with little trouble. As far as strategy is concerned, there are two different ways you can approach a match, either by upgrading your units (you get two upgrades to each unit) or by scattering a ton of units across the map. Upgrading seems to work better in the long term, but your mileage may vary. If you find yourself in a pinch, each level offers you one additional attack with a one-time use. These include gas that slowly drains enemy life, a ship that drops bombs and others.
Perhaps because Com2uS is already in deep water with a lot of players because of the trademarking, it should come as no surprise the game is well executed. Visually, it has the same look as a lot their RPGs, with well-animated sprites, diversity in the environments and a reasonably long campaign. The menus and interface are well laid out and work well on both the iPhone and iPad. Although the game is refined, it's still generic sci-fi nonsense, clearly inspired by the menus of nearly every single PC science fiction game in existence. The sound doesn't live up to the visuals, with comparatively underwhelming enemy and weapon sound effects.
The campaign does feature a story mode, but it reads like pretty much every RTS storyline ever written. You need to expand to save the human race and to do so, you've decided to exploit the resources of an alien planet. The inhabitants aren't too keen on this idea and start attacking your settlements by running at your guns in waves. It's commendable Tower Defense: Lost Earth tries to add a narrative layer, but the fact you're the invading party, not the defending one makes the story come across as more ridiculous than it already is.
There is leaderboard integration with Game Center as well, but the options are relatively limited. With as much development effort that was clearly dumped into the game, you'd expect to see a bit more stat tracking, trophies or more complex leaderboards. That's only going to matter to some people, but for statistics nerds, the streamlined leaderboards might be a bit of a disappointment.
There is no way around the fact that naming your game after a genre is really not that wise of a decision, but Tower Defense: Lost Earth does a good job of providing exactly what you'd expect from it. Still, it's hard to shake the feeling the game is missing something -- it's a well-executed genre game, but it lacks character. It's not going to fundamentally change what we expect from the genre, it's not going to shift mountains or alter the collective consciousness, but it will give tower defense nuts a deep and nicely packaged experience-- And really, what more can you ask for?
Note: Tower Defense: Lost Earth is presently being advertised on this site, but it has no influence on our choice of coverage or the outcome of our reviews. See advertising and editorial policies for additional details.
Go into the App Store and type in “Tower Defense” into the search field. You’ll see two full pages of tower defense titles -- and that’s not even half of the games in the genre. What you won't see is a game specifically called Tower Defense, as it's a Com2us trademark, and their enforcement of that trademark actually caused quite a bit of drama on our forums early last year. So what's the officially trademarked Tower Defense: Lost Earth game all about? Well, it actually sounds like it could be really cool.
The iPhone and iPod touch version of the game will be released on the App Store May 26th for $2.99, also, a universal version will be available for $4.99. Hopefully Com2uS (and other developers) continues this trend, as the lower-priced iPhone-specific version and higher-priced universal version is a great compromise to the double dipping we've seen with "standard" and "HD" releases. In the content department, Tower Defense: Lost Earth will have 9 towers, 10 enemy types, and 40 campaign levels spread across 5 differently themed worlds. DLC is planned as well, both adding additional maps and tower types.
Several weeks back, we took a look at the video for Vampire Rush [$1.99/HD], developed by A-steroids and published by Chillingo, and the game has since launched as part of last week’s influx of new releases. Vampire Rush is a tower defense/hack ‘n slash hybrid, and if that sounds familiar that’s because the same sort of genre mishmash was used in Dungeon Defenders [$2.99] released late last year.
The problem with Dungeon Defenders, though, was that it was an excellent game that was not a great fit for the iOS platform. The complex gameplay and cluttered interface marred what would be a great experience on a full-fledged console. Vampire Rush takes the opposite approach, providing much more streamlined gameplay and an accessible interface. While it is a much easier game to grasp, it’s almost too simple, and is hampered with some imbalances and a high level of difficulty. Despite this, Vampire Rush is still a lot of fun, and with some minor tweaking and a dose of extra content it could be a standout example of this unique mixed genre.
Last week, Chillingo released a new gameplay video for their upcoming game Vampire Rush. Vampire Rush is a hack ‘n slash dungeon crawler with tower defense elements, not completely unlike the previously released Dungeon Defenders [99¢]. The difference here, it seems by the video, is that Vampire Rush looks far less complicated and cluttered, which probably bodes well for a mobile title. The artwork is very colorful, which is a nice change from the drab colors that usually make up games of this ilk. Take a look at the video and see for yourself:
Vampire Rush is developed by A-steroids and was released for Samsung phones last October to positive reviews. A-steroids had planned on having an iOS port released this past January, although obviously that date has come and gone. The good news is that the extra development time is going towards making Vampire Rush more than just a simple port of the Samsung version, and should include additional content and enhancements. Also, it’s probably worth noting that despite the vaguely similar style, Vampire Rush doesn’t appear to have anything to do with Chillingo’s previously released Vampire Origins [99¢/Lite/HD].
