Tower Defense games are plentiful on the Nintendo Switch, and for fans of the genre, what a time to be alive. It’s no wonder the Switch is the console to be on now, and developers are taking note of that. We have another game in said genre with Over the Top Tower Defense (OTTTD), and it’s what I expected in terms of gameplay, with an over the top story and its shenanigans.
The game’s story is really over the top, you are in the year 2136 and the world is at peace. Soldiers are jobless in this peaceful world so how can these heroes continue their job of protection if there are no more menaces? Herocorp™ has the solution, their scientists have discovered rifts and alien dimensions, so what’s a better way to defend Earth than to pre-emptively defend it from these alien dimensions. That’s basically the game’s story in a nutshell, you take control of a Herocorp employee and go about defeating hordes of peculiar enemies while protecting your tower.
Gameplay-wise the game is what you expect from the genre, you build towers that serve as weapons of destruction, err I mean defense, to obliterate the waves of enemies trying to take down your main base of operations. You have several types of towers at your disposal I like the variety of towers you have, from the basic gatling to a powerful rocket launcher, so depending on the situation you can swap from the available towers real-time to deal with the enemy. There are also seven different classes you can choose from in order to form a team of three battle-hardened soldiers to bring on the pain. The engineer, for example, can repair your towers and also increase the damage output, the scout can increase your range of vision and positioning, and the assault is the damage dishing tank, knowing where to position him it can help a lot; his defense is top notch but is kind of slow. I like that whenever you move the three units they say things, the Assault says some gibberish like warhshsoarah or something it’s fun. Through the campaign, you slowly but surely unlock each of the classes, so you can strategize to your heart’s content. There are two dimensions in which you wage war: Steamcrust and Nightmare. The variety of environments in which you battle is a welcome addition and it helps the game feel fresh and exciting. There are lots of weapons to unlock, and the more powerful your team is, the better the chances of survival, especially on later levels in which there is no time to lose because of constantly incoming waves.
As you defeat waves of enemies you earn credits that you can use to upgrade each of your towers. As the battle progresses your Hero units start to fill a gauge that helps them use special skills like going berserk or fixing all towers in range. The higher the level of your units the more useful they become, I also like the fact that the enemies do not walk mindlessly to your main tower to destroy it, they also damage the towers you’ve set up to defend yourself. As such, keeping an eye of their health gauges is a must, especially if you have a lot of enemies incoming.
Graphically the game looks good I like how the enemies leave rests their bodies, did I just saw a Steak? Anyways, the different areas look good, even amongst the chaos of the bullets flying and screams. The game plays smooth either in docked or handheld mode. The music is good although sometimes gets drowned out because of the other on-point sound effects. After beating the campaign there are endless stages you can unlock with the stars you get in campaign mode, so there is a good replay value there.
Bottom Line OTTTD is a fun tower defense game with some unique characters and RPG mechanics. I was honestly surprised because it breathed fresh air into the genre. I definitely give it a recommendation.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided