PN Review: Castle Conqueror Defender (3DS Eshop)

‘Castle Conqueror Defender’ is a new tower defense game available in the Nintendo Eshop, developed by Circle Entertainment. In this medieval themed defense game you must prevent enemy soldiers from infiltrating your castle and destroying your base. There are 3 different modes in Castle Conqueror Defender (gosh, that’s a mouth full!). Story mode, crusader mode and glory mode. Theres plenty to keep you busy throughout the game and things to unlock and upgrade as well. But is Castle Conqueror Defender the grizzly exciting fast paced war game it seems to be?

 If you’ve never played a defense game like this before it can be a bit confusing. Instead of controlling any characters themselves you will be strategically placing a wide variety of soldiers, forts and traps around your perimeter to stop waves of enemy forces that are coming at you. If they get past your defenses and kill your captain or destroy your base you fail and must try again. Throughout the game you are able to upgrade your army and strongholds with coins you earn in each level. Sadly the game doesn’t really tell you any of this. There are no tutorials or anything of that sort for beginners. It was a major bummer, so good luck trying to figuring everything out!

Gameplay isn’t bad, just difficult to get used to. You can use the buttons or touch screen to control your cursor and choose what you’d like to do. From there you can purchase archers, swordsman, castle pillars, walls, towers, spikes and much more! Then you can place them wherever you think is best on the grid like battlefield. One of my favorites is the tar that can be placed all around your castle grounds. You can click on one of your archers then click on the tar to set it on fire. Its very useful in the midst of a tough battle.

The graphics and artwork were really neat throughout the game. Everything was really vibrant and I enjoyed the style. As you can see the soldiers are detailed little sprites, charming even in their grotesque medieval ways. Fittingly the battlefield is also loitered with what looks like unlucky citizens who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some of the backdrops and other small details were a bit repetitive but I liked it overall. Also the soundtrack fits the game really well. Each level and menu is accompanied by some awesome battle tunes that keep you immersed in the war-like setting.

Castle Conqueror Defender is deffinetly not the most exciting game, but I actually enjoyed playing it. I wish I was able to speed some of the battles up more. You have to watch each wave come across a field then watch them kill all of your men if your not well prepared, it gets old sitting and waiting after a while. I honestly did not get a chance to play crusader or glory mode because they’re not unlocked until you finish story mode. From what I gathered Glory mode is where you try to survive for 20 days straight and Crusader mode is all about defending the holy land from impending doom. Also in story mode, there are 10 campaigns consisting of 5 levels each. This game is worth every bit of its small $4.99 price tag so if your looking for a new strategy game that will keep you busy for a while I recommend Castle Conqueror Defender for the Nintendo 3DS.