It's PvZ, all growed up... into the Dungeon Keeper

Plants vs Zombies got me hooked on the tower defense genre. Since completing the game (the original... and the iPhone port... and the 360 port...) I've been on the look-out for its spiritual successor. And I think I've finally found it!

I stumbled across Tiny Heroes while browsing through iTunes. It looked quite charming, the gameplay looked promising, and incidentally, it had just become a free app. I figured "Eh, why the hell not?" Famous last words, I haven't been able to put it down ever since!

You play as a dungeon overlord, and the goal of the game is to keep those pesky heroes from nabbing your treasure! This is done by placing a series of traps, bombs, and weapons throughout your sprawling dungeon on each level. Pretty standard fare on the surface, but it's in the game mechanics where this game really shines.

The heroes that enter your dungeon don't simply follow a linear path. Instead, they change their path based on what assortment of traps you've laid out. The more defensive heroes turn themselves around in an effort to find an alternative route through your dungeon. The more offensive ones go straight into destroying your defenses.

That leads into another mechanic that works really well. Most of your traps and weapons don't have a very long life span! A lot of the game involves replacing or repositioning your defenses as the heroes ravage through everything you throw at them. To be fair, these are Final Fantasy I - inspired heroes we're talking about, what kind of heroes would they be if they all fell that easily?

The developers at Simutronics Corp. aren`t shy about the fact that they`ve borrowed various elements from previous existing games. Which works in their favour because they`ve managed to integrate these elements together to make a really addictive, immersive game.The in-game encyclopedia and defense-selection screens are pretty much styled exactly after Plants vs Zombies. Again the hero roster is pretty much the cast of FFI. The overall feel of the game is very reminiscent of 1997 strategy game Dungeon Keeper (which, side note... is apparently a pre-Fable creation of Peter Molyneux`s... never a bad thing).

Tower defense games that stand out are few and far between... and Tiny Heroes definitely stands out. And since it`s become a free app for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, definitely worth checking out.

Posted by SnapDragon