"A quick distraction that isn't half-bad"

With a rather weak launch line up for Nintendo's new WiiWare service, I was wondering if the service would be any good at all. To be quite honest, only a couple of those several games even interested me. One of these games was XGen studio's Defend Your Own Castle. At 500 points the game is dirt cheap and seems like a great idea.

Based on the internet classic, Defend Your Own Castle, seems like a good fit for the Wii. Well, I shouldn't say based on the internet classic, because this, in essence, is the same game. You still click on the little simplistic stick figures and fling them. It doesn't get deeper than that folks. Well, the game actually has a decent selection of upgrades. The problem is that in just a few levels you'll have to upgrades and in later levels, against the throngs of enemies rushing your base they serve little protection. Sure, it's great fun to convert an enemy, but adding him to a position really doesn't do enough by the time you reach the late level 20's.

Of course, the game isn't totally the same. Besides the obvious Wii-Mote controls, it sports a 4-player cooperative Multiplayer mode. This is where the magic happens. Four players rapidly flinging their arms up is really, truly fun. Sure, the game adjusts the difficulty, but you'll feel as if you are making a team effort. Beating a level will leave smiles on your faces and a sense of accomplishment.

Technically, the game too great. It's crude and quirky on purpose, but still the game is about as good graphically as the flash version. Sound gets annoying when there are so many enemies, as you'll be hearing the same annoying scream for hours. It has some charm, but that doesn't make it any less awful.

When it boils down to it, however, the game is rather shallow. For five dollars, this is a quick buy that will give you a few days of kicks and you might pick it up from time to time. Maybe at parties, this is a great game, and it is indeed worth the price. The gameplay gets rather stale after a few games but still, five dollars...

Breakdown
+Awesome Multiplayer
+Fun to pick up and play
+Addicting at first...
+5 dollars makes the game way worth it
-Gets old pretty quick
-You probably won't touch it after a bit
- Graphics? What graphics?
- ...Stale after a few tries

OVERALL
7.8
(Rounds to an 8)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/15/08