Drake’s Tower

They say an Englishman’s home is his castle, referring to our apparently deep-seated desire to seek refuge in our own property.

I doubt Drake’s homeland of Golden Island relates to our grey-green isles, but he certainly defends his home with the stubborn determination of a grizzled Brit.

While this full-blooded mix of 2D action and castle defence appears to put up a multi-layered fight, it’s far shallower than it first seems.

With shuffling zombie warriors rising from the ground around his residence, and all manner of war engines flying and rolling in to join the attack, you must help Drake mount an effective defence.

This is achieved by selecting the appropriate projectile attack from your inventory and tapping the area of the screen you wish to attack. Each enemy has their own health gauge, which steadily diminishes as you pummel them.

While this is basic screen-mashing action, there's a smidgen of tactical thought involved. As hinted, there are multiple weapons from which to select, each of which works best against specific enemies.

The Fire Arrow, for example, quickly burns up wooden siege engines, while the powerful Lode Arrow can cut through multiple infantry units.

This added sense of strategy is but a thin veneer. There’s no escaping the fact that Drake’s Tower is a simple-as-you-like button-masher with unfulfilled castle defence pretensions.

The control situation highlights this fact – while you can switch to one of two pleasingly tactile drag-and-release firing methods, the quicker and more direct default method is far more effective. The game just isn’t set up to reward anything more measured or nuanced.

There’s nothing wrong with a care-free action game of this type, though. Within its bounds, Drake’s Tower is a perfectly decent way to pass the odd five minutes, and the sheer variety of weapon and enemy types offers up something a little different.

Just don’t expect Drake’s back-to-the-wall defence against boredom to hold up through the night.