Topic: Defend Your Castle

[Kairon]

Awesome value. Awesome game. My hand hurts.

But seriously, just got done playing like... 2 hours of this pick-up-and-play-FOREVER game.. and my hand is aching from zipping the wiimote cursor around the screen to catch pick up and throw those pesky stick men.

The graphics are charmingly created out of everyday items and paper-like cutouts (your score is presented using playing cards, the end of the level tally is done with a calculator and a waitress' order pad in view). And the game couldn't be easier to understand. You have a castle. They're attacking it. You can kill them by grabbing them and throwing them into the air so they squish when they fall.

Then you use your points to upgrade the castle.

And when you've purchased all the upgrades to the castle, you build up your army of defenders and last as long as you can against the later levels which ramp up the numbers of enemies exponentially....

[Killer_Man_Jaro]

http://www.xgenstudios.com/game.php?keyword=castle

Is there a reason to justify buying the WiiWare version of DYC when you can play it free on XGen's website?

Funky visual style. Check.
Four player multiplayer. Check...

Anything else new? Not that I can tell. Now, I'm aware that 500 Points is very cheap, but it's still more than 0 points. Judging from the screenshots and trailer, it's basically the same point-and-click gameplay with identical upgrades in between.

Of course, I may be missing something. You've purchased the game, Kairon, so tell me; why should I buy?

[Kairon]

I don't know if this'll justify a 500 Wii point purchase for you, but the Wiiv ersion really feels like the more natural way to play the game.

So, yes, you have vastly improved visual stylings. The stick figures in the Flash game are functional, but there's something wonderful about tongue depressors and bottle caps. This is not a question about graphical prowess, but rather one of aesthetic pleasure, and the WiiWare version is so much more unique and prettier to look at.

And yes, 4-player is a pretty significant addition. I wish every game had co-op. *sigh*

But in addition to that, the Wiimote just feels a whole lot quicker and more natural than the mouse to me. Both versions will give you carpal tunnel I guess, but I have to say that the Wiimote felt a whole lot less stressful to use. And you've got a full-screen game with more real estate, but it's actually easier, in my opinion, to grab guys in the Wii version.

Additionally, the Wii version makes several friendlier design decisions. You don't have to worry about upkeep for one, and in a level they track your level score, so the number of points you actually earn at the end is much more transparent instead of the convoluted way the flash game tabulates it.

Additionally, you don't seem to be able to "throw" the enemies into the temple in the flash version, whereas in the Wii version you can learn how to "toss" your enemies in an arc such that they land in a ready-to-accept them pit of conversion. It's small things like this that really streamline the experience of simple games and make the difference between a response of "it's a neat concept" and "I can't stop playing this oddly polished experience."

Yeah... you know, I NEVER tried the internet flash version until now, and now that I have, I totally feel fine with my $5 purchase. The flash version has the basic gameplay, but it lacks the polish, spirit, and smoothness of the WiiWare game. These are subtle differences (except the ease of use of the wiimote, which is a MAJOR PLUS), but they're the sort of differences that make me much more receptive to the experience versus the internet flash game.

Plus I can play this game from bed.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

I'd rather play a WiiWare game on a TV than sitting at a desk.

[Nick DiMola]

Plus I can play this game from bed.

LOL. I think people overlook this, but it is worth more than people think. It might be your bed/couch/rec room, what have you, but wherever that is, it isn't your computer. Playing a game from any of those places is a much more comfortable and relaxing. That comfort factor is worth $5 if you really like the game.

I personally don't like the flash game, it isn't really what I want to play in my spare time, but I can see people easily getting their money's worth out of it. You can probably sit down and play the game for 3 hours without even realizing so much time had passed, the flash version had that effect.

[NWR_insanolord]

Additionally, you don't seem to be able to "throw" the enemies into the temple in the flash version, whereas in the Wii version you can learn how to "toss" your enemies in an arc such that they land in a ready-to-accept them pit of conversion.

One of my favorite things to do in this game is to bank shot one of the guys off the right side of the screen so they bounce back and down into the pit of conversion that wasn't there when I threw him, that's a great feeling.

[Killer_Man_Jaro]

Nice. I suppose subtle differences are often the best way to enhance a winning formula. Tempting, but I've got a couple more questions before I cash in:

According to the official info page, this WiiWare version has vastly improved physics. Is this feature noticeable and if so, how is this implemented into the core gamplay?

What is DYC like in terms of audio? Has music been added to play during the levels and if so, what is your opinion on the soundtrack? Also, the enemy sound effects... what do you think of them?

[Kairon]

Nope, no music added. There's a thin background track to it though, environmental buzz or rain... but that's it. However, the more enemies there are on the screen, their oohs and ahs and thwacking seems to increase in volume. It helps the tension climb when you're really in trouble.

