Defend Your Castle

Ever heard of Xgen? Neither had I . But the internet game developers (with a thing for stick figures) have brought lots of instantly addictive greats to our computer screens, including 'Stick arena', 'Stick RPG', and probably my favourite....'Defend your Castle'.

The aim of the game is simple: In an ever-growing, ever-developing situation, where you own a castle in the middle of a field, you must kill a presumably infinite amount of stick soldier enemies from running up and somehow beating your castle tp death with fists, legs, popsicle sticks and the like, with a special 'tag' for picking up and throwing enemies to their inevitable death. This is controlled via pointing the Wii remote at the screen. For each enemy killed, a player (1-4) will receive a ceartain amount of money. save up this money through the levels, and eventually you'll be able to afford some help, by means of Archers (fire arrows which take down enemies), Wizard's guild (casts spells to erase, blow up or even convert soldiers to fight for your cause), building guild (repairs your castle gradually) and, of course, a sort of suicide training camp, which gives a cenverted soldier a roll of caps to run out and explode at your will. Its just as well, because the invading hordes do not get thinner.

The game starts at a relaxed pace, the first 10-15 levels able to be beaten with some ease. But, after a while, the pressure really piles on to defend and survive against the merciless soldiers coming at you. How far you get all depends mostly on your defense strategies, which involves choosing where to recruit men, how much to spend on wall upgrades/fixing walls, etc. A good ratio of Ally archers, wizards and builders is vital.

It was quite comical at first to see how Nintendo had re-made this flash game (it looks like something out of a child's scrapbook), but it actually worked just like the original, better in fact, mostly because of attention to detail, changing weather effects and more ingenuity. Once over the differences, this became very playable, especially for long periods of time. The very idea of the game is addictive, and almost anyone will find they can just pick it up and play; It's that easy to learn.

Sounds are fairly basic, even slightly annoying after a while, but all the cute, subtle little bytes here and there are sure to raise a smile. I particularly liked the sound of a catapult rolling out. Yoy'll have to play it to hear it!

When it comes to length, 'Defend your castle' is almost second to none. With video posts on youtube showing people reaching upwards of lv. 500, its hard to imagine a game that goes on as long. This means that it is an exellent game for leaving a while and picking up later (thank god you have save files this time!)

All in all, 'Defend your Castle' is a very fun, very addictive little wii-ware game for any wii owner, and for 500 wii points, it's definitely worth considering if you like those sorts of genre. But hey, if you still don't believe me, try out the flash version online, just google defend your castle.