Castle Conflict

Swain Valasek | Jun 4, 2009 Games

User rating:

(4 votes, average: 4.75 out of 5)

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The popular ‘Castle Defense’ genre gets another entry, this time Castle Conflict from new developer Broken Kings. It’s apparently inspired by Medieval Clash if you’ve ever run across that little ditty before. The game features pleasant graphics and sound and a truly pickup and play presentation that barely needs instruction (which is great because there’s…barely any instruction!). Basically 2 castles sit on either end of the screen; you control the left and the AI controls the right. The goal is to send out gatherers who harvest wood which somehow lets you create everything from cavalry to cannons. All the while you duke it out with the AI until 1 castle or other is completely destroyed. Simple sure but there’s plenty’o'fun to be had in the overrunning.

Once you harvest enough wood you can create a plethora of units, to whit:

Wood Cutter – your only resource gatherer and utterly defenseless; protect at all costs if you plan on winning.
Thief – awesome unit who can steal wood either from enemy wood cutters or the castle itself
Engineer - released from the game’s lone powerup and repairs castle damage
Foot Soldier – basic merc who can slay any of the above or negate the enemy version
Armoured Knight – brutish thug who can slay any of the above or negate the enemy version
Mounted Knight – cavalry ho! (sensing a pattern yet?) able to slay any of the above or negate the enemy version
Blimp – basic air unit to damage the other castle (can be shot down)
Bomber – king-size blimp retrofitted with a huge payload of bombs that can also take out field units (can be shot down)
Cannon – Takes out said air units and otherwise damages the other castle

How about some gripes and suggestions? Ok sure, glad you asked.

There’s no way to exit gracefully back to the main screen once you’ve started a game; you have to restart the app entirely.

There’s no score kept and therefore no scoreboard to compare with other players.

There’s no screen flip if you’re keen on that feature.

There’s no notable variation in either castle or associated units, just different colors. Would be awesome to have the enemy castle and units done up with sinister graphics.

The game is too damn easy. Yes that’s right and certainly the biggest gripe of all (and sure to be first on the developer’s list of to-do’s for an update). I’m no ace but on any combination of settings it’s an easy trouncing of the AI for me and there’s 1 huge reason for it: the AI will never use the Thief unit so once you know that it’s a gi-normous advantage. However, even if you try to be Captain Fair and not use the Thief either, it’s still too easy using basic ‘tank rush’ tactics.

Down the road, it might be fun to see a wifi multiplayer option (or Bluetooth for OS3), some new backdrops and maybe having you swap sides to play the right castle, an achievement system, more options for tweaking game parameters, more powerups and a campaign mode which would give you a little more satisfaction with each victory.

This game is definitely fun, very much so and the simplicity of the game mechanics make it a superb little pickup game. However, you will get bored of it in about an hour if you have even half the (limited) skill I do. The developer is taking feedback here and by the sound of things an update for this game seems imminent that will address quite a few items and greatly extend the replayability so here’s hoping that’s the case. Which can only mean…hurry up and grab the gratis promo codes in the comments section now before they go dormant!

version reviewed – 1
reviewed on – iPhone 3G 8GB 2.2.1
iTunes music support – no

: Options, we love 'em

: It actually took me a bit to notice the ghosted units! Nope, no idea about the unicorn

: Yer basic gameplay shot, some gathering, some killing

: Yep, me showing off with my mad carpet bombing skillz

Tags: $1.99, castle defense, Swain Valasek

Swain Valasek

People, PUH-LEASE don’t just grab the codes and scram…take a second to post a comment with which code you took; others will be appreciative.

76ALP9LT9TAT
MWLF33TENEMA
Fabio

Took the second one, the first is taken
http://cookingforamateurs.blogspot.com Cookingforamateurs

The first one is mine!
76ALP9LT9TAT
Michael (Admin)

Looks like a quality game! Too bad about being too easy though. Kind of reminds me of a micro version of Starcraft or WoW.
http://castleconflict.brokenkings.com Bernadette

The game is ON-SALE!
$0.99 for limited time offer.

An update has been submitted to Apple, but it hasn’t been updated on iTunes yet.
http://castleconflict.brokenkings.com Bernadette

Thanks for the review!
Swain Valasek

Thanks for taking the time to comment Bernadette! Very much looking forward to the update and for everyone else, that’s a sweet sale indeed.