Strategy Defense

While Strategy Defense looks like a tactics game, it really isn't. There's very little strategy involved in one 'hero' taking on anywhere from 4 to 8 (until the last battle) enemies whose only strategy is to charge forward, shoot at you and then run away.

But it's still a fun game. I found that by treating it as a puzzle game I could enjoy the challenge that came with each level. While getting stuck on certain levels was extremely frustrating when I couldn't solve it, I did get by eventually.

Ever hear of moving in a diagonal? Apparently the maker of this game hasn't.

Tips:

1. Kill everything to build up your experience. While you get more money for finishing levels in fewer rounds, the xp counts for more. Instead, make sure you are at full health (or close to it) in order to build up your money supply. Building up money supplies is important. Don't waste any chance to end with a higher hp.
2. Don't worry about buying things at the store. If you don't use it, you can sell it back later at the same price.
3. Sometimes its best just to get shot and use your retaliation to fire back. Take a health potion on your turn instead of firing back and getting shot in retaliation. The best time to shoot one of your attackers is only if they will die with that shot. Otherwise, they get to hit you twice (once on your round in retaliation, and once on their round when they shoot back).
4. If you can, stay out of range of your attackers and hit them with the magic arrow. Especially on the earlier levels and against the towers, this can save you a lot of time.
5. Magic (except for the arrows) becomes useless within four rounds of when you can start using it.
   
6. If you can't avoid your attackers the best strategy is to minimize the number of attackers who can hit you in a single round. Then heal yourself on your turn. Allow your retaliation to take care of them.
7. Enemy knights are easy to avoid, so kill everything else while avoiding them.
8. Keep in mind that you can run a lot farther as a knight, and you can switch right back to whatever else you want when you get there.

Update: Oops! As the anonymous commenter pointed out below, I never told you where it was.

Play Strategy Defense at crazymonkeygames.

Bloons Tower Defense 2

Bloons Tower Defense 2 has everything you ever wanted as a kid, bloons, towers, and uh... dart throwing monkeys.

The follow-up to Bloons Tower Defense, the sequel has improved the original slightly. You still have balloon popping, dart throwing (yes, they are all right-handed) monkeys, but now you have to use some of the different towers. For instance, unless you have a cannon, you can't blow up the lead balloon that start coming in level 20.

There are also some nifty tools, like monkey glue and road spikes that you can use for a temporary reprieve.

The sequel is harder than the original, but I have faith that if you beat the original, you can beat at least the medium level. Again, the super monkey is the best dart thrower out there, but without a cannon, you won't be able to finish the game.

Play Bloons Tower Defense 2 at ninjakiwi.

StormWinds

Stormwinds is a new turret defense game that is pretty generic in nature. If you like games like Bowmaster or Battle, you'll enjoy this game. Just don't expect too much.

Place your turrets in your cliff fortress and fire away at the oncoming waves of enemies. The first few levels are very easy, but they do get tougher. There are 25 levels in all, with each one getting progressively more difficult (not completely linear, but a general trend of increased difficulty is there). The boss is not too hard to defeat once you get to him.

No sound effects is a detraction, but the music is good. Repetitive after a while, but it does set the stage nicely. I wish the hot keys would work for me. Switching guns is a pain, the hotkeys would be nice.

Basic guns are the heavy turret (good for taking damage) and the machine gun (good for long distance fighting). Place your heavy turret in the first slot to take the most fire. The sniper gun is useful for quick take downs. One strategy is to have two snipers and one heavy turret. That will get you pretty far. The lightning gun is fun, but slow to recharge.

This game is pretty basic in nature, fun, but like I said, don't expect too much.

Play StormWinds at herointeractive.

The Battle

The Battle is in Beta, so anything I say here could be different in the final version, and really, that should be a good thing.

Similar to Bowmaster or Bowmaster Prelude, you have a big gun that you can fire at the opposing troops (but not their base) as they try to invade your base. You can also recruit troops to attack their base or defend your position.

On the field in between the two opposing bases are turrets which you can take over (or attack if they are already occupied) and oil fields. You want to defend the oil fields in order to build up your money supply.

The money you collect can be spent on troops, research on better troops, upgrading your weaponry, or shooting at the bad guys.

What I like about this game: the introduction of money into the strategy is certainly interesting. Also, different weapons, upgrades, the cost of firing your own weapon, the 'surprise' ending on level 15 all make this enjoyable. Figuring out where to place your troops to maximize their effectiveness adds a nice bit of strategy to the game.

