The tower defense genre is one populated with hundreds upon hundreds of cheaply-made Flash games, expressly designed to help office workers get through their boring days at work (so, y’ know, every day). They’re basically the bread-and-butter of all those “free online games” sites that our younger readers probably spent the entirety of their high school career on - don’t pretend that you didn’t!
For those uninitiated to the genre, tower defense games (with some exceptions) operate on a pretty simple principle: place automated attack towers to stop the monsters/creeps/what have you from reaching your base. If a certain number of creeps hits your base, you lose. Pretty simple, right? Not really- most popular tower defense games require some deep strategies to succeed, and some games mix up the formula by reversing the roles, making the player the attacking party.
In choosing the candidates from this list, I selected the very best of what the genre has to offer - taking into account both art style, fun value, and how derivative the game in question is. We all love new blood, right? So, without any further ado, here are the best Tower Defense games.
Platform: Nintendo DS
Ninjatown is one of those lesser known gems, partly due to the fact that it was only released for DS, but it stands out amongst every other tower defense game due to how downright adorable it is. I mean, just look at it! With cutesy art (courtesy of Shawnimals) like that, who cares about the gameplay?
I kid. Gameplay is everything. Ninjatown, unsurprisingly, takes place in a town full of ninjas, which is being attacked by a bunch of evil demons or something. It’s not entirely specific, but it doesn’t have to be - all you need to know is that they’re bad, and you need to throw ninjas at them. The game itself, which released on the Nintendo DS in 2008, takes advantage of the handheld’s at-the-time innovations, incorporating both touch and microphone input into gameplay.
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360 (XBLA), Mac OS X
Defense Grid, developed by Hidden Path Entertainment (an indie developer which is currently developing Age of Empires II HD), revolves around defending power cores from marauding aliens who attempt to make off with them. You, the player, control a (wait for it...) defense grid on a series of abandoned military bases in order to stop the aforementioned aliens, which seem to be fairly generic. The real draw to this game is the great art - oh, and that it was part of Portal 2’s Potato Sack ARG, which means it’s got some juicy GLaDOS easter eggs for those rabid Portal fans out there, as well as a fully-featured DLC pack featuring the aforementioned maniacal AI.
Platforms: PC, Mac
Deathtrap is a mixture of tower defense games and action RPGs. Players and their traps must take on hordes of otherworldly enemies in a single-player campaign, or team up with allies to take them on together. There's even an integrated map editor to allow players to create their own dungeons, allowing them to share cunning levels and mini-campaigns with others.
Platforms: PC, Xbox One, PS4
Defense Grid 2 is the sequel to Defense Grid, developed by Hidden Path Entertainment (which is responsible for Age of Empires II HD). Like its predecessor, it revolves around defending power cores from marauding aliens who attempt to make off with them. You, the player, take charge of a defense grid on a series of abandoned military bases in order to stop the aforementioned aliens, which seem to be fairly generic.
Platforms: PC, Linux, Mac OS X
Revenge of the Titans, developed by Puppy Games and hereafter referred to as Titans, follows the story of the aftermath of an alien invasion which has ravaged Earth. You, the player, are tasked with pushing back waves of enemy Titans, but Titans has a twist - there aren’t any specific lanes which enemies will attack through. Rather, they’ll all run at you from a specific direction, forcing you to use defenses wisely. Another game mechanic worthy of serious consideration is the use of the numerous crystal deposits dotted around the maps, which give you money to build more towers (if you build a crystal refinery on top of them, that is). On top of the excellent gameplay, Titans also features a great minimalist dystopian art style (which made perfect sense in my head, promise), which makes it a must buy.
Platforms: PC, Mac OS X, Linux, iOS, Android, Xbox 360, PlayStation Network
Anomaly: Warzone Earth is an oddity in the Tower Defense genre. It’s set in Baghdad, Iraq, following the crash landing of an alien ship - and, surprisingly, you don’t play as the aliens. Instead, your player character is tasked with getting to the alien spacecraft, accompanied by a small squad of combat vehicles. The differences don’t stop there, though: in lieu of having an active combat role, your job is to support your squad with various powerups and items. It’s surprisingly deep, especially so when you consider the fact that, before Anomaly: Warzone Earth had come out, nobody had successfully executed this role reversal - something which developer 11 Bit Studios pulled off with aplomb.
Platforms: Windows, Linux, iPad, Android
First developed as a free online strategy game on armorgames.com, Kingdom Rush has been released as a commercial title that pits players against an army of fantastical, evil creatures in a medieval fantasy setting. There are two sequels to the title for the iOS and Android platforms, Kingdom Rush: Frontiers and Kingdom Rush: Origins.
Platforms: Google Chrome, PC, Mac OS X, iOS, Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, Nintendo DS, DSiWare, Bada, Android, Windows Phone, PS Vita, BlackBerry Tablet OS, BlackBerry
As one of the most-played tower defense games of all time, this classic doesn’t need an introduction - heck, even my grandma has played it. For the two people in the world who haven’t played it, though, here’s the gist of it. Plants vs. Zombies, developed by PopCap, is a simplified take on the tower defense format, which casts you as a homeowner trying to defend yourself from zombies attacking your backyard (who, apparently, haven’t had the bright idea of just attacking the front of your house). To stop them, you use a huge variety of weaponised flora, all powered by sunlight which, naturally, falls from the sky. There’s a reason why it’s so popular, and that’s because it’s fun, accessible, and humorous - basically the Holy Trifecta of good casual videogames.
Platforms: PC
Sequel to the first Dungeon Defenders, Dungeon Defenders II is a cooperative multiplayer game that takes place in a fantasy setting where the young apprentices of wizards and warriors must defend the kingdom against hordes of monsters. A mix of tower defense and RPG, players accumulate powerful new items as they play, which aid them in battle against the monsters, and directly control their characters to do battle on the field.
Platforms: PC
Developed by Robot Entertainment, Orcs Must Die! 2 is a tower defense strategy title and sequel to the first Orcs Must Die! Unlike the first title, which was exclusively single-player, the game features an emphasis on two-player cooperative gameplay. Playing as either the War Mage or Sorceress, players must fend off waves of emerging orcs bent on reaching the heart of the level. Players can kill them by placing traps or beating them up personally.
Platforms: PS3, PSP, PS Vita, PC, Mac, Linux
PixelJunk Monsters is one of the few good tower defense games for the console. The mechanics of PixelJunk Monsters has similarities to other tower defense titles. The objective is to build defense towers along the enemies' path to keep them from reaching a hut, or base, which is surrounded by creatures that the player must protect. Unlike more traditional tower defense games, the player controls a character around the screen, collecting coins and building towers.
Platforms: PC, Xbox One, PS4
Developed by the makers of Endless Legend and Endless Space, Dungeon of the Endless diverges from usual tower defense mechanics by offering a combination of roguelike and tower defense gameplay. In the game, players take on the role of survivors of a prison spaceship, whose escape pod crashes on a planet consisting of endless dungeons. To escape, they must take an energy crystal through several floors, each floor filled with a number of dangerous creatures.
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