Defend Your Castle

Being the least expensive WiiWare launch game, many people may not expect much from Defend Your Castle. However, the game is actually really good. You point at the screen to defend your castle from incoming stick figures, stick figures with popsicle sticks, big one-eyed monsters, and eventually catapults.

The first thing to note is the graphical style. It looks like a crayon drawing, which is really cool and give the game a nice air of fun, and the objects are simplistic but still look nice.

The gameplay is really simple and never changes, but is still pretty fun. You kill a stick figure by pressing A or B and throwing them up into the air, and they will die when they hit the ground in a comical fashion and letting out a funny scream. Pretty much, that's all you do. The death sounds of the enemies are very entertaining and are some of the highlights of the game, and as you get farther into the game, the stick figures are screaming nonstop, pure comedy!

At the end of each level, you get points which can be used to buy stuff to upgrade your castle. The first thing to buy is the Pit of Conversion, into which you must drop enemies, converting them to your side. Those converted enemies can now be added to one of four flags on your castle (each also bought with points): archers, magic users, repair guys, and suicide bombers (as I call them). The archers shoot at enemies and the more guys there are on a flag, the faster arrows fly from their spot on the castle. The magic users do nothing, but as you add to their flag you get more spells to use including an eraser and a bomb. The repair guys make your health slowly regenerate and the more guys there are here, the faster your health heals. The suicide bombers are of one-time use each, you click on the blue flag and a guy with a blue wheel (aka a bomb) walks out onto the field and you click on him to make him explode and destroy everything in his range. These things add some value to the game and force you to make decisions based on how the battles go.

The game can get very intense in higher levels, you will find yourself exploding many suicide bombers in front of your castle as tons of enemies attack the castle at once. The craziness is at its peak in multiplayer, though, as up to four players can be playing at once, but the more players there are, the more hectic and difficult it is. The multiplayer is quite fun, and the game is nice to be enjoyed with a friend.

Overall, Defend Your Castle is the same thing over and over again, but well worth your $5 nonetheless. It provides some real fun, eventual difficulty, and many laughs. Even if you don't end up loving it, your $5 won't be wasted.