by Lorien Faulkner on March 13, 2009

Blizzard, Crystal Defenders, Fieldrunners, iPhone, Tap Defense, Tower Defense, Warcraft III

Last week, we kicked off our iPhone game review column with a well-rounded selection of games from three different categories.  This week, take a ride with Mg as we look at the ‘Tower Defense’ genre and several gaming gems available in your pocket.

Before we dive in, however, it’s probably a good idea to define what exactly Tower Defense is, as some of our regular readers may not have had a chance to give this fairly new genre a spin.  In Tower Defense, instead of building armies to attack, players use resources to defend against attacking hordes.  Although there are variations to the concept, most TD games are designed so that players must defend various exits on a map from computer-controlled characters attempting to escape through them.  In a standard TD game, players will have a number of lives that they lose each time they ‘leak’ a computer character, and the hordes get progressively harder to defend against with each level.

The iPhone has become a haven for Tower Defense games, probably because the idea of placing stationary defensive towers works so well with the touch interface.  The spectrum of TD games ranges from paid applications with frequent updates to free applications that provide the same fun at the cost of a little polish.  Here are three of our picks from both the paid and free categories:

Fieldrunners:  We believe Fieldrunners is the pinnacle of Tower Defense games on the iPhone.  At the time of this writing, the game includes three different maps as well as three different game types.  The game is frequently updated by the developers, Subatomic Studios, making this $4.99 title well worth the cash.

Tap Defense:  If you’re looking for a free TD game, Tap Defense is a solid pick.  Although the game is free, its developers have included non-obtrusive advertisements to help pay for the costs of upgrading the game.  Tap Defense has a solid interface and a number of gameplay features that set it a notch above other free titles.

Crystal Defender:  If you’ve played any games in the last ever, you’ve probably heard of Square Enix.  They made Final Fantasy, versions 1 through 3 million.  They also created Crystal Defender, a Tower Defense game cast with everyone’s favorite Chocobos.  A free trail version is also available, which we would suggest grabbing before you drop the eight dollars on the full version.

Make sure you join us for next week’s edition, where we help you use your iPhone to keep your spawnling from constantly screaming at Wal-Mart.

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