I was reading the system requirements/prerequisites for geoDefense the other day, and it went like this:

  1. You must own an iPhone or an iPod Touch.
  2. You must be a fan of the Tower Defense genre.
  3. You must have sadomasochistic tendencies/fetishes.

Just kidding about No.3. Another Tower Defense game on the iPhone you say? I remember back in the day when Tower Defense debutted as a mod for the Warcraft III, it was competing with  another mod called DOTA for attention, and ultimately lost.

I for one, preferred Tower Defense over DOTA.  The basic concept of placing towers around the map and upgrading them was easy to grasp, much  better than the intense hero micro-managment in DOTA. However, mastering either mod is a different kettle of fish,  as like chess, either one can take a lifetime.

iPhone users are a pretty lucky bunch, seeing all sorts of Tower Defense games appearing on the platform. One of the more famous ones is Fieldrunners, one which creeps (enemies) can come in multiple approaches ala Desktop Tower Defense for the PC.

geoDefense is one of the recent additions to the genre,and to differentiate itself, it has taken inspiration from a game from a totally different genre, shmups.  The inspiration in question? Geometry Wars!

geometrywars

If you are not familiar with Geometry Wars, think of it as a really old-school (but modern) shmup with lines, grids and lots of glow effects and explosions thrown in for good measure. geoDefense adopts this art direction (along with the word Geo in it’s title) to a surprisingly brilliant showcase on the iPhone.

geodefense

While the art is nothing short of beautiful, if you think you’ve gotten the genre down, think again as geoDefense will make a punching bag out of you. Not only will it leave you bloody and bruised and probably a little terrified (at the level of difficulty), you’ll come back asking for more,  just to see how much more you can take.

Yup, it ranks pretty high in the difficulty department, but if you feel up to it, check out the game over at the iTunes store (click here for details); I highly recommend it. There’s also a free version available for download from the iTunes Store if you don’t feel like dropping USD 3.99 for the full game..