There are plenty of fun and entertaining games in the Windows 10 Store to help you pass the time. Tower defense games are one option to consider, especially if you are in the mood for a little strategy based gaming.
One of the more recent Windows 10 Store Collections pulls together a small collection of tower defense games. For this week's Windows Central Roundup, we will highlight a few titles from the Tower Defense Game Collection. It's a rather diverse grouping of games with some taking on more of an RPG feel to it and another that slightly departs from the traditional tower defense style.
If your favorite title in the Tower Defense Game Collection wasn't mentioned (or didn't make the Collection at all), feel free to toss out your recommendation in the comments below. Just keep in mind we are looking at the Windows 10 versions of these games. We'll include links to any Windows Phone versions that are available, but this week we wanted to concentrate on Windows 10 gaming.
ByeByeBrain App-ocalypse
We start things off with an oldie but a goodie. ByeByeBrain App-ocalypse has been around for some time now and strays from your traditional tower defense game ever so slightly. ByeByeBrain is set in a post-apocalyptic society where Zombies are running rampant. It is your job to defend your fortress from a never ending sea of the walking dead.
Instead of placing tower defenses around the gaming screen, you control a group of five survivors, each of which has a particular skill set that can prove deadly to the walking dead. Each of the character groups can be upgraded to improve their destructive abilities and the cast of players include:
- The Spanker: The Spanker is your least expensive volunteer in the battle against the zombies. He begins armed with a paddle and can be upgraded to an ax and then a ninja sword.
- The Colonel: The Colonel is an interesting character who starts out throwing fried chicken at the zombies and progresses to throwing a ham and finally steak as his weapons. In the process, the zombies slow down to dine on the fast food, giving other characters more time to inflict damage.
- The Fuzz: The Fuzz arms himself with a pistol and can be upgraded to a shotgun and ultimately a sub-machine gun.
- The Cleaner: The only female defender in the bunch and she choose fire as her weapon of choice. She starts out slow with an aerosol can and lighter then works her way up to a blowtorch and finally a military-grade flamethrower.
- The Nerd: Last but not least we have the Nerd who uses electricity as his weapon. Progressively working his way up from a small hand held generator to a flux capacitor.
Game play isn't much different that your typical tower defense game. You place your characters around the gaming screen to create a gauntlet that will destroy the Zombies as they march across the screen to your fortress. It will cost you some gaming cash to place or upgrade your characters and while you start each level with funding to get things started, as you wipe out Zombies you will earn more cash to burn.
Another unique aspect of ByeByeBrain App-ocalypse is that you will have a change to jump into the action. There will be segments of game play where you get to control a variety of machine guns from the fortress rooftop to help your characters wipe out the Zombies.
Graphics are outstanding, game play challenging and overall ByeByeBrain App-ocalypse is a fun tower defense game to consume a good bit of your time with. ByeByeBrain App-ocalypse is available from both the Windows Phone and Windows 10 Stores. It is a free game but with in-app purchase opportunities. Please note that the Windows Phone version is listed as "BBB: App-ocalypse".
Download ByeByeBrain App-ocalypse from the Windows 10 Store (Free)
Download BBB: App-ocalypse from the Windows Phone Store (Free)
ARMED!
Here's another classic tower defense gaming title that takes a Sci-Fi, turn based, multiplayer strategy twist to the tower defense genre of games. ARMED! Puts you in command of a fleet of futuristic tanks, turrets and robots with one mission – destroy the enemy.
While included in the Tower Defense Game Collection, ARMED! does take on a more proactive approach in destroying your enemies by taking the fight to them at times. Key features include:
- Five maps with unique artwork and tactical terrain features
- Twelve offensive and defensive units to command into battle
- Over fifty unit upgrades and special attacks to help turn the tide
- Simultaneous turn online multiplayer with ratings and matchmaking
- Live Tile updates with turn notifications
- Track your rankings on the real time leaderboards
- Scoreloop integration with photo profiles
ARMED! is available from both the Windows Phone and Windows 10 Stores and has top-notched graphics. Game play is full of strategy based challenges and overall ARMED! is a solid option to have in your Windows gaming library when the mood for tower defense (and offense) games hits.
ARMED! is currently free from the Windows 10 Store, but with in-app purchases. The Windows Phone version does have a trial version but the full game will run you $2.49. The Windows 10 version is basically a trial version. You just unlock the full game through in-app purchases instead of a secondary Store purchase. Unfortunately it is not a Universal Game.
Download ARMED! from the Windows 10 Store (Free)
Download ARMED! from the Windows Phone Store (Trial / $2.49)
Prime World: Defenders
Prime World: Defenders is a tower defense game that combines might with magic to defend your position against wave upon wave of monsters intent on ruining your day. The game includes your traditional tower defense units such as archers and canons, but also has magical spells that can be cast to inflict wide spread damage to your enemies.
Key features of Prime World" Defenders include:
- Over 26 towers with up to 25 levels of upgrades and 13 kinds of spells
- Share your progress via Facebook
- 36 types of violent monsters
- Mighty bosses with unique abilities
- Captivating storyline with 23 missions, extra boss levels, and randomly generated missions
- Special placement on the map and anomalies to boost your powerful attacks
The game has a nice variety of maps to defend that can be rotated and zoomed into for a better look at things. Prime World: Defenders has some of the best graphics we have seen in a tower defense game and the RPG aspects of upgrading your towers and spell casting provides a nice gaming feature to the mix.
With plenty of monsters to dispatch and maps to defend, Prime World: Defenders is a solid tower defense game to consider. I have to give the game credit in that it throws a boatload of enemy waves at you with each gaming level. Don't be shocked if you have to fend off over twenty waves of goblins, ghouls and other creatures.
Available from both the Windows 10 and Windows Phone Store, Prime World is a free gaming title with in-app purchase opportunities. I did find that the game played out better from a Windows 10 tablet, in that the larger screen pulls out the details of the graphics better. It's not shabby played from a Windows Phone but the larger screen just pulls out so much detail in the graphics and animations.
Download Prime World: Defenders from the Windows 10 Store (Free)
Download Prime World: Defenders from the Windows Phone Store (Free)
Snow World
We close things out with a slightly lighthearted tower defense games where you have a peaceful island inhabited with snowmen and penguins that live out life in harmony. Unfortunately, a band of evil penguins has invaded and threatens your peaceful lands.
You play the role of a snowman, set on defending his castle from a wide variety of evil penguins and their minions. As they march on to the screen, you pelt them with snowballs to destroy their legions. At your side is a small collection of penguins who will march out onto the battlefield and fight their evil brothers.
Game mechanics aren't overly complicated and Snow World has a nice collection of tutorial screens and an online video to walk you through game play. Snowball aim is done by tapping on the screen where you want the snowman to target. Your penguin troops will only attack the enemies that are directly in front of them as they advance across the battlefield.
Snow World has plenty of power-ups and upgrades that can be purchased with the gaming coins you earn during battle and the gaming map has a host of levels to conquer. Graphics are nicely drawn up in cartoon fashion but you have a good number of transition screens to deal with.
Snow World is a free, ad-supported game in the Windows 10 Store. The ad-support has a banner resting in the upper left corner of the menu screens, but it is not present during the battles. I did have the game lock up a few times during the post-battle summary screens, but not to the point it would drive you crazy.
Snow World is a decent tower defense styled game with a light-hearted approach. If you are in the mood for a little snowball action or are looking for a game that might be less violent for a younger gamer, it might be worth a try.