Sweetwater Defense

Ah, so many tower defence games, so little time. Pretty much every combination of marching enemies and stationary weapons has already been played out, leaving developers to really plunder their imagination to put some kind of twist on any new additions to the genre.

The theme of a tower defence game is important, as is the immediacy of its gameplay, and Sweetwater Defense does pay close attention to these factors. It struggles a little, though, when it comes to bringing anything new to the table.

The core of Sweetwater Defense is exactly what we’ve come to expect from this prolific gaming genre – no more, no less. A host of sea-faring enemies are working their way through the shallow waters of 25 different levels and it’s your job to stop them.

What’s particularly enjoyable about Sweetwater Defense is, as previously mentioned, its theme. The game is set in a kind of alternate ancient Japan with suitably styled oriental defences and landscape. The experience is built around coastal defence: pirates and sea monsters swim (or float) into an array of natural harbours and you defend against them from the water's edge. Once they breach the harbour mouth, a few points of energy are drained until you reach zero and lose the game.

Terrain plays a role, though beyond just differences between stony shorelines and sandy beaches. Topographical variation affects an armament's abilities. Placing a defence on higher ground extends its range quite considerably and given that each level has a limited number of hills, placing just the right types of tower on them is of tactical importance.

It’s only a shame this aspect of Sweetwater Defense wasn’t explored a little more. It adds depth to the game both literally and strategically, though it’s a concept that hasn’t been developed enough to make it as prevalent as it could be.

Defeat during one of the attacks doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the game, however, as Sweetwater Defense allows you to back track to the beginning of each wave of enemies and shows you at which point they began to break through. This gives you the welcome opportunity to try out a different tactic and is a great way to keep you playing when a return to the beginning of the level might feel like a bit too much of a chore.

Where Sweetwater Defense really excels is in its graphics and audio. The soundtrack is a wonderfully fitting metronome of drum and base techno, while the water pattern and the slick zoom function gives the game a stunning sheen. That said, the sound effects are surprisingly piffling, and even verge on annoying (being reminiscent of the ‘blowing into a microphone’ effects of early kung fu films).

As a tower defence game, Sweetwater Defense is relatively middle of the road; elevated by some great visuals and interesting design tweaks, but held back by its essential inability to break free of the genre’s status quo.