OTTTD Review
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OTTTD Review

Our Review by Rob Thomas on June 2nd, 2014
Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar :: EXCESSIVE HEROICS
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SMG Studio takes boring old tower defense and jazzes it up a bit with gibs aplenty and a buttload of firepower.

Developer: SMG Studio
Price: $2.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0.5
App Reviewed on: iPad 2

Graphics / Sound Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar
User Interface Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar
Gameplay Rating: starstarstarhalfstarblankstar
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: starstarstarhalfstarblankstar

Overall Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar

One of the most difficult paths to walk in this industry is trying to make a game that is humorous, but still enjoyable to play. Most of the time one element gets shorthanded in favor of the other, but a few rare exceptions shine through. And while I wouldn't endeavor to put OTTTD in the same category as, say, a game like Portal 2, it certainly shows that some work went into both sides of the equation.

OTTTD (Over-The-Top Tower Defense to its parents) is, as the name would imply, a tower defense game. I think we all know the genre well enough that I don't need to recap the premise here. The "OTT" part derives from what appears to be SMG Studio's philosophy of "Does this idea seem remotely cool or amusing? Then throw it in there!" During the course of gameplay, the dimension-hopping agents of HEROCORP™ will blow up waves of floating eyeballs, cybernetically enhanced sea life, and much more. Nasty, knife-wielding biker octopi? Giant flying zombie robot shark? Yep. We've got those too. It's kind of like someone took the boredom-born doodles in a teenager's notebook and spun them into a game.

Unlike a lot of tower defense offerings, OTTTD also offers some additional player agency in the form of, well, agents. Not content to merely drop gun emplacements along the path to their base, HEROCORP™ offers a wide variety of agents with an equally wide variety of abilities. Engineers can remotely repair towers and upgrade their damage output. Saboteurs can cloak and seed the field with deadly mines. The Rocketeer's jetpack allows him a greater degree of battlefield mobility, and so on. Agents earn experience that lets them unlock new abilities and upgrade old ones, which encourages a fair bit of replay in order to reach the higher tier stuff. It's also nice to go back to earlier levels with some of the classes unlocked later in the game, just for kicks.

The aforementioned humor aspect shows through in both the game's writing (menus are littered with HEROCORP™ company memos and debriefing info) as well as the personality-laden voiceovers for each character. Players wouldn't be out of line in drawing comparisons to Valve's Team Fortress 2 in terms of inspiration and tone, but the delivery comes more by way of equal parts Saturday morning cartoon and action movie cliche. Still, the jokes are short and varied enough that I didn't feel annoyed hearing the same quip delivered for the hundredth time. That alone is an impressive feat.

OTTTD isn't mind blowing. It's not going to redefine either iOS games or the tower defense genre as a whole. It's not going to leave players pondering the greater issues of existence long after they put their iOS device down. Instead, it offers an uncomplicated experience: fun. Good, simple, polished, well-executed fun. In their quest to one-up one another with the most over-the-top concepts, some game developers forget about this. Thankfully, SMG Studio did not.

iPhone Screenshots

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OTTTD: Over The Top Tower Defense screenshot 1 OTTTD: Over The Top Tower Defense screenshot 2 OTTTD: Over The Top Tower Defense screenshot 3 OTTTD: Over The Top Tower Defense screenshot 4 OTTTD: Over The Top Tower Defense screenshot 5

iPad Screenshots

(click to enlarge)

OTTTD: Over The Top Tower Defense screenshot 6 OTTTD: Over The Top Tower Defense screenshot 7 OTTTD: Over The Top Tower Defense screenshot 8 OTTTD: Over The Top Tower Defense screenshot 9 OTTTD: Over The Top Tower Defense screenshot 10
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