Guns ‘n’ Glory

Repetition can kill any once-loved task.

Enjoying your new job? Chances are you won’t be after a year or so. How’s that relationship going, the one that had you swearing they were ‘the one’? Lost its lustre, huh?

I’m being cynical, of course. It’s quite possible to have prolonged job satisfaction and lasting relationships, as long as all the key ingredients are in place. It can be the same with games, too.

Take Guns ‘n’ Glory, for instance. I’ve played HandyGames’s wild west tower defence game on three different formats over the past two months, which is enough familiarity to breed a whole heap of contempt. And yet I like it as much now, on Android, as I ever did.

Part of that is because it remains a really distinctive take on the tower defence genre. Rather than summoning gun turrets from thin air, here you recruit bandits that loiter around the levels.

Your target – rather controversially – is not a posse of lawmen, but successive waves of defenceless settlers. You must set up ambushes along the ravines overlooking trails and passes, thus preventing your prey from passing through and warning the sheriff.

The way in which your troops move is also unique, as rather than remaining static you can move them around to suit. In fact, the game actively encourages a fluid defensive line - settlers often spring from multiple points on the map simultaneously, and your forces are spread too thinly to simply dig in.

There’s another reason I’m enjoying this Android version – it’s arguably the best of the lot.

I’m not sure why (perhaps it’s because of the variation in screen size and quality on Android), but HandyGames has implemented a different control system to the one seen on iPhone. Rather than touching precisely where you want your troops to go, you have to drag them yourself.

While this can make things hard work - and it can get a bit fiddly when you get to the edge of the screen and it doesn’t scroll with you - it’s a lot closer to the direct control found in the mobile original.

You also get a handy indicator showing the range of each unit, and the graphics just seem to pop out a lot more (probably due to the Milestone’s large, sharp screen).

Regardless of platform comparisons, Guns ‘n’ Glory is a mighty fine tower defence game. The fact that there’s a free ad-funded version means that - the odd technical issue and questionable taste aside - there really is no reason not to jump on board this wagon.