Defense of the Middle Kingdom

Genre: Tower Defense

Players: 1

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Review:

Defense of the Middle Kingdom is a Tower Defense game first released on the Nintendo DSi via the DSiWare service in 2011, with a version also releasing on the Nintendo 3DS eShop. This game puts players in the role of a military tactician guarding roads from invading forces during China’s warring states time period.

The presentation in this game is decent, featuring some endearing retro-style 2D pixel art visuals and backed by a synthesized soundtrack that plays like a Super Nintendo era game trying to give players a grandiose cinematic-style theme. The result is a game that exudes a nostalgic charm that works well for the game.

Unfortunately, this game falls apart just about everywhere else. The gameplay mechanics and unit types aren’t properly explained within the game and players need to seek out explanations for everything in the menus. Even after doing that, it’s often not easy to distinguish different unit types from one another. And even if you do that, it’s not always clear what your best strategic option is.

And making things even worse, the player is extremely limited in how many units they can deploy at a time, and the game frequently fails to detect your touch controls when trying to navigate menus.

Simply put, Defense of the Middle Kingdom is an absolute mess of a Tower Defense game, and players have numerous better options in the genre on the Nintendo 3DS. If you’re itching for a fun Tower Defense game, be sure to skip over this one.

tl;dr – Defense of the Middle Kingdom is a Tower Defense game set in the warring states period of China. This game has a great retro-style charm, but the gameplay has a multitude of problems, including poorly-explained gameplay, hard to distinguish units, spotty controls, a limited ability to deploy units. In short, this is a pretty awful Tower Defense game, and you’d do best to skip it and look to one of the numerous better alternatives.

Grade: D

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