SG Tower Defense Review

As I said previously when I reviewed Sentinel, I am a huge fan of Tower Defense games. I have played more than I can even count. As long as the graphics are decent and the game is well balanced I will play just about any Tower Defense game until I beat it. SG Tower Defense reminded me of a game I played a while ago called Desktop Tower Defense. It reminded me of it, but came absolutely nowhere close to being as good.

SG Tower Defense (SGTD hereafter) was a game I had high hopes for. It had a few good reviews in the App Store and promised unlimited levels, so I thought why not? Once I downloaded it and tried to play though, I quickly realized this game was not all it was hyped up to be. Graphics are pretty basic and the control scheme is impossible.

When you open the game you are given a few options. You can continue an already started game, start a new game, veiw previous high scores, instructions, and credits. Once you start a new game it will ask you to choose between three difficulty levels. Easy (1 entry, 1 exit), Medium (2 entries, 1 exit), or Hard (2 entries, 2 exits). Once you select a difficulty you have to manually place the entry points and exit points. Game begins, and be prepared to be frustrated.

You have to place towers in order to destroy enemies attempting to reach the exit, just like in any other TD game. You have the same basic options for towers as the rest. Placing the towers is ridiculous though. Tap a tower to get a bit of information on it and then drag and place the tower on the field. Your thumb covers the actual placement which means if you are even one space off, you are forced to sell and try again. Selling results in a loss of money. Any veteran TD player knows that being able to maze effectively is crucial to win, and when you can't tell where you are placing a tower comes into play, it's impossible to maze. The map is zoomed out at all times so you can see everything, which seems like a good thing. What makes this bad is that each tower is tiny, so it's extremely easy to be one space on when trying to place a tower in your maze, resulting in "walling" or blocking the exit which is disallowed.

Enemies in SGTD are just as basic. They are simply colored blobs that float along the map heading towards the exit. No details to them at all, and no healthbar to let you know how close they are to dead. No information at all warning you of what is coming next except the level. Most TD games have flying, quick and weak, normal, and slow and armored. The only information I have been able to obtain from SGTD is that some enemies fly, and others are different colors.

Overall SGTD is a game that has some potential. If the developer would include a way to zoom in on the map for more precise placing of towers (pinch-zoom?) as well as add some more detail to the towers and enemies SGTD could be a great game. Until this game receives quite a few updates though, I can't recommend it to anyone. If you are looking for a great TD game look into Fieldrunners, TapDefense, or Sentinel.

Functionality: 2/10
Appearance: 2/10
Value: 0/10
iGadgetJunkie Rating: 1/10
Overall: 1.3/10

Reviewer: Bret
iPhone Firmware: 2.2.1
Application Version: 1.5
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Screenshots: (click to enlarge)