Late-game strategy. Guns: Vulcan Cannon + anything with good movement. Ability: Damage. Perks: Crowd Master, Fast Shot, Long Laster. I split my upgrade points evenly, but Luck (more items), Speed, and Damage are probably the essential ones. In late levels, more zombies means more items-- provided you have the killing power. If you have Crowd Master and a shield, you can run into the middle of a swarm of zombies spinning around, mowing them down at point blank range. Infinite Ammo is how you keep from having to reload. The Damage ability is a great kickstarter of items, since you'll be killing zombies twice as fast. Quad damage + Shield + spinning while surrounded = pile of dead zombies and items right next to you. You will occasionally have to swap to a lighter weapon to chase down items, but the goal is to keep that Vulcan Cannon blazing, preferably with x2 and x4 damage. +if you think this is helpful.
This is to other tower defenses what Sim City Carnival is to Sim City 4: Colorful and lacking complex strategy. Its cluttered UI, bright graphics, and super-coached gameplay probably appeal to someone; just not me. I'm not rating this game, because, hey, this game isn't meant for me.
The game was short, but I enjoyed playing it enough to give it a 5/5. The strategy could have used more variety; I felt like I was doing the same thing every level. Even the last boss's ship, while tall, could be beaten by spamming low-angle to medium-angle full-power shots. For a sequel, maybe add some kind of barrier, so it's necessary to vary the angle and power of one's shots more. Also, I'd like to see ship movement control and another form of attack, so there would be a bigger variety of things for the player to concentrate on.
Yeah, here's the path for 24: go right. As the bullet from the left passes overhead, jump to the right so you're right behind the bullet. Jump left so that you land in the middle. Keep going left and jump to the top level. If you time this correctly, you'll be between the two downward bullets as they pass, but you'll still land on the left top platform. Jump over the gun and drop into the door. It will probably take a bit of practice; the "R" key is your friend, since you'll need to restart every time you lose a guy.
I'm glad to see a game maker exploring a different premise for a puzzle game. This particular premise looks like a tough one to design for, though. As with physical wooden puzzle boxes, many of these puzzles can be solved by "jiggling" (tapping the directional arrows) until things "come loose". Then many rely on a linchpin that isn't hard to spot: move this piece aside, then move the piece it was blocking, then move what THAT piece was blocking, and eventually the puzzle is solved. Again, like wooden puzzle boxes, I'm guessing these puzzles were an order of magnitude harder to design than they are to solve. So, nice work, mrbeud; I'm sorry to see the game didn't turn out to be more difficult for the player. Keep on designing!
It already IS a contest of free time. At level 16, I played against a level 10 and a level 176. Neither game was a contest of skill; the bigger deck with better cards won. Look at this another way: The game's multiplayer feature is a ghost town. If the point of the game is to pit my skills against other players, then the game is failing.
@SchierkeWiking: That's a sign that the leveling system is broken. The options are: give a large advantage to players who have been playing for more calendar days or give a large advantage to players who have spent more hours playing. I vote option C: FIX THE LEVELING SYSTEM so that it doesn't matter if you have a trillion experience points. You get some small advantage, but the week-old player can still beat you if he gets lucky or if he's substantially more skilled than you. That's how these games SHOULD work, if they're to maintain a strong PvP culture.
My problem with the "Premium Content" and "Energy Bars" is that they're barriers to enjoying the PvP. Let's say I pay for the game: Now I'm eligible to jump right into all the PvP content, but there's no one to play against, because the game drives away the free players. Worse, still, I DON'T decide to pay for the game, because I haven't been allowed to test the depths of PvP. Frankly, I like some things about this game; I'm not going to play it past getting the Kong achievements, though, because the PvP system appears to be DoA.
@SchierkeWiking, You're right; a grind is to be expected if you want the best cards. Two problems, though. First, until I grind, my cards aren't just weak; they're uninteresting. I'm running a pyromancer, and by far my best strategy is to spam the highest-damage magic attacks I own. Second, there's hardly anyone online. What's the point of farming in an MMO context when, at the end of the grind, there's no one else around? One thing hurting the online population (I believe) is the initial boring grindiness. If the game gave a player things more quickly, to get them hooked, I suspect we'd see a larger player population (and more multiplayer matches).
There are enough pointlessly obnoxious things about this game that I'm giving it one star. First, while some of the minigames are pretty fun, others are not. Either cut out the stupid games, or let me skip the games I don't like. Second, there's no strategy to duck teams, since a duck capable of beating the game is capable of soloing every tournament. Third, the game is grindy. Triple the rate of skill growth, and if any of the minigames are fun enough, I'll play them even after my skills are maxed.
@People saying the game is too easy: Yes, it is easy. Part of the fun (at least for me) is that I can cause so much mayhem so easily. I got 54 stars on "Super Hard Mode", and level 18 (the closest the game has to a difficult level) was fun, but not as fun as the other levels. Frankly, I'm ambivalent about the idea of making this game harder.
Is there a reason NOT to have an autofire? I hold down the mouse button constantly anyway. I'm cutting one point off my rating of this game for the fact that the controls are pointlessly annoying in that respect.
Level 18 is Reverse mode is problematic. My controls feel more sluggish than in other levels. This is a problem, because just after the second checkpoint, it is necessary to climb through an unavoidable line of blade launchers. I *think* it can be done if timed perfectly; I just haven't been able to do it, because even a brief control delay ruins it. I like the idea of a super-hard, flying blades, wall jumping puzzle. I would just rather see it in a less hardware-intensive level.
I'm leaving this game for now with a 5/5 for two reasons. First, the game is phenomenal, barring a few annoyances. Second, the developer seems to be reading these comments and actively improving the game.
I have: Every bad memory, Every level completed in Hardcore, Levels 1-16 completed in Reverse. Despite this, levels 17-20 are not available in Reverse mode. How am I supposed to get the "All levels in Reverse" trophy, exactly?
Okay, I just finished all the levels on Hardcore mode, and there's no additional ending. The stormy night sequence had me thinking there would be one. Maybe I need to finish up Reverse Mode, too? Or maybe I need to rerun Level 20 on Hardcore to trigger another scene?
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Thanks a lot! We're honored! :)