What I don't like (and I hope they fix in future versions):
Overall, this game is way too easy. You can shoot your way to victory on every level without recruiting more than a couple of men (who go out and occupy the turrets and oil fields). It's also way too easy to take the turret (when available) that's next to the enemy base and let it destroy the enemy base.

The research is a nice idea, but it's too easy to research everything by level 5. Then you're left with a lot of money which means you don't have to worry about spending at all.

The point system leaves a lot to be desired. Perhaps a bonus for time to finish or something. If you want to maximize your score, just kill everything the other base creates and he runs out of troops. Destroying the other base gives you a nice bonus, but not enough to make it worth your while to do so.

Also, if you have two different methods to end the level, there should be some way of marking your progress with either method. You know what the enemy base hit points look like, why don't you know how many more troops he can recruit?

Why can you stop some of your troops from running off the far side of screen and not others? Also, once you run out of population, you need to commit suicide in order to build others. It would be nice if you could sell them off instead.

Anyways, I still had fun with it. Bowmaster is way better, but if you like that, you'll like The Battle (lousy name, btw).

Crazy 4 Jigsaws

I got an e-mail from someone asking me to review the site crazy4jigsaws, and I ended up liking the site, so here's my review.

Crazy 4 Jigsaws is a jigsaw puzzle site. There are plenty of jigsaws to play with high resolution pictures that are pleasant to look at. Each photo can be cut up into little jigsaw pieces, anywhere from 12 to 192 pieces for you to play with.

Move the pieces around with your mouse. When you find a matching piece, let go of the button and it will lock up together automatically. If you register, the time it takes for you to solve the puzzle will be stored and your name can be entered into the high score table for bragging rights. But even if you don't register, your time will affect the 'average time' shown.

I have a critique of the 'average time' shown. It's nice to compare yourself to others, but I was interrupted a few times while solving puzzles, so my time was obviously inflated with down time. That can severely affect the average, especially while the site is new and there are so few people there.

Unlike a lot of gaming sites, I was comfortable showing this one to a toddler, so I would say it's family friendly.

Solve jigsaw puzzles online at crazy4jigsaws

Tactics 100 Live

Tactics 100 Live is a tactical strategy game similar to chess, but set in a fantasy world. Set up your army using 100 points spread across up to 10 pieces to take on your opponent with. Play the single player walkthrough or go head to head against a live opponent.

You play on a 7x7 board and start off facing your opponent. But things can quickly get out of hand if you choose to charge ahead with some of your pieces. Your starting army can consist of wizards, knights, archers and healers.

Play the single player version a few times and play around with your army. You can take the balanced default army straight through the 10 levels in the single player game, but it's only be experimenting with the various upgrades that you can really have fun with this game. Will you upgrade a few to their highest level? Do you want another archer, or do you want the healers abilities? Maybe you want to try out your luck with just wizards on your side?

I'm really enjoying this game. The strategic possibilities are just fascinating.

Some things you should keep in mind. Hitting from the side or back can pay off. But exposing your own backside to a knight can be deadly. Wizards chain reactions can be really useful, but without upgrading his damage potential, hitting the fourth opponent for only 2 points may not be worth it. Knights are great for both dealing and taking damage. Use them for buffers to protect your wizards and/or archers. Archers are cheap and don't do a lot of damage, but they are very mobile (and cheap).

It is possible to beat all ten levels in the single player without losing a life, but you may need to restart a level (without a penalty) to do it. Sometimes luck plays a part, too.

Play Tactics 100 Live at kongregate.

Grow Island Walkthrough

Grow Island continues the fun and exciting games from On at eyezmaze. It is being used to promote the SHIBAURA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, a college information site and so it is not located on the eyezmaze site.

Like the other games in the grow series, your job is to figure out the best order to place new objects onto the field. In this case, the objects are courses of learning. While I think you should go ahead and try different things in an attempt to find the various endings (there are multiple), I'll provide a walkthrough for the basic ending and UFO ending below.

Play Grow Island at shingakunet.

UFO Walkthrough:

1. Aeronautics, marine, automotive engineering,
2. Civil engineering,
3. Architecture,
4. Computer science,
5. Electrical Engineering,
6. Mechanical engineering,
7. Applied Chemistry,
8. Environmental engineering,

Basic Walkthrough:

1. Mechanical engineering,
2. Civil engineering,
3. Architecture,
4. Environmental engineering,
5. Aeronautics, marine, automotive engineering,
6. Electrical Engineering,
7. Computer science,
8. Applied Chemistry

Shield Defense

Shield Defense is a tower defense game, but with a fun twist. You can't shoot back. Your only offense is a good defense, because you can only use your shield to rebound the shots coming in on you.

