Part Kingdom Rush, part Cursed Treasure, Storm Alligator's tower-defense/realtime-strategy hybrid Demons vs Fairyland takes place in a world where babies are being snatched in the night by demons. Naturally, any race that has a baby-based economy is probably pretty sketchy, but when it comes to demons you have to wonder... if they're not using these kids for hors d'eouvres, then just what is going on? What kind of beast would do such a thing?!... well, uh. You apparently since you're the bad guy in this scenario, and you're trying to carry your bundle of pilfered babies back to your evil overlord for who-knows-what. I mean, since you're monsters I have a feeling it's probably quiche related, but... still probably nothing good.

The goal is simple... protect the babies at the end of each stage's path from getting carted off by incoming (sneer) heroes. Like most tower-defense games, you pay cash to plop down various structures that will do everything from attack enemies directly to spewing out creatures to do the job for you. Each tower has to be placed within range of a specific type of building, however, so you'll need to think carefully about what you put down and where. If things get hairy and you've got the mana, you can even call forth a pillar of flame, lay down some chain-lightning to serve invaders up extra crispy, or summon hordes of the undead to do your bidding. Both support buildings and the towers themselves can be upgraded during levels if you've got the cash, and between stages you can spend any earned points on the upgrade tree to apply permanent bonuses and get new abilities. Upgrade points are netted whenever you level up, and to make that happen faster you can select various difficulty increases at the start of the stage, like faster or more powerful enemies, to earn more experience points.

Demons vs Fairyland is one seriously cute and quirky little title. Games so rarely let us be the bad guy, and the goofy premise makes this one even more fun. By keeping the towers you can buy limited to three different varieties and focusing on upgrading them, the game forces you to think strategically without wading through piles of options. You really do need to make use of your resources in a careful manner and utilize all the spells at your command, especially as you encounter more and more enemy types. The downside is that it feels like past a certain point, grinding EXP and levels to get skill points becomes essential to progress. As a result, the game can be extremely difficult at times even without any extra EXP settings ticked, but the fun premise and fantastic style goes a long way towards keeping you hooked.

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