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What is the best tower defense game?

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
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Maybe, just maybe try out the game before claiming “contender for one of the best in the genre”?

"Possible contender for best in the genre."

"Contender for best in the genre."

Public schools and Tik Tok rot.
 

TheSHEEEP

Gold Member
In recent years, the Dungeon Warfare series has been incredibly good. And a third one is in the making right now.

There is also this one, which combines the entire idea with roguelite deck building, VERY interesting and fun, replayability is through the tower's roof:
 
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Holammer

Member
In recent years, the Dungeon Warfare series has been incredibly good. And a third one is in the making right now.

There is also this one, which combines the entire idea with roguelite deck building, VERY interesting and fun, replayability is through the tower's roof:
Dungeon Warfare 1 & 2 does deserve a mention.
Good progression and a fun theme.





Dome Keeper is a fusion of roguelike, tower defense and mining




Wall World is very similar to Dome Keeper, expect you move your base up and down along a vertical wall.




Witch Explorer combines a Tower Defense with shoot'em up mechanics & waifu. Graphics are pretty good, good enough to eat.




Yokai Art is a straight up clone of Plants Vs Zombies with waifu fighting Japanese ghost'n goblins.

 

Singular7

Member
Once you play the third game, you’ll likely never play the first two. The QoL features and the overall GUI trumps the first two games.

Recently been playing this on gamepass -- incredible game, really a perfect combo of tower defense, combat, and upgrades. (orcs must die 3)

Working through 5 skull-ing on endless mode for each map.
 
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Audiophile

Member
Infinitode & Infinitode II (Mobile)

PixelJunk Monsters (PS3) & PixelJunk Monsters 2 (PS4)

Desktop Tower Defense (Web)

Comet Crash (PS3) & Comet Crash 2 (PS4)

Vector TD (PS3)


My dream would have been for Housemarque to make an advanced tower defense style game.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
Without question Defense Grid 1 and 2 but I'm surprised no one mentioned Anomaly Warzone Earth.

Anomaly WE was reverse TD wasn't it? Grew tired of that pretty fast.

I would get this game if not art style is fucking shit..

Good thing it's not. Art style is great and what's more important is the game is fun as all hell. You should get a demo and try it. Plus it's cheap.

Something like Defender Quest or Bloons is bad art style, but good TD. Kingdom Rush is great art + great TD.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
Anomaly WE was reverse TD wasn't it? Grew tired of that pretty fast.



Good thing it's not. Art style is great and what's more important is the game is fun as all hell. You should get a demo and try it. Plus it's cheap.

Something like Defender Quest or Bloons is bad art style, but good TD. Kingdom Rush is great art + great TD.
Naah new grounds tier flash crap 🥲
Game is good tho when i played on my ipad ages ago
 

Minsc

Gold Member
Naah new grounds tier flash crap 🥲
Game is good tho when i played on my ipad ages ago

It really looks great on a large PC monitor too. In stills you don't have the animation, which really adds a lot, as all the enemies and tower and backgrounds are quite animated. Plus there's a huge variety of enemies and larger/smaller ones too.

I guess it's a taste thing, but the looks of it is the best of any TD I've seen.


ss_b17279e26d3e180cbbd3adcf5ad71cc06292de11.1920x1080.jpg


I just love the 2D sprite feel to it, and again it's so much better in motion with stuff everywhere moving all at once.

Even the overworld maps are great (again animated):

ss_7b6442738c9c89a63db11845eeff306410196a1d.1920x1080.jpg


And it's full or replay value through the different heroes and difficulty levels and achievements.
 
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DonF

Member
It really looks great on a large PC monitor too. In stills you don't have the animation, which really adds a lot, as all the enemies and tower and backgrounds are quite animated. Plus there's a huge variety of enemies and larger/smaller ones too.

I guess it's a taste thing, but the looks of it is the best of any TD I've seen.


ss_b17279e26d3e180cbbd3adcf5ad71cc06292de11.1920x1080.jpg


I just love the 2D sprite feel to it, and again it's so much better in motion with stuff everywhere moving all at once.

Even the overworld maps are great (again animated):

ss_7b6442738c9c89a63db11845eeff306410196a1d.1920x1080.jpg


And it's full or replay value through the different heroes and difficulty levels and achievements.
its $8 on the play store but it says that also has in game purchases? Whats the monetization of the paid game?
 

Minsc

Gold Member
its $8 on the play store but it says that also has in game purchases? Whats the monetization of the paid game?

It's far better on Steam/Windows. You get the full game for ~$15 or much less on sale. There's a half dozen of them too.

The IAP on mobile devices is for all the various heroes which add a lot of replay value (as in the later games the heroes have perm. XP to level up and customizable skills which are fun to unlock).

You'll unlock a dozen or so through the game and another dozen or so are sold for way more than the cost of buying it complete on Windows. It's still a great deal of game without the heroes (like ~30+ hours each game), but they're quite fun and all work differently.
 
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Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
It really looks great on a large PC monitor too. In stills you don't have the animation, which really adds a lot, as all the enemies and tower and backgrounds are quite animated. Plus there's a huge variety of enemies and larger/smaller ones too.

