Look! Off in the horizon! Ships with flags with skulls and crossbones! And tons of peg-legged men hobbling right this way! Why are we under attack? Oh, you say you left our chests full of booty out for easy viewing by off-shore invaders? Well then, I suppose we've got pirates on our hands, and the need to defend against them!
Enter Pirate Defense, a new take on the tower defense genre, made by the good people of Hero Interactive (Storm Winds, Bubble Tanks 2). The pirates may be ascending the hill to nab your booty, but you've got the power of homemade traps to stop them. While some traps allow you to deal out damage to your attackers (stinging bee hives and explosives), others can be used to divert their paths and send them flying into other traps (swinging logs and lures). Just set up a trap, attach a trigger (if necessary), then watch the pirate mayhem ensue. Excellent! Those rough-and-tumble sailors will never know what sent them roughly tumbling.
While we're still working on a proper review for this shiny new game, please give it a try and let us know what you think by leaving us a comment. Bear in mind that since the gameplay here isn't exactly like your average TD game, it might take a little bit of experimentation to see how each trap works. Try the pre-set Sample level first to get a quick feel for the overall objective, then experiment a bit by tackling the Fun Modes (Fixed and 100k Gold) to get your sea legs. Next, try your hand at the Regular and Challenge Modes when you think you're ready to tackle the crashing waves (of pirates).
The learning curve can be a little steep on this game, but it gets really fun after you play around with it a little.
If you're having trouble, take a look at the Pre-Set stage. You can see how things work when they're set up well.
I would also HIGHLY recommend reading all of the tutorials and in-game aid. If you are still having issues, please check out the in-game walkthrough, which should show you how the game is "meant" to be played, with elaborate traps used for Hard mode and a long windy maze with many elements working together for The 101.
Don't forget to listen to the Pirate Defense Song. And sing along.
When you take advantage of what traps have to offer, this game is a ton of fun. Your imagination is your limitation, really. Once again, I'm glad to have been able to give just a tiny bit of feedback to help polish the game, and glad that the HI team allowed me to do so.
-Tass
Haven't played the game yet, but the menu is pretty cool. And the Pirate Song is worth the click. :)
It's a great game, but grossly unbalanced. Challenge goes out the window, once it's realized that:
pit traps drain half a pirate's health. A line of log rolls into pit traps at the bottom is a sure way to win.
Anyway, here's a hint about walls.
It's more cost effective to use swing traps as walls instead of crates.
Coal traps along with pushbacks pretty much win this game.
2 coal traps -> one pushback, lather-rinse-repeat on a walled path and I've yet to be defeated.
[Edit: Spoiler added ~ Kayleigh]
This game is worth it, if nothing else for the awesome song at when you win a level (click on the word celebrate)!!!
Although
coal traps and pushbacks
are good, they're not as much fun as:
Swing Left -> Tree Fling -> Swing Right -> Coal Trap.
I have no idea if this if efficient, but it is a laugh.
Thanks for the review and the great feedback everyone!
I'd also suggest for anyone who is bold enough to try- make an infinite loop trap where pirates just go around and around in a circle. It IS possible!
And like Psychotronic already said, if you're having problems learning how to play, be sure to check out the Pre-Set game mode to get a good example of how you can really own enemy pirates.
After playing this, I had to dig out my discs for Evil Genius. You build up all sorts of chained trap combos in that game as well.
I made a circle yesterday, from it I learned that the highest comb you can get is "ten times" a circle is not the best way to get rid of pirates how ever.
It's a fun game, but also somewhat buggy. It's possible to upgrade towers and getting both level 2 and 3 towers on top of each other. As a counter-bug to that, I was mysteriously loosing lives, without any pirates crossing the line...
Pieter: I can say that the HI team knows about the life lose bug and is working on a fix. I also reported a few random bugs to them.
Finally, my current high score on The 101 in a bit over 431,000... anyone beat that?
-Tass
I really like the game, except the random loss lives ? is it really a bug or am I missing someting ?
Tasselfoot: I ended up with 496,740 after 101 waves.
High Score of 561,060 on the 101, all 20 lives, only 2 guys got anywhere near the end, no juggling!
Fun game... :)
my pirates always stay at the bottom and dig holes, it lags my game up, other than that its fun
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