Review: Battle of Puppets
February 28, 2010
The Overview
Castle Defense games are a dime a dozen on the App Store (well, at $0.99 each, they are actually $11.88 a dozen, but I digress...) with games like The Wars, Castle Conflict, Galaxy Front, Knights Onrush, Defend Your Castle, and the Top 10 reigning champ for weeks on end, Cartoon Wars.
Then the genre evolved into "Trenches" style games like 2012, Zombies vs Aliens and...well...Trenches, where you get a lot more direct control over your units.
BoP is much more of the classic Castle Defense style game: Build units and send them on their way. Upgrade your castle and build bigger units and send them on their way. Upgrade, build, deploy...of course, there is a little more to it than that...but,in essence, that IS Castle Defense.
So, if you wanted to bring something new to the Castle Defense genre, what would you add? That's right! Opera and Marionettes! Wait...what?!? Battle of Puppets has you playing a puppeteer for one of five classic operas, Aida, Carmen, Valkiria (Valkyrie), Salome, and Madama Butterfly. And you battle another puppeteer on a unique stage reflecting the local city's character and regional flavor.
The Features
New in 1.2 is OpenFeint integration. Leaderboards exist for each city and overall score. Achievements are now available, including secret achievements (sorry, I haven't unlocked any of those, YET!, so I cannot tell you what they are!) plus basic achievements just for doing something the first time, as well as accomplishing feats.
Battle of Puppets provides three different battle modes to provide alternate challenges for each city: Standard Battleground - destroy the enemy castle; Timed Battleground - destroy the enemy castle within a set time limit; and Survival - just keep the enemy from destroying your castle for a specific amount of time (Survival is usually required in cities where you unlock a profession).
Three player slots are included so your kids won't ruin all your progress and there are three difficulty levels, including and easy one so your kids can actually beat most of the levels.
BoP has twenty-two different cities to beat on your way to Broadway. Each city has its own unique backgrounds related to the region and scenery that changes as day switches to night and then back.
There are six "Professions" to aid your troops. Professions are gestures you perform that have different effects on the gameplay speed up your troops, slow/stop the enemy troops, or toss sacks on the enemies, temporarily take control of enemy soldiers, etc. Professions must take time to recharge after each use, so you cannot constantly use them, though you can choose which to use after each recharge.
The Breakdown
The Good
BoP has five different styles of opera puppets (one, Salome, has to be unlocked) that fight better or worse depending on the local theater's weather.
There are gorgeous graphics for each of the army units and for the individual backgrounds of each city's theater (is anyone else getting a little tired of of the slapdash cartoon/stick style of so many games - a little spit and polish goes a long way, people).
You can take multiple routes to get to Broadway taking advantage of the weather that helps out your troops or going off path to unlock specific Professions.
The Bad
It's a Castle Defense game...meaning the game play gets a bit redundant after a while. After you have mastered the basics, defeating each city consists of using your favorite strategy of troop deployment and utilizing your favorite of the six Professions.
Cartoony opera music is still opera music. :)
The Verdict
Battle of Puppets is a beautiful Castle Defense game. It does not really bring anything new to the genre...but...Damn!...did I mention that it was beautiful? If you dig Castle Defense games, pick Battle of Puppets up and enjoy all that it has to offer...it is leaps and bounds above The Wars and many other CD games in the fun department.
