My Star Defense Review

[dashzed]

ok, i think this review got lost in the big thread, but here it is so you people on the defense can decide about it:

STAR DEFENSE - Reviewed by Dashzed

For the past couple of days, you have probably noticed the extreme hype over ngmoco's latest game, Star Defense. While other 3d tower defense games such as Sweetwater Defense and Tower Madness, but none seemed to have near the amount of polish that Star Defense showed in the few videos we were showed. After staring at exciting banners on TouchArcade for a couple of days, the question will finally be answered: will it stand up to the hype?

Let me start this by first saying that I am a HUGE fan of the star defense genre, from the classic web-based flash games to the massive influx of them on the iDevice, so this game will have a lot to stand up to and surpass before it can take the coveted position of number one strategy game on my ipod.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:

ok, first thing we start with the logos of ngmoco and roughcookie, and i will mention that it did crash one time(although i did not restart). we then have a short loading screen, then a very polished intro video, which transitions nicely to the planet selection menu, with an option to go to the main menu. You have seven planets to choose from, and three difficulties(easy, normal, hard), I chose normal. You then have another short loading screen. It starts with a tutorial on tower building, which is very easy. You simply drag a tower from the side bar. The tower is offset from your finger which is a nice touch, but not necessary in my opinion. There is then a little animation of an alien craft landing, and the creeps come out of it, heading for your "shield wall".

The path is curvy. To upgrade a tower, you double tap it, and you can either sell or upgrade. I haven't played long enough to judge difficulty, but I was very impressed with the amount of polish this game shows. My first impression is that this is a very polished tower defense game. Not too different from the others, but very nice graphics and a high degree of polish.

GRAPHICS 10/10: The graphics in this game are nothing short of beautiful, from the shiny tech-ish menu graphics, to the nice transition animations of starting a planet, there was definitely a tremendous amount of work put into them, and it really shows.

CONTROLS 9/10: The controls were very intuitive to me, extremely easy to maneuver. Basically, you drag to circle the planet, drag towers on from the side, two fingers to rotate, double tap a tower for options of upgrading and selling. Hold your finger on a tower on the side to see what type it is and what it does. For a 3d game, the controls are very tight.

GAMEPLAY/FUN: There is a nice difficulty curve, starting out very easy, but building up to be quite brutal later on. I haven't played long enough to know the replay value, but i have a feeling this will stay on my device for a long time.

OVERALL RATING: 9/10: This game may not be quite everything the hype held it up to be, but it is definitely a great 3d tower defense, on par with any other game of the genre currently in the app store. I would probably compare it mostly to Sentinal, it seems almost to be it's 3d cousin. Overall i would say this is a definite buy, i was very impressed.

SPECIAL NOTE: i heard someone talking about how this isn't a complete game, just a tool for in app purchases. This is not true. There are seven levels, five towers, three difficulties... that is more than most other tower defense games. This is NOT a cheap product created just to sell extra purchases. It is definitely a complete game, no cheap dev tricks here.

(EDIT): i was in a hurry and put this in the wrong section. mods, please move to game discussion.