Defend the Pearly Gates in TapDefense

Get ready to spend some time playing TapDefense by TapJoy because it’s extremely addicting. Your goal is simple, don’t allow the demons, firecats, locust and other evils into heaven. Though this may sound easy, it most definitely is not.

From TapDefense's main menu you can start a new game, view highscores, adjust options, get help and display the credits. The Highscores button takes you to a screen displaying your best scores on each difficulty as well as the top scores around the globe. A very nice feature that I believe should be included in all iPhone and iPod touch games is the ability to submit your score to a global database. You can do just that in TapDefense.

The options menu includes settings for toggling the games sound, hiding and showing the enemy's health and clearing your personal scores. If you are new to this style of game I recommend checking out the help section briefly. It is very detailed and will explain all the parts of the game. The credits button will display all of the individuals involved with the creation of TapDefense. 

The gameplay, once you understand the basics, is very simple. You start with 75 “credits” to begin building towers. Once the initial build is complete you can begin the game.

Creatures are released at one side of the screen and their goal is to follow the path to the other side without being destroyed. Look for hints displayed at the beginning of some levels —  these will be helpful during the next phase.

There are tons of in-game options. You can upgrade towers to level 3 as well as research a few new towers throughout TapDefense. You can also raise your interest — how much credit you earn based on your remaining credits — which helps build your credit cache in the long run. Research is done by obtaining “halos” which are rewarded after certain levels. The first levels are fairly simple, at least on easy, but begin to get more challenging as the game goes on.

Overall the replay value on TapDefense is very high. The level of customization also makes the game easy to come back to over and over. I would have paid for TapDefense, but it’s free which gives you no excuse not to try it out.