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E3 '09: Hands-On Robocalypse: Beaver DefenseCheck out my impressions on this very fun tower defense game coming to WiiWare.By Marlon Esmeralda - 06-18-09 |
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Robocalypse: Beaver Defense Media Page  The WiiWare library is definitely starting to bloom with some high-quality titles. With titles like World of Goo, Bonsai Barber, Bit. Trip Beat, and many others. Not to mention some destined-to-be great titles that have yet to release like Cave Story, Icarian: Kindred Spirits, Night Game, Bit. Trip Core, and certainly much more. Well before my meeting with Vogster Entertainment at E3, Robocalypse: Beaver Defense was a bit under the radar for me. I never had much time with the Robocalyse game for the Nintendo DS, but since I heard Beaver Defense was to be a tower defense game, I immediately became interested. Needless to say, after the meeting, I was very impressed with the game and can't wait for it to become available on WiiWare. As I mentioned before, Beaver Defense is a tower defense game. Tower Defense games have already been released onto WiiWare like Defend the Castle and Final Fantasy Crystal Defenders. The thing that sets Beaver Defense apart from those is that instead of the enemies following a set path, they will follow the path that you create for them. This particular style of gameplay was quite nostalgic for me as it reminded me of the tower defense games for the PC games, Starcraft and Warcraft 3. Like any tower defense game, Beaver Defense will have waves of enemies coming from a spawning point and will start progressing to your headquarters in order to destroy it. Your main objective is to survive all the waves with your HQ intact. You do so by building towers onto the battlefield. These towers will attack the oncoming enemies, as well as provide a wall to block passage to your HQ. With some careful planning, you can build your towers in such a way that it will create a long pathway for your enemies to go through, and prevent them from getting anywhere close to your HQ. Lots of strategy will no doubt be needed to survive the further levels as the enemies will become stronger, and multiple spawn points may appear. Strategy will also be needed for what towers you build. There are four types of towers: cannons, EMP cannons, missiles, and laser. The cannons are your basic tower type that just attack the enemies, with upgrades being available for increasing its range or power. The EMP cannons are towers that transform your enemies into appliances, like toasters and refrigerators, that cause them to be frozen in place while being attacked , with upgrades increasing its range and appliance transformation(bigger appliances keep the enemy frozen longer). The missiles can be considered stronger versions of the cannons, with upgrades for its range and for how much missiles it will use(attacking with one, three, or five missiles onto one enemy). For me demo, I didn't get to check out what the laser can do, but it sure does sound pretty powerful. One thing that I also noticed with the towers was that the game will prevent you from building dead ends, which I was impressed with and felt very relieved by its presence. Your towers won't be the only defense you have against the multiple waves of enemies. Heroes will also be available and are movable units that can do plenty of damage. Only one can be used for each map. The available Heroes are characters from the DS game, and each one has their own unique stats and abilities. These heroes can also be upgraded as well once they level up. The upgradeable stats are health(+life), energy(increase usage of abilities), armor(+defense), and damage(+power). Along with the heroes are smaller units, consisting of soldier and medics, that will also attack enemies and repair towers. These smaller units are immovable and can't be interacted with by the player. You will need to take precaution at times as your Hero unit can die. Don't worry though, he can be rebuilt for a certain amount of scraps. Scraps represent the currency for the game and is also used to build and upgrade your towers. The amount of scraps you have will increase for each enemy you kill. As you can see, the game will certainly have you on your toes. Each level will vary from 10-20 waves of enemies for you to survive through before you claim victory. The waves come in one at a time once a specific time limit has elapsed. If you obliterate the all the enemies of a particular wave and have some extra time available, you can use that time to upgrade your towers. There will be some moments where you've done all you could and will still have time left. Luckily there is a "start next wave" button available, should you ever feel the need to bring in the next wave right away.  Aside from the single-player mode, there is a survival mode and a online multiplayer mode as well. Survival mode plays similar to single-player mode, but you will need to survive 100 waves of enemies in order to succeed. The online multiplayer mode can support up to four players, via friend codes or random users. Two modes of play are available in multiplayer: "Last Man Standing" and "Best Defender." Last Man Standing is where all players play on their own map, but with the same conditions, and the last HQ left standing is the winner. For Best Defender, players play with a time limit, and the defender with the most points will stand on top. Now on to the controls of the game. I actually played quite a decent amount of this game and the controls are very simple. The Wii pointer is used to highlight many things like menus, heroes, and towers. The "A" button is used to interact with the things. Highlight a unit and choose a location for it to move. Choose a type of tower to build and set its location. Select a tower and choose to upgrade or sell it. The controls are easy to understand, and resemble the feeling of a computer mouse. Which was great, since most tower games I played were done on a computer. I had huge fun playing Robocalypse: Beaver Defense. It's too bad my time with it had to end. I really liked how simple it was to just jump into the game, and how addicting it was. This is one WiiWare game that many Wii owners should definitely consider purchasing once it hits the market. The details have not been finalized yet, but I tried to get whatever info I can. Robocalypse: Beaver Defense is aiming to release onto WiiWare around late Summer 2009 for a price range of 800-1000 Wii Points. |
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