Defend Your Castle

"A flash game on WiiWare! huh?"

Introduction

So this is "Defend Your Castle" developed by XGen Studios, a very simple flash game ported to Wiiware, costing only 500 wii points, yet one of the best games I've ever downloaded on wii. (XGen studios has created many flash games including "Stick RPG")

Sound/ Music

Nothing special really, though the sound the stick figure guys make when they plummet to the ground is amusing... There is really never music playing or maybe I'm just deaf, but for the brief time when you're listening to the main menu music, enjoy it (because you won't hear much more sounds/music)

Graphics

Once again it's not the "OMG X360 GRAPHICS FTW!!!11" but it has a neat gimmicky style.
For example when you get your score at the end of a level they use cards to show it. (ex. 3 of diamonds and stuff) The grass, the castle, the sky and the clouds are all made of construction paper and your enemies have bottle cap heads popsicle sticks and a bunch of other stuff. Your cursor you use to pick up guys is a bread clip. (the thing you use to keep bread fresh) (I say it's more innovative then anything Nintendo has done ;p)

Gameplay

Ah the best part of "Defend Your Castle" the gameplay: The goal of the game is to, guess what DEFEND YOUR CASTLE! However there are many enemies that will attempt to kill your castle, including Stick Figures, Stick Figures with popsicle sticks, bottle cap guys, Stick Figures rolling bombs and catapults. You have to pick up enemies with your bread clip and throw them high to the sky (or bounce them into walls, whatever your preference is) (for certain enemies you only have to click/press them a few times to kill them, usually the bigger enemies work that way) but that's not the only way to kill them... You can purchase many upgrades for your castle like the PIT OF CONVERSION! You pick up enemies and drop them into a paint bucket that comes up at your castle, this will convert your enemies to allies to use in: THE FOUR TOWERS OF DEATH (ok they're not really called that) You can put allies in the Stone Mason Tower and they will slowly replenish your health. You can put allies in the Archer Tower to recruit archers that will shoot arrows with relatively good accuracy. You can put allies in the Magician Tower to learn new spells for you to use, the first of which being an eraser to erase your enemies.
Last but not least the Explosives Tower in which you send out a Stick Figure rolling a bomb
to your enemies. (suicide bomber)

Note- All towers are sold seperately (batteries not included) You can also buy castle fortifications (increases your castle's health) and health packs (replenishes your health)

Basically what I'm trying to say is that the towers add a big strategic element to the game as the more units you have in towers the better that skill will be. You continue through the rounds, new enemies being introduced every now and then, until eventually it is just too hard to go on (literally it is impossible) it is like an angry mob of people with popsicle sticks and hammering fists that absolutely destroy you, now you can start a new file in the Heroic difficulty :D

Multiplayer

Multiplayer in this game is chaotic but still pretty fun. It is chaotic because the game adjusts how many emotionless stick figures come to attack based on the number of players. You can have up to four players playing until the end of the round when your scores are compared and someone is crowned the "King" (The King gets to choose upgrades)

Problems I have:
The only real problems I have with this game are the fact your wrist / hand hurts after about an hour and a half or so (which reminds me, don't play this game for long periods of time if you have wrist/ hand problems, or at least take breaks) Problem #2 After going through billions of enemies (sarcasm) in single player it can start to get dull, boring and repetitive but that is your cue to start heroic mode or at least venture into multiplayer with your friends. Problem #3 There is virtually no music and pretty dull sounds but hey that's what iPods and CD players are for right?


Overall

Wow... I never knew such a simple game could be so fun and addictive. The only real problem I have with this game is as the single player gets harder, it gets boring, but invite some friends over or play with a sibling and the experience is renewed. If you're really not sure about this game try the slightly degraded flash version at the XGen website then decide whether to buy it or not.

Cost of Game: 500 Wii Points
Developer: XGen Studios
Overall Score: 8/10

Have fun with this amazing game!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/11/08

Game Release: Defend Your Castle (US, 05/12/08)