Defend Your Castle

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Defend Your Castle
Developer(s)	XGen Studios
Publisher(s)	XGen Studios
Platform(s)	Internet game, Wii (WiiWare)
Release date	Wii ^US May 12, 2008 ^EU TBA ^JP TBA
Genre(s)	Arcade
Mode(s)	Single player, co-op multiplayer
Rating(s)	XGen Studios rating system T+ (Internet version) ESRB E (Everyone) (Wii version)
Input methods	Wii Remote, Mouse

Defend Your Castle is a Macromedia Flash-based browser game developed by XGen Studios. The game was well received and prompted XGen to release a prequel titled Pillage the Village, with similar game play.^[1]

A version of the game for the Nintendo Wii's WiiWare service was released on May 12, 2008 in North America.

1 Gameplay
2 Wii version
3 Reception
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Defend Your Castle requires the player to dispatch all enemy units before they reach the player's castle. There are various ways of accomplishing this, such as picking up enemies and throwing them into the air or attacking them with an array of weapons.^[2]

[edit] Wii version

The Nintendo Wii version of the game is a launch title for WiiWare in North America. It costs 500 Wii Points^[3] and takes up 121 blocks.

The Wii version of Defend Your Castle boasts a new graphic style that was described by N-Europe as having "more style, colour and life to them, as if they were drawn by a three year-old hyped up on sugar with unlimited supplies of Crayola." The new style prominently features elements taking the form of household objects, such as bottle caps, bread ties and wooden ice cream sticks for sprites, with backgrounds made out of construction paper with clouds of tissue paper.^[4] Because of rating reasons, the Wii version does not contain the use of blood; the stickmen attackers just collapse instead of splatter, although their heads remain on screen before fading, something which did not happen in the original version.

The game supports simultaneous 4-player co-operative multiplayer.

[edit] Reception

The WiiWare release of Defend Your Castle has received a generally positive reception.

IGN thought the game was fun and frantic, and cited it as a game with "seemingly shallow pick-up-and-play experiences [but] with hidden depth". They were not impressed with the graphics, noting in their review, however, that they were designed to be "intentionally bad".^[2] 1UP.com found appeal in the "piecemeal aesthetic" as well as the simple gameplay, but felt that the game starts off very slow paced.^[5] WiiWare World believed the game offered more than just a "glorified Flash game", though they believed it featured a "relatively dull" single-player mode and repetitive gameplay that may result in tired or sore arms after extended periods of play.^[6]

However, GameSpot was less impressed, citing "super shallow" gameplay and also noting the possibility of the player suffering repetitive stress injuries after long periods of play. However, they did enjoy the "goofy visual aesthetic" and the potential for a fun and frantic multiplayer experience.^[7]