Do you have the skill needed to defend the Tower of Atia from the attackers? In other words, the world is in your hands and if you can't handle it, then Defen-G Astro [$2.99] probably isn't your cup of tea. Otherwise, even though it's an overused cliche on the App Store, it still proves to be an interesting genre when developers apply their personality to it - take control of the defenders, and defend the all-so powerful tower in this strategic solution to any boring moments.
The game is yet another strategy game where you must place units to defend something against oncoming attackers. This time around, if you've been playing strategic games as such, you'll be defending a large tower. Tapping on the screen will give you the option to place creatures that will automatically fight oncoming attackers. You can click on your "units" to upgrade or sell them. Basically, the idea is to keep the attackers as far away from attacking your tower as you can.
For each enemy attacker killed, you'll receive a certain amount of money depending on their class, skill and difficulty. This loot is used for upgrading and adding units to the field as well as buying potions.
There are a ton of different levels that will increasingly vary in difficulty. The starting ones won't be too difficult, and only a handful of units will be available for use on the field, but as you advance they'll start to challenge you some more as well as make as many over 20 soldiers available at your dispatch. The game truly tests your brain in that you'll have to take multiple things in to consideration when placing units on the field especially with the clever addition of both ground and air units for you and for the enemy.
Once the gameplay starts to get pretty intense, you'll start to notice it more: the game's artwork is actually very bright and enticing. When the background was a bit more free of battles, particularly in earlier levels, you could see some rough edges around character sprites and such, however. Also, not on the same level as artwork but definitely corresponding to the aforementioned gripe that I had, the game did seem to be unresponsive at some times - I use an iPod Touch 4th generation, and a hard reset didn't work nor did a clearing of my running applications.
Although the gameplay idea hasn't quite completely hit the point of being completely overused on the App Store, it's nearing there. Defen-G Astro does soar a bit too close to the standard for such games, but it's still a fresh take on the genre. It does have a price tag that differs from other games with the same replay value, theme and such, but if the game sounds like it's down your alley, then go ahead and buy it by all means.
