Towers N’ Trolls: Your Average Tower Defense Game
Towers N' Trolls ($2.99) by Ember Entertainment is a classic tower defense game. In its description, Towers N’ Trolls says that it is “a new kind of tower defense,” but I am going to firmly disagree with that assessment.
There are a plethora of tower defense games in the App Store, and while there’s nothing wrong with Towers N’ Trolls, it doesn’t have any elements that make it stand out from the crowd. It is, in short, a typical TD game.
That said, it looks appealing with high-quality graphics and backgrounds. The goal, of course, is to keep your base safe by building a variety of towers. Towers are typical - there are ice towers which freeze enemies, ballistas which are your basic all-around average tower, catapults for wide area damage, scout towers for long-range firing, storm towers, and cannons, which are short range with moderate damage.
Enemies are generally the same type you see in all tower defense games, with a mixture between fast and low health and slow with higher health. Levels are fairly difficult on normal mode, but simple on casual mode, so I’d say this is one of the better balanced TDs that I’ve played, though I am disappointed with the lack of information on tower damage and upgrade functionality.
Towers N’ Trolls is a fast-paced TD so there’s very little waiting around. That also means you’ve got to think fast and keep up with the action, though you can pause the game to add your towers.
Unlike most tower defense games, your towers will take damage in Towers N’ Trolls, which is essentially just another on screen element to monitor and tap. You will get special abilities to use for particularly hard enemies, including mines, bombs, and gas. You get to use these a set number of times every level, but you can collect gems (which enemies drop) to save up to use your abilities more often.
There are also runes in some levels, which will magnify the power of your towers, adding extra damage, greater firing range, or a faster firing rate. In addition to gems, you will also find treasure chests hidden in some levels which must be opened with a tower, and the occasional gold mine, both of which give you extra cash. Cash, of course, is used to buy new towers and upgrade existing ones.
You can zoom in and out on the battlefield, but I had trouble placing towers on my iPhone even when zoomed in, especially when I had towers near each other. Upgrading tended to be a chore, since I had to tap multiple times to target the tower I actually wanted.
Towers N’ Trolls has 30 levels across six different worlds, and with random wave composition and loot generation, levels will be different when you replay them. There are leaderboards, but disappointingly, the game lacks achievements.
All in all, Towers N’ Trolls is a fine tower defense game. There’s little wrong with it, but there’s also nothing about it that’s spectacular enough to bump it up from just okay to great.
