Viking Invasion 2: Tower Defense

Genre: Tower Defense

Players: 1

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Review:

Viking Invasion is a Tower Defense game released on the Nintendo 3DS in 2013. As with its predecessor, This game has players setting up emplacements to defend against a… well, a viking invasion.

This game is actually extremely similar to its predecessor. Same visuals, same core gameplay. There have only been a few minor changes here, and as such, I will be copying over most of what I say here from my review of the first game, and changing only what this installment does differently.

The presentation here is mostly pretty good, although this game focuses so much on the silly story of the vikings in the still-image cartoony intermissions between battles that one could easily go into this game thinking that they’re playing as the vikings. While these segments are mildly amusing, they’re largely disposable.

Thankfully the gameplay itself looks decent enough, with a colorful style using 2D visuals, and unit types that are different enough that it’s easy to distinguish at a glance what type of unit everything is. This is accompanied by the incoherent grunts of various units as they’re destroyed, and backed by instrumental music that sounds like something you might expect to hear at a Renaissance Faire. I’m not quite sure how period-appropriate that sort of music is, but I suppose it works well enough for the game.

As for the gameplay… honestly, I don’t know that there’s much to say here beyond that this is just a really solid-well-made Tower Defense game. There are a good variety of both enemy units and friendly emplacements, the latter of which players will gradually unlock over the course of the game. Players can choose whether to unlock these units or power up their current units after obtaining the points needed to do so, with each unit having two potential upgrades. And in battle, players can also power up their emplacements. You’re given a good amount of choices where to place your emplacements as well.

There is one main area where this game differs from its predecessor, and that is that while in the first Viking Invasion players were tasked with simply picking off the viking ships as they passed by, in this game those ships will be actively attacking you as you pass. As such, you’ll need to keep track of how damaged your emplacements are, and be sure to repair them before an emplacement is outright destroyed. Personally, I preferred the more simplistic gameplay of the first game, but I imagine this is just a matter of personal preference more than anything.

As with the first Viking Invasion, I can’t think of anything that this game does that’s truly out of the norm for the genre, but I also can’t think of anything this game does that’s particularly bad either. Like I said, Viking Invasion 2 is just an all-around good Tower Defense game. If you’re a fan of the genre, this is an excellent choice. On balance, I personally prefer te first game, but I can easily see how some could like this one better. Either way you’re getting a good Tower Defense game.

tl;dr – Viking Invasion 2 is a Tower Defense game where players set up defenses against a… viking invasion. While the game’s silly story is completely disposable, this is otherwise a solid entry in the genre, with a good variety of choices, a decent presentation, and all-around solid gameplay. If you want a Tower Defense game on Nintendo 3DS, this is a solid choice.

Grade: B

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