Star Defense by ngmoco:) Reveiw
As you probably know, ng:) and Star Defense were showcased at the WWDC Keynote as part of the iPhone OS 3.0 demonstrations. Stephanie from ngmoco :) showed the audience the new in-app purchase API’s available in the soon-to-be-available 3.0 software update.
Star Defense falls under the genre of Tower Defense. Tower defense games are usually 2-D in the sense of the playing field. Star Defense’s playing field, however, takes place on 3-D planets. The interface is intuitive and it uses iPhone OS’s standard multi-touch.
First, the icon. Although this is not part of the app, ng:) did an absolutely incredible job with it. It is basically an eagle and a star combined. The texture is rugged, and there is a bezel on it matching the color of the eagle. The color choice and texture is very good, and it makes me want to buy the app without even reading the description to make my home screen look better.
Let’s get into the interface. You launch it and are greeted with the familiar ngmoco:) splash screen. You then see a standard loading bar and the Star Defense Main Menu.
The options in the menu are Galaxy Map, Challenge Log, Commendations, and Options. Galaxy Map is the choice of planets, but more on that later. Challenge Log shows tweets by the game for accomplishments in Challenge Mode, but, again, more on that later. Commendations are accomplishments such as defeating all waves on all planets on all difficulties, etc., etc. Options are the settings and comprises of Sound FX on/off, music on/off, reseting the game, credits, and Facebook Connect and Twitter.
If you go to Galaxy map you are greeted by planets in the shape of the Big Dipper constellation. Here you choose the setting of gameplay. You see one unlocked planet and six other ‘locks’ indicating a locked planet. If you tap on that first planet, it gives you the options of difficulty. You tap on one of those, and you tap proceed to go onto gameplay. On the right you have the five turrets. You can choose Start Wave to start the first wave. To move around the planet you just drag your finger around. To zoom in, you pinch two fingers. To pinch out, you double-tap. Overall, the interface is intuitive and it is familiar to iPhone users.
Finally, we move on to gameplay. You drag your turrets out, and you press Start First Wave. Out of the enemy’s, or S’rath’s, ship come creatures trying to attack your planet. Your turrets immediately start shoothing, and the S’raths basically explode. As the waves go on, the creatures get harder to beat, and you really have to think about where you put your turrets. As you kill S’raths, you get money to get more expensive turrets. You can upgrade them and such, but my one gripe about it is that you can’t move your turrets around. You have to sell them for a lower price than you got them, re-purchase them, and then put them where you wanted to move them. Overall the gameplay is very good, and that little kink won’t ruin your day.
In conclusion, ngmoco:) did an incredible job with Star Defense. The interface is intuitive, the gameplay is good, and it is a fun game. The replay value is medium-high due to the fact that the differences between planets not much except for the look. You can get Star Defense in the App Store here http://bit.ly/mwvup for $5.99. The Loop Blog gives star Defense a 8.75/10.
