Most Grannies are pretty hard working; in between colour-coordinating their pastel blouses and making sure all their bingo dobbers are primed and ready to go, they also have the arduous task of spoiling kids rotten and then foisting the sugar-crazed rugrats back on their parents. But there's one Granny who may work harder than them all. In SilenGames' latest defense shooter, Granny Strikes Back, you'll help the eponymous Granny as she fends off snowmen commanded by aliens who need her raspberry jam to fuel their spaceship. Yes, you read that right. Well... what else do you use jam for?
You have two options for controlling Granny: a strictly keyboard option where you'll use [WASD] to move and the [arrow] keys to shoot or a keyboard and mouse option where the mouse is used to aim and shoot. In both modes, the [Q] and [E] keys will cycle through your weapons and the [spacebar] tosses out a bomb. You've also got three modes of play to choose from; Siege mode, where you'll have to defend Granny's cabin from attacking snowmen, Defense mode, which finds you trying to stop enemies from crossing from one side of the screen to the other, and Survival mode, in which you have a set number of lives and have to survive against a certain amount of enemies. On top of that, levels have three challenges that will give you extra experience or money if completed. As usual, experience counts towards earning levels. Each levels gives you some skill points to increase your stats. Money is used to buy upgrades, mostly for the structures you'll find on most levels. You see, you won't be alone out there... you can also raise buildings that can distract or damage enemies.
Granny Strikes Back is one of those rare games that provides both quality and quantity, with three different kinds of levels, bonus levels, boss battles and challenges too. The levels tend to go by fast and frantic, without becoming overwhelming, which allows for the feeling of, "Oh no!" when things look like they're about to get the best of you, but won't sentence you to grinding purgatory. It also helps that the game is easy on the eyes, with entertaining, colourful visual full of little touches, such as some snowmen carrying a battering ram or holding a flag, make them fun to watch and kill to the overly dramatic soundtrack. Granny Strikes Back is a great defense game that has a ton of entertaining elements. If you're a fan of the genre, you'll be hard pressed not to like this one; it's silly, beautifully designed, fun, and just like Grandma used to make.
Survival 8, "kill all deserters", i need to kill all guys or exactly what kind of enemies?
From what I can see, deserters are the snowmen running away from you instead of at you. It seems like they randomly jump from groups of enemies.
Scratch that, deserters will start fleeing from a group when you attack them.
This game is so frantic at the higher levels! I love it! :)
Deserters are created when you kill the officer leading a group of snowmen, or when cannon-weilding snowmen run out out of ammo.
This is a pretty fantastic game! Usually I don't play games like this at all because I am not good at them and I get so frustrated, but as the review said this game isn't about tons of grinding and I never felt overwhelmed.
I love the structures aspect of the game and I love how cute the whole theme is, while not being too sugary sweet. I also found it pretty easy to navigate and aim, which is something I have trouble with in some games.
I definitely recommend people try this even if they aren't totally in love with the genre!
Thanks for reviewing this!
(unrelated: I had a difficult time trying to find where to type the captcha answer - I know now but perhaps more contrast if possible would help others)
[Thanks for the feedback! You're right about the captcha answer field(!) I hadn't noticed that lately. I'll work on fixing that as soon as I can. -Jay]
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