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Defenders of Ardania gets new trailer, on PC and XBLA March 14
Defenders of Ardania, a tower defense title with a fantasy bent, is coming to PC March 14, says publisher Paradox Interactive. We learned earlier this week that the game will also be released on Xbox Live Arcade the same day. The press release notes that, in addition to setting up their own defenses, players must "fight back and deploy their own armies against cunning AI opponents" or other online players.Along with the news, Paaradox has released a trailer for Defenders of Ardania showing off some of its features and at least one rather large monster. You can check it out above. %Gallery-150248%
Coming soon to Xbox Live: Defenders of Ardania, DOA5 demo, more
Major Nelson has posted the schedule for upcoming Xbox Live content, replete with plenty of new releases and deals. We knew most of the XBLA release dates already, including March 7 for I Am Alive and March 14 for Shoot Many Robots. What we didn't know was the March 14 release of Defenders of Ardania, a fantasy tower defense game we first heard about over a year ago.Beyond XBLA, this week's Deal of the Week sees Borderlands DLC heavily discounted, in most cases by 50 percent. Next week's deal will slash prices on several dungeon crawlers, including Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale, The Baconing, Torchlight, and Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team, all of which will be 50 percent off.Finally, a Dead or Alive 5 demo is slated for March 19, presumably the one of the same demos included with Ninja Gaiden 3 (which is totally coming out this month, lest you forgot). Head over to Major Nelson for the full content schedule.
Daily iPad App: Defenders of Ardania
Tower defense is a genre that's almost run its course, if you ask me. But Defenders of Ardania is still a really solid tower defense title for the iPad that does find some innovation left in the process of setting up towers and letting them take out the incoming bad guys. The twist here is that while you're building towers for defense, you're also purchasing your own invading forces, which are then sent to wander out towards your enemy's castle. In other words, it's a kind of reverse tower defense, where you both attack and defend against an enemy doing the same. Unfortunately, that makes things a little complicated -- you still have a gold pool which you refresh by killing bad guys (as usual), but you need to use that pool to summon both towers and invading forces. And as if that's not enough, you also have various spells to buff up your troops, and you can also lay down traps on incoming troops to stop them in their tracks, all while trying to bring down the enemy base's health and keeping yours up. Like I said, it's complicated. That may appeal to some players -- the graphics are 2D but very well-designed and functional, and while there's lots to do, the UI itself is pretty well designed. Fans of more straightforward tower defense will probably want to look elsewhere (I'll recommend the great Gem Keeper yet again here), and those on the fence can check out Defenders of Ardania's free version. Those up for a challenge who want something a little different from the tower defense genre should definitely give this one a look. There's a full campaign mode, multiplayer battles with Game Center integration, and lots of complex tower defense/attack gameplay to be had for just $4.99.
Defenders of Ardania arriving on PC and iPad, console versions planned
Paradox Interactive announced its first iPad game today. Defenders of Ardania is a tower defense game set in the world of Majesty and is planned as the largest multiplatform release for the publisher, arriving on PC and iPad in the summer. PSN and XBLA versions are in the works as well. While the gameplay will be largely familiar for anyone that's played a tower defense game before, developer Most Wanted is hoping its fantasy setting and additional magic powers will help it stand out. Like PSN's Comet Crash, the game can be effectively described as a "tower offense" game, with players needing to not only defend their base, but attack opponents as well. With three different races, 24 different towers and 24 different offensive units, Ardania is certainly one of the more complex additions to the genre. Multiplayer adds a competitive edge to the tower offense concept, with Most Wanted planning support for 2-4 players. It's a fun twist on a well-tested genre, one that we may see on our consoles ... if Microsoft and Sony allow the game onto their services. Check out a trailer after the break.%Gallery-114787%
