Impressions – Robocalypse: Beaver Defense

Tower Defense games are usually not my cup of tea. “Not my cup of tea” being a euphemism for stronger, harsher words that more accurately describe my distaste for the genre. Lately, however, whether due to my seeking them out in great fits of boredom or more or less having them shoved in my face by people recommending I try them, I’ve been slowly swayed towards the opinion that the seemingly mundane, simple, and simply mundane genre can have a few titles that are of genuine quality when infused with the proper mechanics and interesting elements.

So, does Robocalypse: Beaver Defense have the right stuff to make it not just “another one of those ****ing tower defense games” but an actually interesting title?

Not yet. (but keep reading to find out why the “t yet”)

So, you gotta figure if I dislike tower defense games from the start then there at least must be the promise of a redeeming factor in Robocalypse: Beaver Defense for me to say something which hints at it being a solid title upon release. This redeeming factor would be that Beaver Defense is a tower defense game that is covered up with the more interesting mechanics of a simple real-time strategy system.

During my time with the in-progress WiiWare version of the game I got to try a screen-sized level in which I had to (*sigh*) protect my base from waves of enemies. What was nice about this was that it was not the typical waiting experience that accompanies most of these games, but rather a bit more open and active. Enemies travel along the quickest route to your base, but you can block their way with the typical assortment of turrets and effectively create a maze for them to traverse as long as they don’t destroy some turrets and create their own shortcuts. In addition to the openness of turret placement and enemy paths, you can also directly control a “hero robot” which draws you a little more into the game as opposed to just watching each wave happen and waiting for it to end.

What I played at E3 was still a work in progress and the controls were definitely not finely tuned at that point, but if Vogster can get the game to control right then the elements that I’ve mentioned previously joined with 4-player online play and a storyline written by one of the writers of Spongebob may actually make this one of the more worthwhile WiiWare purchases available. From what I saw at E3 I was vaguely reminded of General Chaos, which was one of my favorite Genesis games, so I’m definitely interested to see how Robocalypse: Beaver defense turns out at launch.