Tap Defense is a tower defense game for the iPhone/iPod Touch, developed by the LL Group. At the time of writing, Tap Defense was number one on the most-downloaded list in the Apple App store.
Tap Defense is a strategy game. The concept behind Tap Defense and most other tower defense games (like Fieldrunners) is to build towers and/or other obstacles to prevent the ‘enemy’ from travelling from point A to point B. If you fail to stop them from reaching point B – you lose. In Tap Defense, the enemy is the army of the underworld. Point A in this case is the gates of hell and Point B, the gates of heaven. Your job is to protect the gates of heaven from the approaching hordes using a variety of towers, each with specific abilities and strategic uses. The route that the enemy takes in Tap Defense is fixed, and the game map is divided into the enemy path, and your building area.
Towers cost gold in Tap Defense – and gold is earned by slaying demons, succubi, locusts and other hellish creatures that pour out of the gates of hell in each level. In the beginning of the game you only have a limited selection of towers (three in total) – but by advancing through the levels and earning ‘halos’ you can unlock more advanced towers which give you more options when it comes to strategy. Gold accrued is cumulative throughout the game, and you earn interest on un-spent gold at the end of each level.
Advancing through the levels increases the difficulty of the game, with each successive level adding something new or different. Fast moving monsters, or creatures with resistances and high hit-points challenge the player, in addition to increases in the actual number of enemies you have to confront. As you earn gold and halos, there are a number of improvements you can research to help shore up your defense. These improvements include tower upgrades (increased attack, range, fire rate) and gold interest rate upgrades, so you can earn money faster.
There are three levels of difficulty in Tap Defense, but even ‘easy’ provides a challenge with 42 different levels. Increasing the difficulty decreases the length of the enemy path such that you have less time to bring down your opponents before they reach the end-zone.
The GUI is quite intuitive and uses a simple 3 button system along the bottom of the screen by which you can construct towers, access your upgrades and also the main menu. The graphics in Tap Defense are basic and a lot less polished than those in say, Fieldrunners. There is also no sound. I don’t think that this detracts too much from the gameplay however, and you’ll find that Tap Defense is actually quite addictive, despite its simplicity. Besides, Tap Defense is a free application and Fieldrunners costs $4.99.
All-in-all, Tap Defense is a solid app and well worth a look.
Tap Defense requires the 2.0 software update and is available free for download from the Apple App store.