Vastly improved physics for the WiiWare, I believe, involves ... nothing grand I think. It just means more natural looking physics, a fuller simulation where if you want to throw guys at the ground, it's possible, though probably a waste of time and energy, and you can even bounce the guys between both walls I just found out! ... but none of that really matters in my opinion. The awesome thing is still tossing a guy, banking him off the right wall, and having him land in the pit of conversion.

[darknight06]

If you liked the flash game, there's no decent reason not to get the WiiWare version of it.  It just feels so much better than the slugglish flash version and to me, at 5 bucks it's a no brainer. 

[vudu]

I tried the flash game this weekend and found it incredibly boring.  I got up to the tenth level before I died and stopped caring.  I bought the archery and temple upgrades, but couldn't figure out how to use either one. 

[NWR_insanolord]

That's the problem of this game, it doesn't really get exciting until somewhere around level 13-15 and a lot of people quit before then. I'm glad I saved my game after level 12, I'm going to keep that save forever and when I want to start a new game I'll start from there unless I feel like playing around in the earlier levels.

What I don't like is that apart from a simple button key the instructions aren't included in the game, you click a link in the operations guide that takes you to a page on the Wii Shop Channel to view them. It's done as well as that can be done, the link goes directly to the instructions after a brief connection process and when you're done  it takes you right back to the game, but to do this you have to quit out of the game, which means you can't do it during play without losing anyhting you've done since your last save.

[Flames_of_chaos]

That's the problem of this game, it doesn't really get exciting until somewhere around level 13-15 and a lot of people quit before then. I'm glad I saved my game after level 12, I'm going to keep that save forever and when I want to start a new game I'll start from there unless I feel like playing around in the earlier levels.

What I don't like is that apart from a simple button key the instructions aren't included in the game, you click a link in the operations guide that takes you to a page on the Wii Shop Channel to view them. It's done as well as that can be done, the link goes directly to the instructions after a brief connection process and when you're done  it takes you right back to the game, but to do this you have to quit out of the game, which means you can't do it during play without losing anyhting you've done since your last save.

Thats every WiiWare game I guess Nintendo mandated it to keep file sizes smaller.

[Flames_of_chaos]

Okay I had a spare 500 Wii Points and I picked this just for the heck of it. The game is a little disappointing to me but the game is okay. If it was priced more than 500 points then it would be a rip off. The upgrade system is very shallow since you can buy 4 different buildings, buy more HP for your castle or heal your castle's HP and then just populate converts you caught with the pit of conversion.  The jump in  jump out multiplayer is nice. But the thing that irritates me the most about this game is the soundtrack since there isn't one except the screaming of enemies dying or enemies hitting you castles which can get annoying very fast and also the scale of speed in this game in level 1 - 9 is a snore fest with barely nothing going on but later on the waves of enemies are like stuck on hyper speed.

If I needed to rate this game I'd give it a 6.5/10.

[Smash_Brother]

It's definitely a fun game, but it needed a level selector so you could start right at level #X with X amount of money to start with.

It's a shame, because with a few more additions, the game could've had craploads of depth going for it.

And yes, it KILLS the wrist.

[DAaaMan64]

And yes, it KILLS the wrist.

Is it as fun as other activities that kill wrists?  I wouldn't mind then. *AHEEEEMMMM*

[Nick DiMola]

Thats every WiiWare game I guess Nintendo mandated it to keep file sizes smaller.

I would sooner guess that they did it that way to create a standard for WiiWare before rather than a concern about file sizes. The instruction manual is a webpage, and a simple one at that (at least the one for LostWinds) that is consuming at most, a few kbs.

[Kairon]

Thats every WiiWare game I guess Nintendo mandated it to keep file sizes smaller.

I would sooner guess that they did it that way to create a standard for WiiWare before rather than a concern about file sizes. The instruction manual is a webpage, and a simple one at that (at least the one for LostWinds) that is consuming at most, a few kbs.

Well, it's one of the things Nintendo said they were doing to keep filesize down.

[NWR_insanolord]

It couldn't be in order to keep down file size, that's only an annoyance for a small, statistically insignificant percentage of Wii owners.

[Flames_of_chaos]

Well insano when someone hacked a VC file and decrypted it successfully the contents of a VC file is a ROM a emulator and a HTML help file.

[NWR_insanolord]

I probably should have had an emoticon in there, I've never been good with those. I know that's why they did it, I was mocking Nintendo because of Iwata's recent comments in regard to a hard drive where he said that the storage crisis only affected a small group of Wii owners.

[Smash_Brother]

It's the images in the HTML manuals which add dramatically to the file size, hence why those aren't in the Wiiware game itself but online.

[Flames_of_chaos]

Level 300

[Kairon]

That's not YOU is it?

[Flames_of_chaos]

Nope I'm on level 35 I think.

[BeautifulShy]

That is just insane!