Tower Defense iPhone Apps: Dead or Innovating?

Tower defense games for the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and other mobile platforms are everywhere. It’s hard not to find another game striving to be the next Plants vs Zombies or Dungeon Defender. Instead, many of these titles have cluttered the iOS marketplace, bringing generic apps to be associated with the tower defense game play style on these mobile devices. However, is all lost for fans of tower defense iPhone apps? What’s the state of the current tower defense app scene for iOS gamers? Interested? Read on!

While the app store has certainly been hit by a smattering of bland tower defense titles, I would argue that this genre is far from being run out on the iOS. Instead, I’ll stake my claim by referring to several relatively recent releases of tower defense games that have continued to draw in new users with their solid game play.

Anomaly Warzone Earth
When I first encountered this heavily-promoted title several months ago, I was totally not expecting it to be a tower defense game. Instead, its sharp, 3d-ish graphics look like an iOS version of Starcraft or Supreme Commander. It’s still a tower defense game at its core, but with an interesting twist-you play as the invading force, while the AI throws up turrets and enemy attacker obstacles in your path, attempting to prevent you from completing as mission. Top this unique game play off with an impressive sci-fi setting and the previously-mentioned solid graphics, and you have a truly creative title in the tower defense genre for the iOS. It’s pretty bargain priced on iTunes, at only $1.99, a definite must-have for fans of this genre.

Elf Defense
One of the newest tower defense games to hit the mobile iTunes market is Elf Defense. It’s one of the best signs that the tower defense game genre for the iOS definitely still has room for new titles. In Elf Defense, gamers are tasked with commanding an army of elves in defending their homeland from the attacking humans. With over 100 enemy types to defeat, a huge item shop, two difficulty levels, and multiple map environments, Elf Defense is definitely a must-have for tower defense fans looking for something new on the iPhone. Furthermore, the absolutely gorgeous graphics of Elf Defense certainly are impressive. Elf Defense was just released, a relatively late title to the saturated iOS tower defense scene, but it has met with much popularity, as seen by impressive beta reports and reviews online.

Titles like Elf Defense are a great example of the continuing popularity of tower defense games for the iPhone and other iOS mobile devices. While the genre has certainly seen its share of poor titles and generic game play, tower defense will remain a solid and popular genre for mobile users of iOS games everywhere in the near future.