That makes it a lot more difficult to play and think about. You need to concentrate on your defensive skills more than in other games. Every 3, 4 or 5 rounds (depends on the skill level you choose at the beginning) you get a bonus point. Use those bonus points for bonus upgrades, rather than regular upgrades which cost money.

In between levels, you can upgrade your shield using the money you collect from blowing up the bad guys. Just don't spend all your money because any money you have left over earns interest in between rounds.

Hints and Tips
Get the antimatter shield (cost of three bonus points). At the later levels, you'll be facing fire from several different directions and you can't block them all. Heat seekers is another great upgrade (again, 3 bonus points). After that, increase the interest rate.

Play Shield Defense at Kongregate.

Haluz 2 Walkthrough

Haluz is back (see the original Haluz walkthrough) and slightly better than before. Figure the puzzles out and move your hero along to rescue the girl and get your just rewards. The online version is a teaser for a full version you can purchase (I wasn't tempted, even though it is a good puzzle game).

The graphics are as incredible as they were in the first version and the sound effects are fun.

I'll post a walkthrough below.

Haluz is similar to other mini puzzle games (graphics and puzzle-wise) to Samarost, Samarost 2, and wogger. Other recent point and click adventure games include Smart Stick Adventures 2 1/2, Hapland 3, and Puzzleland.

Play Haluz 2 at haluz2.net

Walkthrough Below

Wait for the introduction to finish and your hero to start off on his adventure. Then click on the lock next to the door. Then click on the raccoon hiding in the lamp on top of the hill. Click on the cord to turn on the light. The code for the lock shows up under the light on the door. Punch in the code and then turn the wheel.

Click on the light switch next to the door. Turn it to the right to move the bat to the right. Turn it back to the left to get the bat to come back. Take the hook up next to the bat and attach it to it. Turn the light switch back the other way to move the bat again. Click on the basket to jump across.

Wait a few moments, then click on your hero to 'pollute' the water. Wait some more for the flowers to grow and expose the man in the mountain. Click on the left most flower.

Take the pine cone out of the man in the mountains mouth and place it under the clock as a counter weight. Click on the clock face until the horse starts coming out (4 o'clock). Your hero will jump on and disappear.

Click on the walkman the old shaman is listening to. Click on the bottom right music code to make him float (looks like an alpha symbol to me). Turn the volume up to make him float higher. Click on his beard to get the key to drop out. Put the key in the lock to get your hero out in his flying boat.

Enjoy the scenery.

To get the snake to let you go, turn on the water (right side, red knob). Turn the left wheel on the pump (bottom middle of scene). Turn right wheel, then turn the left wheel again. Then click the pump. Turn the left wheel again to release the bees. Click on back of boat to get hero on his way.

Wait till hero stops his boat. Click on hummingbird on flower pot above. When the bird comes out to eat fruit, click on plants with eyes above to steal it (may require some timing). Click on eyes again to drop fruit, dropping big bird into pot allowing you to move on.

Click on glass to get your hero to attempt to lift it up off of the girl. He's not strong enough. Halfway up on right side, there is a claw holding an orange ball. Click on it, then immediately click on jar below it to swing it out (requires timing) to get ball to drop into jar. Click on fly on far left. While it is on the mushroom, click on iguana (top left).

Enjoy end scene and sales pitch for full version. (I did say you would get your just rewards, didn't I? That's what you get for stealing a man's mouthpiece!)

The Blade of Innocence

Blades of Innocence is a very simple RTS game. Build up your castle and your forces and attack the other castle before the computer manages to take you down. Your income comes at a steady stream, so no worries about resource collection except to build those things that increase your income.

Not hard to beat at the easy or very easy level, this game becomes more difficult at normal. Be ready for real frustration if you get beyond that (I tend to scream about how the computer is cheating).

I try to build up resources first, then my army. This game doesn't give you much time to do that, however. And if all your footsoldiers die, when you create a new one, it may not go for the weakest opponent (Which absolutely drives me nuts!).

It's distracting to see the directions in two different languages, but I learned to live with it.

This game is not exactly going to tempt you into replaying it again and again, but for those of you who want a taste of RTS...

Play Blades of Innocence at flashgames247. Found via forbored.