Topic: Fieldrunners First Impressions

IMPRESS!

hahaha, I was seriously typing the title to this, then I opened a new tab, just to be sure no one else had in the 4.5 seconds I spent writing it up and I saw this anyways, this really looks good

lol My bad, I guess I'm just a faster processor

Anywho, this indeed looks good, but the controls are all I'm concerned with.

agreed, the look is AMAZING, but, I am interested about what the changes are made versus the ipod touch/ iphone version

I haven't played that version, but I'll be buying this. I'll post impressions later tonight.

alright, really kinda excited about this, but I only have a few points, so thanx for taking the bait for all of us

No problem, and out of all the games I downloaded today (Chronos Twins, Escapee GO!, and this) Fieldrunners is my favorite.

There about about 5 levels, with the later 4 needing to be unlocked. Each level has its own set of "towers" which are placed onto the field to attack the incoming waves of enemies. Some towers shoot bullets, missiles, or slow down enemies, etc. and can be upgraded up to 3 times. Enemies include foot soldiers, stronger foot soldiers, foot soldiers on motorcycles, tanks, helicopters, and... GIANT ROBOTS? Each enemy you defeat gives you cash to buy more towers or upgrades with.

Each wave of enemies is a "round." The first level that I beat had 100 rounds, with each round getting more difficult than the last. You can unlock the 2nd level by beating 50 rounds, and unlock Fast Forward (speeds up the gameplay) at about round 75. When you beat the first level, the extended version is unlocked. There is a highscore list but no online leaderboards. No online play either.

There is WAY more information about the game that I should type but I'll sum it up: BUY IT.

If your a fan of Army Defender or tower defense games, this is a fantastic purchase. And for only 500 points? It's a great deal.

Any questions?

Yeah, does it need the shoulder buttons to work?

It can switch the view of the battlefield. It's completely optional though. I didn't use the shoulder buttons at all.

I just beat one round. It definitly is neck and neck with Starship Defense for being the best tower defense game on DSiWare, and maybe even the best on the DS, though Ninjatown is still awesome. I highly reccomend using the zoom-in feature, but you don't need it to suceed. I few minor complaints, though. All of the towers look similar (be prepared to look at a lot of blue), it's hard to see when you have the game paused or not and the music is kind of bland. This is still a great game and one of the best on DSiWare. I'd give it a 9/10.

Sorta disappointing.
There are only a handful of towers, each one more generic than the last. We have the typical machine guns, flamethrowers, slow/poisoners and so forth. It doesn't feel creative and it doesn't make the game very interesting.
The soundtrack is very uninteresting as well. Each round takes a long time to finish, but the songs are just 50 second loops... It gets very, very old.
The expansive maps and immaculate balancing make it worthwhile, and the cartoony production gives it more soul than Starship Defense, but I would heartily recommend Q-Games' TD over this one. Its actual towers and enemies are far more interesting in terms of gameplay.

It's a Tower Defense game? Damn, I was hoping for a real RTS game.

I haven't played very many tower defense games, but this is one of the few that I really like.

I've been looking at a few of the DS tower defense games and thinking of getting one. The main thing holding me back is I don't like games where there's an absolute best strategy that you read, or discover through trial and error (I've only played a few PC ones, such as GemCraft). Which one would be best for making up my strategy as I go along, instead of planning it out in advance? This quote from the review here is leaning me towards this one:
"It’s up to you to plot out the gauntlet your attackers will run and what towers would fit best in any given position for maximum impact. This creativity is a welcome change from having a set path that enemies funnel through, since your level designs can be as simple or as devious as you’d like, and it’s always nice to be able to change your strategy on-the-fly."

I want a tower Defense as well, but I'm leaning towards Starship Defense, just because I'm familiar with Q-games through Trajectile, and I really enjoyed that. Can someone who has both make a list of what's good about each, to help me decide? _{I hope that's not asking too much. . .}

I haven't played Starship Defense. Or very many other tower defense games for that matter

But this... Fieldrunners... is great fun!

Starship Defense
+Varied, more strategically demanding level designs. In Fieldrunners, the maps are fairly basic. The last two are the only ones that even remotely attempt to restrict you. In Starship Defense, however, all 30 maps have very different looking levels, as each one has a host of different starships and areas you can build towers in. You WILL run out of tower spots, so placing them strategically is very important, and you HAVE to constantly be looking at future waves on the top screen to make sure your towers can fight them. In Fieldrunners, every tower can attack every enemy, and the maps are so enormous that you can spam towers and get away with it (so long as you maze, which isn't very difficult). Enemies also take unpredictable paths in Starship Defense, so your entire screen has to be defended evenly in order to win.
+Elegant, minimalist visual design. You could say the bleached worlds and starships lack soul, but if you liked the aesthetics of DIGIDRIVE or Trajectile, you'll like the simplistic graphics here.
+Superb balancing between towers and, perhaps more importantly, enemies.
+More intensive stat-tracking, though it isn't online.
-It can get very, very hard. In fact, in order to progress past every 10 levels you have to get 5 perfects out of those levels, meaning not letting ANY enemies go by.

Fieldruners
+Creative mazing is encouraged. I mentioned before that the expansive maps make this an easier game, but it also allows you to build your own maps (sort of).
+Cartoony art direction that has more personality than Starship Defense. The two grunt units look like the soldier and heavy from TF2, which automatically makes the graphics superb
+There are only 5 levels, but they take a long time to beat and you might want to replay them. I've put about 10 hours into Fieldrunners, twice the amount of time it took me to be done with Starship Defense
+Great balancing
-Stock towers. Of the eight towers, none of them are anything unique or special to Fieldrunners. They're the orthodox slow, damage, splash damage units we've seen for years
-The music gets old really early on.

@WAIW: Thanks a lot. That's a big help to me. As the DSiWare catalog grows and more games get added to each genre, these types of comparisons will become more important and, I think, are sadly lacking in today's video game journalism. Thanks again!

Music is a loop that got so boring I keep it at the lowest possible without being turned down. The graphics really look bad compared the iPod touch, but they're not atrocious. The game itself is amazing and addictive, you can't stop playing. It's always a "one more go, I swear!" kind of game. For 500 points, totally worth it

Thanks WAIW! I think I'll go with Starship Defense, because I've played quite a few tower defenses, and I'd probably get bored with the 'stock towers' you mentioned. Also, I like a challenge, as well as trying for a perfect run.
One more thing, though. Is there an endless mode in starship like there is in fieldrunners?