[h1] Game Summary: [/h1]
This game is essentially the reverse of a tower-defense game. You do build bases, but they generate troops at your discretion since you buy each one that spawns in. Your goal is to get them past the enemy mobs and towers to take out their main base, with them trying to do the same to you (though you don't have towers). This isn't an unusual subversion of the TD genre, I've seen games do it before, but I think it's a bit harder to balance and design and the game manages to pull it off.
[h1] Pros: [/h1]
• The music works in steel-drums, and that's not something you can say about soundtracks very often. The tunes tend to be chipper and could almost fit as dance music. I tend to enjoy instrumental music though as a personal preference, so this falls into that arena for me easily.
• The game mixes up its style every so often with mini-game stages. They work off the basic engine, but one of them involves you trying to deliver a letter by placing springs on the stage at the right time to dodge enemies. It's a nice mixer so it's not constantly the same thing the whole way through.
• This style of game isn't as common as a normal TD game, but even though there are difficulty spikes and annoying stages, the game is well-balanced and designed. The fact that you wind up using many of the enemies yourself is probably what helped them work out the balance. I got stuck sometimes, but could always manage a solution eventually.
• Since you select what payload to bring into each stage you can try different approaches and styles. I'm not sure how many various strategies there really are for beating each stage, but the freedom is enjoyable regardless.
• Graphics are quite vibrant and colorful, which is an aesthetic I prefer. It suits the atmosphere of a scientist exploring tropical islands.
• Sure, the writing is cheesy, but it just kind of works. I do like the name anagram hijinks that goes on.
[h1] Cons: [/h1]
• Trying to grind for some of the troops you can use is tedious and annoying, with the Crate of MAD Horrors being one of the worst. I actually beat the hardest difficulty on the last stage before I unlocked it myself. It changes which stage it spawns in randomly, and since you never know what stage it will or won't show up in you have to really hunt it down. The game would be improved by lowering the requirements to get some of them, and giving you some clue where to find the Crate enemy.
• I'd be lying if I denied that I got annoyed and turned-off by the game at times. However, that was earlier on with the game, and later on I only needed an occasional break before I was working on beating the entire thing through on all three difficulties. If you can get into the groove of the game, it's a solid title, but I could see it losing some people as well.
• Even though I like the story and comedy of it, I could see how the protagonist would be unlikeable. He's certainly not an anti-hero, but he's also not someone you can earnestly root for or cheer on either. Hubris is certainly a flaw for him.
[h1] Tips: [/h1]
• Later game, the units and skills I found most useful (though you will want to take into consideration the color aspect) were the snow snails, sea slugs, bluebeary, and the stink plant. Snow snails increase your gold, which is always useful. Sea slugs are very useful, but not for the reason you'd first think of, letting you use several skills. Instead, what makes them so good is when you get all that excess energy, which ties in beautifully with bluebeary. The stink plant requires timing and proper placement, but as you get used to the game and learn when to use it, you'll find it's very powerful. There's no limit to how many enemies it can impact at once, and unlike the mine, which tends to get triggered by one fast enemy rushing in front of the others, it can linger in the sweet spot and be devastating.
• If you start getting stuck, try re-playing earlier stages on a higher difficulty (you have to progress through each difficulty stage by stage; you can't play 1-8 on silver or gold until you beat each previous stage on those difficulties first). As your generation rate for gold increases, you have a better ability to handle those stages, along with the different troops and tools at your disposal. For reference, as I was finishing the latter part of the game, my level was in the 70's.
• Conversely, if you get stuck on a silver or gold stage, try playing through the main game and progress further there. That's how you unlock new bases and tools, which can give you access to something you sorely needed before.
• There will be points in the game where you'll need to grind, and I find the best way to do this without it being as obnoxious as it could be, is to focus on trying to unlock new troops. That way you kill two birds with one stone.
[h1] Conclusion: [/h1]
It is slow-going at first, with my interest veering off from the game when I first gave it a genuine shot. However, when I went back to it, and started figuring out how to approach the game, I did wind up liking it more. Basically, you really want to replay early stages to earn more troops, as there are five colors available, and you need as many troops as you can get that will take advantage of the enemies being spawned in. Early on, they tend to be single-colored, so they'll be weak to two colors, but later on you'll need more variety and diversity to handle them. As I started increasing my selection of troops to spawn in and increased my gold generation rate, the game got better. I think this game has things going for it, if you can get past the first hour or so and pass that initial crest. If you aren't finding it enjoyable by that point, it's probably not going to improve further on, so it'd be a good time to refund it. Somehow, it surprises me how there's only 30 stages in the game, but since I beat them on each difficulty, which required multiple playthroughs and grinding, the game was longer than I thought it would have been. I think there's a very good experience here for the price.
