For Narniaaa!!!

"For Narnia!!!!" These are precisely the words I screamed as I begun the battle. My towers were ready, my forces stood strong, but the enemy approached like waves upon waves, obliterating my kingdom. I sat there, slumping in my seat, before I hit restart and begun the level again with fierce determination in my eyes...



Kingdom Rush has been an app that I have thouroughly enjoyed, and it brings me great pleasure to review this game. At first, I found the controls annoying and the gameplay a little dull, but if you just delve in a little bit more, you can find a real treasure of a game on the app store.

The app is a tower defense raider game, with various levels that follow a typical medieval story. There a multiple enemies, but not that many towers. Only four actually.
That's right, four towers to choose: barracks, archer tower, mage lair and bomb dispenser. Now, you may be thinking, "Four towers!? How gay" but I will stop you there good sir, as there is more then meets the eye.
My first arguement is that the developers, Ironhide Games Studio, have promised more towers. Great!
My second arguement is that these towers develop into 8 different specialty towers that look cool and
work great! This adds more units and more fun!

Even so, there are tower upgrades, hero's, and special 'God' abilities to turn the tide.

But, there is a downside... this game is hard! Like, seriously, take a rock, put it in concrete, then cover it with diamonds and then make it Chuck Norris's abs; it's almost as hard as that!!
I have spent many agonizing days having to restart endless battles, because in the end they overkill my units and I end up with butthurt >.> Not cool.
In other negative aspects, the monetary unit, gold, is extremely difficult to get in game. Defeating an enemy or summoning the next wave gets you more money, but in the end it's easily spent.

Even though there are these negatives, I still find it a fun game! Trust me, I have wasted many hours on this amazing game. Don't believe me that it's fun? Then read these reviews:

"Kingdom Rush is a beaut of a tower defense game, with new ideas that make it feel extremely polished and refined." Slidetoplay
                  
"This is easily one of the best tower defense games currently in the App Store." Gamezeebo
                  
"Kingdom Rush is an instant classic and is guaranteed to turn up on 2012 "best of" lists." IGN
                  
"Kingdom Rush can be filed in the thin folder marked -games that are pretty much perfect-." Jayisgames

I give this game a 5/5 for fun, a 3/5 for originality, a 4/5 for gameplay and a 3/5 for development. I like this app guys, it's a real beauty.

ZED

Swordigo: Child's Fantasy game popular with oldies.

For those of you who rememeber Mario, it was the age of revolutionary platforming systems. A little italian plumber runs across the screen dodging fireballs and jumping on enemies: ingenius gameplay! Well these platformer style games have arrived for the Iphone, and they look better then ever.

The main opening screen.

Swordigo, recently released by Touch Foo, has ingeniusly created a 2D world of fantasy that includes multiple gear, level up systems, power ups and enemies.
The game is simple in design, but incredible as a puzzle solver. A gamer can spend a max of four hours gameplay to finish the storyline, but spend another hour unlocking the maxed out items and weapons.

Pros:
Creative system- The user interface is smart. There are no moving buttons to imitate where your fingers touch the screen; the buttons stay where they are.
Level Up System- The classic level up system provides a prior goal to gamers should they finish the story-line quickly.
Puzzle Play!- Most maps have ingenius puzzles that require a lot of thinking and magic from the player.
Trinkets- THis was my most favourite aspect of the game. Throughout the worlds, certain places give you a 'trinket'. These magical spheres enchant your weapons, magic spells and armour to give it special abilitis. Currently I use the shadow trinket on my iron sword, giving it a purple aura. But it doesn't just change the image, it gives it special powerups too! But, if I was to use it on my armour, it would allow me to pass through enemies when I chose to! Amazing! (NOTE: In the above image of the app icon, the 'fire trinket, can be seen on the sword)
Multiple Bosses- Bosses unlock different achievments, and can be found in secret 'coves' under or abve the map. Defeating them will unlock trinkets for you character.

One of the many bosses of the 'Shadow Lord'. His minions will try to defeat you!

Cons:
Childish Graphics/Gameplay- The animation makes it look like a child's game. There is no detail in the characters, and the story-line is really simple to pick up (Which makes the ending easier to guess). 
4 hours!!!- That's right, depending on your thumb skill, this game has a max of 4-5 hours gameplay. The abd news: there is nothing online except for achievments. Unfortunetly, history in the appstore tells us that apps without online gameplay are rarely bought, due to their entertainment factyor decreasing by the time everything has been experienced.

Gameplay is very '2D' based. Like Mario!

Glitchy- Sometimes shuts down. Very aggravating. 'Nuff said.

My rating: 4/5 for creativity, 2/5 for gameplay, a 3/5 for price and a 3/5 for originality. Well done Touch Foo, you created a game that I thouroughly enjoyed!

Zed