I guess it's a taste thing, but the looks of it is the best of any TD I've seen.


ss_b17279e26d3e180cbbd3adcf5ad71cc06292de11.1920x1080.jpg


I just love the 2D sprite feel to it, and again it's so much better in motion with stuff everywhere moving all at once.

Even the overworld maps are great (again animated):

ss_7b6442738c9c89a63db11845eeff306410196a1d.1920x1080.jpg


And it's full or replay value through the different heroes and difficulty levels and achievements.
Looks the same like the early games albit more detailed. The black outlines just turn me of instantly. It’s one of the no-no’s a lot of artist get from school. But as far as the look goes in this style it’s consistent and everything looks in place so the art director did a great job.

I just really really hate it. Then again i’m a sprite snob.
 

Antwix

Member
jshackles jshackles or anyone else, which of these do you recommend?


If you just want one, I'd recommend Frontiers. If you want two, I'd get Origins as well. They're all great in my opinion. The original is just kinda out-classed by the later titles though; more stuff, units, towers, etc... I can't remember much about Vengeance though sadly so I'm not sure about that one. The Legends game is totally different and def wouldn't recommend.
 

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
If you just want one, I'd recommend Frontiers. If you want two, I'd get Origins as well. They're all great in my opinion. The original is just kinda out-classed by the later titles though; more stuff, units, towers, etc... I can't remember much about Vengeance though sadly so I'm not sure about that one. The Legends game is totally different and def wouldn't recommend.

Thanks bro I bought both
 

Cattlyst

Member
Played the shit out of Pixeljunk Monsters on Vita…which compelled me to play the shit out of Pixeljunk Monsters 2 a few years later on Switch. Fantastic games. Still holding out hope for a third game!
 

Minsc

Gold Member
Bought Kingdom Rush Frontiers based on the recommendations! Pretty good so far (only on 4th stage but already getting destroyed :/)

If you're new to the series, it's best to play on easy or normal until you unlock all the upgrades for the fighters/archers/mage/catapult towers etc.

Then try and go back and get through hard/brutal. I generally re-visit them and get full brutal clears.

If you're ever really really stuck, there's youtube videos for every single level that show various successful build layouts.
 
Another one I really liked was called Vector TD (from kongregate I think) because it had you earning interests for left over gold per round, so if you played your cards right, at the end you basically had unlimited money
 

Holammer

Member
There was a web based one called “creeper” that was super fun and quite different. No idea what happened to it.
This game? Never played it myself. Last game, Creeper 4 came out in 2020.


 

Corian33

Member

I enjoy many of the games listed so far, but this is probably my favorite. Very creative levels that are almost like unique puzzles with multiple solutions. You can often brute force things, but it’s very satisfying to find an elegant solution.
 

Frwrd

Member
Came here to mention Final Fantasy Crystals
I remember playing one of these, I can't remember it if was on Mobile or a handheld to be honest--but I remember the fun I had at the time.

Now am gonna have to go back and look it up, I need to play that shit again, same with PixelJunk Monsters and (OFF-Topic) Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic, those games were crack.
 
Check out Thronefall, thank me later.

I should add that Thronefall is an active TD where you control a king to fight, deploy troops and fight.

Some more TD recommendations I've recently played:

Castle of Alchemists
More like an ARPG and TD hybrid with an emphasis of strategic trap placement. What I like about the game is that you can create a chain of traps that complement each other, like oil trap -> flame thrower or explosives while the enemies are walking over steel traps that can be linked together to increase the amount of electric conductivity, while figuring out what's the most optimal way to place walls to make the enemy path slowest and doing the most damage. The game stimulates the player to link different elemental types of damage to kill enemies, by adding a bonus to your combo meter, with the max consisting of enemies getting poisoned, burned, electrocuted, frozen and shattered.
I was surprised by the large variety weapon types and active items (like grenades and clockwork spiders), with each type offering different variants, that gradually become available. You can craft them using mats u get receive from finishing levels, and they have different qualities. Higher quality = more additional bonus rolls.
The demo immediately sold me on the game, which is still in early access, currently offering 18 levels (took me 15 hours, not having 100% completed all the achievements on every level). I'm hungry for more content.

Age of Defense
Another TD that caught me by surprise of it's quality. The aesthetic looks very much akin to the "Rush" games, which I'm not a big fan of because they take away too much player agency and feel 'too mobile' for my taste, so I went in reluctantly, starting with the demo which consists of 3 levels. The first 2 levels don't leave a big impression and make it seem like a very uneventful, run of the mill TD. The 3rd level however, really shows what the game is about. It's actually quite strategic and will get very intense, and the different towers/upgrades allow for interesting synergies/buffs. This level also gives you a taste of what the actual endgame of a level is like, with a last round that takes significantly longer with waves coming from unexpected corners and a huge boss which doesn't follow any of the paths.
Still a more traditional TD, but I'd say very refined and intense. There is no active avatar/hero, but you'll be using active abilities constantly like placing mines and walls (on short cooldown) and casting fireballs (long CD).
 
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BigBeauford

Member
If you were like me and dropped Dome Keeper within a month of launch, dive back in! They have done a substantial amount of updates, and there is about 300% more content.
 
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