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Garfield's Defense 2

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Garfield's Defense 2

As someone who grew up in the '80s thinking the Garfield comic strip was the cat's whiskers, it's heartening to see that two terrible movies can't keep a good moggy down.

In this action and tower defence hybrid, the chubby feline gets a chance to flex his underused muscles against hordes of aliens intent on stealing his beloved food.

It might not be an obvious match of gameplay design to source material, but the colourful characters, frantic action, and online battling will be lapped up by fans.

The meek shall inherit squat

The titular cat is enjoying a well-earned break from, erm, sitting around and eating lasagne, when his globetrotting holiday is interrupted by The Food Invaders – bizarre-looking E.T.s with ravenous appetites.

Controlling Garfield, Odie (the brainless dog), or Nermal (the overconfident kitten), it's your job to defeat increasingly tough waves of enemies across a trio of locations (New York, Paris, and, as a Christmas release hangover, Santa's North Pole retreat) and protect your precious grub.

Viewing the action side-on, Cartoon Wars-style, you swipe to move Garfield from his base and into enemy territory – tapping on icons to use recharging special attacks that whittle down bad guy energy bars.

Using a steady supply of popcorn harvested from fallen foes, you can employ a range of support soldiers gleaned from the comic to assist you in battle, automatically attacking enemies using their respective special abilities.

No time to nap

Early battles are a walkover, but as the waves get longer and the baddies get bigger deciding whether to spend the twin currencies of gems and cookies to level-up your character or squad, or splurge on one-off buffs like a rampaging Jon, bring some RPG-lite tactics into play.

Because this is a freemium game, you'll have to splash some real world cash to defend Garfield's grub to the end, although the fast-paced action and HD sharp characters mean it's a worthy trade-off for fans of the grouchy cat.

You'll only really have to spend serious money if you want to take Garfield's fight online, with random PvP scraps against other players (or Facebook chums) tending to be skewed heavily towards those with the most expensive virtual arsenal to hand.

It may not break any new ground in the tower defence stakes, but there's undoubtedly a charm to this catty combat that will keep you keep playing even when your free nine lives have run out.

Garfield's Defense 2

It's not the deepest strategy title out there, and the scrappy multiplayer adds little to the sequel, but Garfield devotees of any generation will enjoy the sharp artwork and light-hearted action
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Paul Devlin
Paul Devlin
A newspaper reporter turned games journo, Paul's first ever console was an original white Game Boy (still in working order, albeit with a yellowing tinge and 30 second battery life). Now he writes about Android with a style positively dripping in Honeycomb, stuffed with Gingerbread and coated with Froyo