Viking Invasion

Genre: Tower Defense

Players: 1

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Review:

Viking Invasion is a Tower Defense game first released on the Nintendo DSi via the DSiWare service in 2009, and later grandfathered into the Nintendo 3DS eShop when the Nintendo 3DS released. This game has players setting up emplacements to defend against a… well, a viking invasion.

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 droning warlike music that works well enough for the gameplay but tends to fade into the background of everything else.

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.

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 is just an all-around good Tower Defense game. If you’re a fan of the genre, this is an excellent choice.

tl;dr – Viking Invasion 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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