Kingdom Rush (Android)

Kingdom Rush - copyright: developed by Ironhide Game Studio and published by Armor Games

Tower defense is a type of strategy game, where the player must defend a specific territory from enemies. The gamer typically can use troops or constructions, like towers (which name this game genre), in order to defeat or stop the enemies, varying according to the title universe. And when I think about a game that represents this category, I always remember one title: Kingdom Rush.

Developed by Ironhide Game Studio and published by Armor Games, the title was first released for PC as a free flash web browser game in July 2011. Only in May 2013 Kingdom Rush was ported to Android systems, and then, in May 2015, the game became a free app for Android. It is a game full of humor, action, strategy and many secrets to discover.

Kingdom Rush main menu

Set in a fantastic medieval universe, where there are might knights, powerful wizards, skillful elves, and genius dwarfs, Kingdom Rush is a huge adventure. The game mechanic is pretty simple: you need to build towers and place troops in the scenario, in order to stop enemies from reaching their goal. Each defeated enemy, as goblins and werewolves, gives you money, necessary for creating or upgrading buildings and troops.

The first missions are good to understand how the game mechanics work

Every level presents a different scenario, where the towers can only be built in determinate places. The enemies have different skills, as flying capacity, magical resistance, and area damage, among many others, so the towers strategy must be well-planned. For example, use archers tower to hit flying units, while placing a barrack tower to hold enemies and allow a dwarf bomb tower to deal area damage.

There are scenarios in every environment, from wastelands to icy mountains

The player starts each level with twenty hearts, and when an enemy reaches the goal, you lose hearts according to the foes power. The higher their power, the more hearts you will lose. There are more than thirty unique enemies, so you must be able to deal with different tricks and attacks. Even if you have only four basic towers, do not forget that every tower has its own special abilities, which can be upgraded with money anytime.

There are many upgrades and achievements to unlock through the game

Besides the towers, the player can make use of special items, reinforcements, and meteor attacks (called Rain of Fire), the last two being cooldown based abilities. You can also control a Hero, a special unit that has can battle using its special skills, and gain experience points to level up and become stronger. In the free version, there are only three heroes to choose (which is a bit disappointing), but they are good enough to help in your missions. And if the Hero dies, do not worry: in some moments it will revive and return to the battle.

The Heroes are really useful during the battles

Kingdom Rush graphics are very good, full of color and great cartoon like animations. The characters are interesting, and the scenarios locations are well-designed. The attacks and spells sounds are original and exciting, just as the funny phrases said by the character and heroes. It is great to play epic battles while listening to the game songs and the combat sounds, creating an intense game play. The controls are intuitive and the touch buttons and commands are accurate.

The bosses are always challenging, so pay attention to any opening 

Some missions in the hard difficult level may be a bit frustrating. More than requiring well-planned tower layout across the scenario, these levels demand an almost perfect timing when using heroes, spells and reinforcements. However, as I have written before, the game offers so many challenges that you will have lots of fun before facing the tough ones. Unless you are one of those players that always aim for 100 % completion (which also includes many secrets), in this case I wish you good luck…

The last mission is really tough!

Kingdom Rush is one of the funniest games for Android devices. Its particular tower defense mechanics are simple, but also full of possibilities. From magical wizard towers to technological dwarfs shocking machines, passing by barbarian’s huts and archer towers, you have many options to stop the enemies from reaching their targets. The game cartoon graphics are great, and songs and sounds are very funny. Literally a “must have” free Android game, Kingdom Rush will give you hours and hours of fun (and even some of suffering, if you dare to play the hardest levels).

Asphalt 8: Airborne (Android)

Asphalt 8: Airborne (Android): copyright Gameloft

If this game can be defined in two words, they would be SPEED and OPTIONS. The sense of speed provided by the game, with the large amount of cars, customizations, modes, tracks, songs ... well, with lots of everything, makes Asphalt 8: Airborne a mandatory choice for any player.

Asphalt 8: Airborne logo

Initially, the game seems endless. There are many races that are available as we move forward in the game. You start with a simple car, and so earn money to improve it, and, of course, buy new vehicles. There are 5 categories of cars: D, C, B, A and S, in power ascending order (and price). There are specific races for each class, power, among other classifications, forcing the player to expand the range of OPTIONS in the garage.

In the last updates, there are more than 140

Remember about the SPEED? Almost as good as a Burnout game (if you know the franchise, you know what I mean, if you do not know, do it as soon as possible), the game delivery runs with high sense of speed. During the dispute, the car has a nitro bar, which gives a car power increase when used. Together with the “takedown system” (like Burnout again), that grants nitro for each beat that leads opponents to crash out, the races become very exciting.

Crashing your opponents

To control the race, beyond the domain of takedowns, you must also learn to drift. It’s the only possible way to escape from opponents, and perform dangerous curves, and increases the nitro bar. In fact, almost everything serves to maintain the bar full: beat the opponents, perform drifts, breaking things in scenarios (banks, posts, garbage cans, etc.), make the car jump and stay away from the air, perform tricks ...

Did I not mention the tricks? They are a charm on Asphalt 8: Airborne. During the jump cliffs and ramps, you can perform horizontal spins (or Flat Spins) or vertical turns (or Barrel Rolls). The higher the speed, the greater the trick performed.

Do a Barrel Roll!

A strong point of the game is that it can be enjoyed offline without any trouble. Of course, whenever possible, you should connect it to the internet to check promotions and special tournaments. Even beginners can take great advantage of these disputes, because they give awards for participation.

Of course there are some cons in this great game, although perfectly acceptable. A lot of content ends up making the very heavy game, with more than 1.5 GB in the latest updates. Another negative point is that, again, because of the huge choice of cars, paints, decals and customizations, there are almost unfeasible purchases, if they are not made with real money. There are cars that cost the value of 20 cars (!). And if they were to be improved, would cost much more than you could achieved only in campaign mode. Obviously, the producers need to make a profit, then we have to accept that.

Very good (and expansive) cars

Another point that can be frustrating is playing with your "lower classes" cars, after a period playing only with faster machines. It will seem like you are walking with a cart, even if 250 k/h.

Anyway, if you enjoy SPEED and many OPTIONS game modes and customizations, you cannot miss Asphalt 8: Airborne. There are versions for Android, Windows and iOS. Unfortunately the multiplayer mode works only between same platforms, but it’s still worth bothering your friends to a friendly (or not) duel.