iPhone Reviews 2.0

Games like Defend Your Castle are really successful on the PC for their simple use of throwing away stick people coming to attack your castle. Both this game and a spin-off called StickWars have reaped the benefits of the App Store, with StickWars being the No.1 game for a long time before being dethroned by the useless Moron Test.

Castle Conflict adds in another castle and adds a bit of action in between. The game is a lot of fun, but once you have mastered how to win, it doesn't really give you any reason to continue returning to play. The unique style of play is great, but only for really short periods of time. Instead of just defending your castle against attacks, you also have to defeat the opponents castle without yours being overtaken. But is this game a successful conversion from the classic game format? In some parts it is, in some parts it isn't.

The graphics are pretty good f0r a simple game. They look almost cartoon like, but are a bit pixelatted when you take a deep look at the game. While playing the actual game however you don't tend to notice it at all. The animations are very smooth, with no glitches or freezes what so ever in my entire playing time. The different soldiers move at different speeds but the only let down is how the fighting happens. It seems that you run into them, somebody or both die instantly in a poof of smoke. I would have like to seen a bit of animation or even a quick fight scene between the two. The opposing soldiers and bombs are easy to distinguish due to their different colors in the game.

The game is pretty basic when it comes to sound, with hardly any game related sound effects and really just random ones when you select soldiers to go onto the field of battle. There is SOME background music but its not all that great so it is suggested that you stick listening to whatever you have on your iPhone or iPod Touch at the moment.

This game has probably the easiest controls out of any game I have played for a very long time. All that is required in this game is for you to touch the icon up the top of the screen on the soldier or option that you wish to select, if you have the money of course. This is a very easy way to play and requires no reading of the rules before picking up the game. It however isn't very engaging and often leads me bored and wanting more action than something I would expect from an iMob game. This is really better suited for a flash game on the PC. Defend Your Castle does well on the iPhone because it requires the 'flick' method to engage you in the game, instead of the touch and watch what happens process.

The aim of Castle Conflict is to protect your castle at all costs while managing to destroy your opponents castle. This is done by sending out men to collect wood from the forest in the middle of the field, which becomes the games currency almost. For a dearer price you can send out a ninja to steal wood from the opponents supplies. If a soldier comes along, either walking or on a horse then they will kill any opponents in their path. If they meet a soldier equal to their ability or better then they will be killed. If they make it alive to the opposing castle then they can attack it and inflict damage. The battle is also taken to the air when cannons able to fire cannonballs and air balloons exploding into the opponents castle. Finally for a hefty price you can speed up the amount of wood that is grown in the forest area. The winner is the last one with their castle standing.

This all sounds very easy, but after you progress to medium or hard it requires a well thought out strategy to win. Not only do you have to harvest enough wood to keep your supplies up but you also have to defend them from attacks, attack yourself with soldiers and worry about air attacks. The game is split into three difficulty levels with three times as such for gameplay. You can choose quick, medium or long time limit which basically decides how much damage is inflicted per attack. I didn't see much difference in times when defeating the game between quick and long as it all depends on how well your strategy works.

This is a great game for a while but as soon as you have a strategy down, this game gets downright boring and is begging to get deleted off your iPhone. The game has promised additional levels, game modes and even a multiplayer mode which I assume will be Wi-Fi so it should add to the replayability of Castle Conflict.

While this is a great game to start off with, it doesn't have that engaging factor to bring me back to this game after playing it a few times. There is nothing to be gained from playing the game and is definitely only for those who really enjoy the more casual game. The concept behind the game is good but feels like more of a beta version compared to other games that are doing well at $0.99. We have started to expect more out of the games of this price, especially if they are in the Top 100 games. So, if Broken Wings wants to continue bringing in more buyers they should add content quick smart.

The graphics, animation and gameplay is great but as I just said wears off after a few turns. In this state I would buy this game if you are really into casual games or are hoping to play it alot more with the new content as it is sure to rise to a price upwards of $1.99 with a big update. I'm not screaming at you to get this game, so I will leave the decision up to you whether it is the right game for your iPhone.