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Star Defense (iPhone)

That Rev Chap — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:44:00 +0000

Yes, I’ve moved on to the full game. I’m going through the game on easy mode right now, to get used to the new towers and levels. It’s not been at all tricky so far, but that’s to be expected. I like easy modes that actually are easy. They’re doing it right.

Anyway, this is fast becoming my favourite tower defense game on the iPhone. It seems to be tuned just right in all areas, not just the difficulty level. The speed seems spot on, the controls are perfect and it doesn’t drag on too long. It’s a very good example of game design, I reckon.

Incidentally, I was a little bit surprised to see a splash ad on the main menu screen when I started it up.

But, you know, if that means I get the game for 59p instead of £2.99, or whatever, I’m all for it.

Star Defense Prelude (iPhone)

That Rev Chap — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:49:00 +0000

I did! I did it! I did it on Hard! I AM VICTORY!

Er, yeah, you probably need to go and download this as soon as you possibly can, I reckon.

Star Defense Prelude (iPhone)

That Rev Chap — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:15:00 +0000

Was awake a while before my alarm went off this morning. After checking what had happened online overnight – aren’t iPhones just great? – I played a few rounds of Star Defense Prelude on Medium difficulty. As I said yesterday, I wasn’t going to start playing the full game until I’d managed to complete that task.

And, just after my alarm went off, I did it. I didn’t have many lives left, but I did it. A glorious moment, indeed. After making a terrible first impression, this is fast becoming one of my favourite tower defense games.

So, now that’s done, I can play the full game. Except, except there’s still one commendation (i.e. achievement) I’ve not got… which is finishing the level on Hard. That may well be completely out of my league, but I’ve got to try, right?

Star Defense Prelude (iPhone)

That Rev Chap — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:26:00 +0000

This is the Lite version of Star Defense, basically, but I believe it acts as a prequel to the main game. It’s a fixed path tower defense game, with the twist being that the levels are set on small, spherical asteroids, so you have to rotate them around to see different parts of the level.

At first, this is exceptionally annoying and feels like a willful way to make the game harder simply by limiting your information, or maybe just an example of technology being given precedence over game design. After a few minutes, though, you get used to it and it starts to make sense. Yes, it does make the game harder than if you could flatten it out and see the whole level at once, but learning the path and rotating frantically to get where you need to be becomes part of the fun of it all.

It’s all pretty standard, with the normal selection of towers and creeps with the usual statistics and resistances, but it feels a lot more involving than many other games of its type. I didn’t often find myself sitting back after having set up my defenses and waiting for the creeps to get slaughtered. I was always spinning around, trying to find the optimum spot for new towers and making hard decisions about whether it was better to spend a lot of money on upgrades or small amounts on new low-power towers.

Basically, it works and after the bad first impressions I’ve become very fond of it. The full version of the game is currently 59p, but I won’t be playing it until I’ve beaten the single level included in this version on Medium difficulty. I can get to the final wave, but can’t quite hold on long enough to win.