There’s no solid release date yet, but with Chillingo jumping in to publish the title and releasing this video, I can only hope that this means it’s right around the corner. There’s a discussion for Vampire Rush taking place in our upcoming games forum, and we’ll keep our eye out for any new information on this title.
We've made severalposts covering the games that we were shown at the EA Mobile / Chillingo media event that took place during GDC 2011. The last title we've got to share from that event is an ambitious twist on the tower defense formula called Anomaly Warzone Earth, coming from Polish group 11 Bit Studios, to be published by Chillingo for both iPhone and iPad
In 2018, the world stood in terror and watched as a giant comet flung from the heavens entered our atmosphere and slammed into the Earth. Impact point: Baghdad. Only, it wasn't a comet. Upon impact, the alien craft erected a gigantic dome, concealing the invaders' activities from all the world. It's up to you to command waves of Earth forces in order to penetrate the alien defenses and confront the otherworldly intruders.
Paradox Interactive is targeting multiple high-profile platforms for the release of its tower defense game Defenders of Ardania: Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, PC, and... the iPad?
Yeah, that’s right -- the iPad. We don't know too much about Defenders of Ardania yet, but this type of development illustrates the ever-growing pull Apple has on the digital market. You see, games that are usually slated for "major platforms" (which generally consist of the PS3, Xbox 360, and sometimes the PC) typically don’t see an immediate release on the iPad. Or at least, the iOS version isn’t mentioned in the same breath as these other, I guess you could say, “more important” platforms. So, score one for Apple here as it continues to shoulder its way into core development plans.
Oddly enough, this doesn't seem that out of the ordinary anymore. We’re seeing quite a few developers bringing substantial ports to iOS. Telltale Games, for example, is queuing up iPad versions of its popular properties. We’ve seen the release of the first chapter of Tales of Monkey Island and will eventually see a release of the Back to the Future series on the platform. Games like Dungeon Defenders not only run on multiple platforms, but soon will support multiplayer between all of them as well.
It's really cool seeing iOS devices considered a "major platform" by more and more game developers. What's going to be even cooler to see is what happens in the future as the next generation of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch are released which will inevitably close the performance gap even more between portable devices and home consoles. I can't wait.
Back in October, we posted a preview video of Bug Heroes from Foursaken Media, developers of the popular iOS title N.Y. Zombies [99¢]. The aim of Bug Heroes was to provide a dual-stick shooter combined with elements of tower defense, as well as multiple playable characters who could also level up and upgrade in a somewhat RPG fashion. It sounded like a tall order for an iOS game, possibly too tall, and we were anxious to get our hands on the game to see how it would pan out. Today, Bug Heroes [$1.99] has launched in the App Store, and not only has Foursaken come through with all their promised gameplay variety but they have surprised me with just how remarkably well it all works together.
The bulk of Bug Heroes takes place in the Adventure mode. Here you battle in 4 different environments using a combination of three different characters as you defend a stockpile of food from an onslaught of hungry insect enemies. Money is collected as you defeat enemies which can then be used on various types of upgrades. You can add several different types of turrets to your food pile to protect it while you are away, or you can buy better weaponry to increase the offense of each character. Gameplay involves exploring each environment to collect additional food to add to your stockpile while simultaneously fending off enemies. The game ends when all three characters die or your entire food reserve is depleted.
The three characters in Bug Heroes each have their own strengths and weaknesses, and play quite differently from one another. There's the ant who has average strength and defense but can use an assortment of guns to dispatch enemies from a distance. Then there is a beetle and a spider who have a melee-based offense. The beetle is slow but heavily armored, and can damage a group of enemies in one blow. The spider is quick with powerful attacks, but isn't as well protected. Each of these characters can be changed to on the fly, and it's imperative to recognize which one to use in any given situation in the game.
There are a ton of different enemies in Bug Heroes, both large and small, who will react differently and must be dealt with accordingly. Some will come after your character directly, some will bypass you and go straight for your food pile, and some will sit stationary and use ranged weapons against you, forcing you to go to them. Enemies come in waves, with their strength and numbers increasing with each new one. Your heroes will earn experience as they defeat enemies which allows you to add attribute points to their various skills as they level up.
The combination of switching characters, dealing with the different enemies, upgrading and leveling up, and worrying about your stockpile of food ensures a constant stream of action as you play Bug Heroes. There is a lot going on in the game, but it flows really well and ends up being a lot of fun and not overwhelming. If this wasn't enough, there are also timed quests that will pop up as you play, like collecting coins or killing certain enemy types, that can earn you additional money and experience. Besides the Adventure mode, there is also a more standard survival mode called Coliseum. This mode has you picking just one of the three characters and taking on endless waves of enemies. You still level up, gain money, and can upgrade your weapons, but it's a more straightforward way to play Bug Heroes and feels different enough that it could almost be its own separate game.
