Aegis Defenders

Genre: Action-Platformer / Tower Defense

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local Splitscreen)

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Review:

Aegis Defenders is one part Action-Platformer, one part Tower Defense, mixing the two genres to create something fairly unique, with players swapping between multiple characters who each have different actions they can perform, as well as different structures they can build.

It’s a clever approach to the genre that the game does a good job of exploring – not only does each character have their own strengths, but by combining their structures, they can create unique combination structures. Plus, enemies in the game are all color-coded, indicating which enemies are weak to which party members.

This clever gameplay conceit also really makes the game’s couch co-op shine – players can assign a party member to wait in a position and perform their default actions, but it’s all the better if you have a friend who can switch things up on the fly, help you gather resources, or help set up and repair structures.

The game’s levels are actually divided into two parts, with the first “explore” phase being more of a short platformer area that often acts as a tutorial of sorts to introduce players to new enemies and abilities, with the second past having players defend a central point from multiple waves of enemies. This works well enough, though I wonder if the straight-platforming sections could have been dispensed with to focus more on the defense sections that make up the core of the game.

The other issue that I have is the game’s single-player game, and specifically the characters you’re not playing a a given moment, could have really used some better AI… or any, really. You can leave one in place, performing their unique action (shooting at enemies, repairing structures, etc.), but they’ll stupidly stand there and do nothing as enemies approach other structures nearby, unless you switch over to them to move them. It’d be nice if you could direct them to do different actions, such as patrol an area.

Graphically, this game looks good, with colorful 2D pixel art graphics. There’s nothing truly standout here, but it all works well enough for the game, save for the issue that some structures look similar enough to each other that it’s not always easy to see the differences between them.

Overall, Aegis Defenders is a solid meshing of the Action-Platformer and Tower Defense genres, although not one without room for improvement. It’s a game that clearly shines in co-op, but could have used better AI for players going solo, and splitting the levels into two sections seems a bit excessive. However, the core gameplay of the Tower Defense sections is pretty good, and fans of Tower Defense games will find the addition of Platformer-style gameplay and the cooperative multiple-character mechanics do a good job of bringing something different to the genre.

tl;dr – Aegis Defenders is a blend of Action-Platformer and Tower Defense that has players running and jumping around a central point they need to defend from enemies, building structures and combining character abilities for new structures. It does a good job of mixing up the way Tower Defense is done, and the co-op here is very good, though the single-player portion could have used better AI, and the platforming sections that start off every level seem a bit superfluous. Overall, this is a solid take on the Tower Defense genre that brings enough unique elements to be worth a look for genre fans.

Grade: B

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