What went wrong? Huge license… I mean HUGE LICENSE. I would like to have been at the meeting where the suggestion was made. “Let’s make a tower defence game using the Star Wars universe”. Ok stupid suggestions are heard everywhere, but please this is the big one. I have played excellent games in the Star Wars universe, be it flying an X-Wing or jumping around as a Jedi. I would never guessed that someone would really turn it into a tower defence game…and take it seriously. A game such as Star Wars Cantina comes with humour and charm that Battle for Hoth sorely lacks.
Enemies approach from the left, and you place towers to stop them. Your towers are also attacked forcing you to replace them as they are destroyed. Each tower is also upgradeable making them more powerful. As the game is set in the Star Wars universe the towers come as soldiers, laser turrets and X-Wing launchers. The enemies consist of walkers, Tie Fighters and Storm Troopers. As you slay the enemies they leave money in shape of wrenches that you have to pick up to be able to build new units. This adds a bit of action to the game as the money fades, and disappears over time if not picked up. This also adds a bit of frustration as you have to pan around the map if you have a front killing enemies off the screen.
The game comes with different levels of difficulty, but is generally too easy no matter if you play on easy or hard. It is hard the first wave as you have to quickly decide where to put your first line of defence. Other than that it is all about reinforcing your lines, and pick up the dropped money. I found that if I entrench the basic machine gun soldier there was no need for the more powerful units. This eliminates the strategic aspect of the game turning it into a bland experience of tapping to upgrade, tapping to build and tapping to collect.
The presentation is murky, and doesn’t showcase the Star Wars license at it’s best at all. Sure if pinched in you can see the individual units from the movies but they all look the same with the same sparse limited animations. Explosions look good though, and as walkers fall in fiery flames there is a hint of satisfaction. Music and sound effects that we all know and love, but I rather watch the movies instead as the story in Battle for Hoth is more or less non existent.
15 maps, 2 game modes and OpenFeint integration don’t help the game from being bland and boring. There are too many well made tower defence games on the App Store featuring the most important thing, gameplay, for Battle for Hoth to be even close to worth getting. If you are a fan of Star Wars try the lite version. If you are a fan of strategic tower defence games don’t try the lite version.
Final Rating
Star Wars: Battle for Hoth $2.99
Version: 1.0.0
Seller: THQ, Inc.
Star Wars: Battle for Hoth Lite
Tested on an iPhone 4.