Visually, the game looks fantastic, with dynamic lighting effects and a day/night cycle that changes the ambience as you play. The character designs in particular are really well done, and your heroes and the many different enemies all have a lot of personality. The nice graphics do bring up my only gripe with Bug Heroes though, which is that the game has a tendency to stutter at times when there is lots of action onscreen at once. The game is optimized for all devices, and you can choose to tone down the graphical effects in the options, but it still will occasionally hang even if you do.
There is just so much going on in Bug Heroes, it's amazing that it all blends so incredibly well. What I like the most is that Foursaken has put a lot of different gameplay elements into the game, but there is a wide range of personalization in how you choose to use them, allowing you to play the game the way that suits you the best. Bug Heroes reminds me a lot of Cave's Mushihimesama Bug Panic [$4.99/Lite] in that it adds a ton of skill and strategy to the dual-stick shooter formula, instead of the typical mindless killing, and it's going to be really hard to ever find a way to enjoy a typical dual-stick shooter again. Bug Heroes is receiving a lot of positive impressions from players in our forums, and Foursaken is actively addressing feedback and suggestions. If you have any interest in the various genres present in Bug Heroes, or you just like a solid action game, then it's definitely recommended to give Bug Heroes a look.
While we weren't too crazy about Dungeon Defenders: First Wave [$2.99] in our review, we have no problem getting behind any developer committed to continually supporting their games. We've already posted about Trendy Entertainment's intentions to add completely cross-platform multiplayer, and on Christmas Eve, they released this teaser trailer for Dungeon Defenders: Arena.
Trendy is referring to the arena as a "PvP expansion", so we're not really sure quite yet whether this is going to be a free update, a whole new app, or some kind of DLC. We hope with all of these feature additions they have time to address some of the control issues, as once all of these Dungeon Defenders updates hit, we're going to have an iOS game on our hands with an insane feature set.
We've received word that InMotion Software, the creators of I Dig It and Dungeon Defense, has slashed the prices of a chunk of its iTunes portfolio. As of yesterday, several of their titles became cheaper than before:
I Dig It, $0.99 - [iPad] - [Review] - In I Dig It, you play as Farmer Lewis, a man who is in a bit of a monetary pickle and needs to pay the mortgage on his farm. Naturally, when faced with financial difficulties, the first thing that comes to mind is retrofitting an old bulldozer into a digging machine to search for over 60 types of subterranean treasures beneath your homestead. The iPad version, I Dig It HD [$2.99] is also on sale, and sports many improvements mentioned when we first got our hands on it.
I Dig It Expeditions, $2.99 - [iPad] - [Review] - Continuing on his adventure, Farmer Lewis strikes it big from the original I Dig It (spoilers?) and decides to take his digger on the road. In Expeditions, you dig in many different locations, including a crazy underwater level. If you liked I Dig It, Expeditions is as close to a "must-have" as you can get.
Dungeon Defense, $0.99 - [iPad] - [Review] - An odd twist on tower defense that puts you in charge of a dungeon, and you need to place various minions to defend it. The iPhone version has been 99¢ for a while, but if you've got an iPad Dungeon Defense HD [$1.99] is worth picking up while it's on the cheap.
Professor Wordington's Spellatorium [$2.99] is one of the few InMotion-developed joints that didn't receive a cut. The reason is probably tied to the fact that the game just released on the App Store on December 19 -- a mere few days ago.
Prof Word seems pretty cool based on our limited time with it so far. It's a word in which you and an opponent take turns adding letters to a word fragment. The point is to not be the dude who ends up spelling a word, or, additionally, be the first dude to point out that a word cannot be spelled from the growing letter cluster. Basically, the game boils down to tricking someone and knowing the dictionary.
Also, there's a layer of RPG elements that spice up the adversarial play. Each word fight has multiple rounds since each opponent has a health bar. You earn and find items that magnify the amount of damage you can do in a round, as well as blunt the impact of screwing up. And if that wasn't enough, there's InMotion constructed a hip, limited environment to explore and find dudes to fight inside.
Prof Word is available for the iPad now and we've been told that a Universal app update has been submitted to Apple. Check it out if this all sounds hip to you, or, hey, grab I Dig It's bangin' follow-up on the cheap.
Shattered Horizon creator Futuremark Games Studio has been teasing a trio of games, but the most interesting one of the bunch was revealed this afternoon. Unstoppable Gorg is a tower defense title that draws heavy inspiration from World War II-era sci-fi and the new theatrical trailer released certainly proves that FGS has a handle on the gag.
War Grimoire [$
There are, I think, four people left on Earth who don’t own the following titles from PopCap Games: 
There is no way to beat around the bush, so let's just get this out of the way from the start: Com2uS trademarking "tower defense," for Tower Defense: Lost Earth [
Go into the App Store and type in “Tower Defense” into the search field. You’ll see two full pages of tower defense titles -- and that’s not even half of the games in the genre. What you won't see is a game specifically called Tower Defense, as it's a Com2us trademark, and their enforcement of that trademark actually 
We've received word that 
