Have you ever played a tower defense game? If not, “Kingdom Rush” is worth trying. Iron Hide Game Studio recently came out with “Kingdom Rush Alliance”, the fifth game in the series. Iron Hide released “Kingdom Rush 1” on Jul. 28, 2011, eventually becoming one of Iron Hide’s top-played games. 

The gameplay:

There are 5 different “Kingdom Rush” games released, each having a large story mode map to traverse, and winning each level until you finally beat the final boss. The gameplay is very simple. You first choose what hero and upgrades you want for the round you want to play. Then, you are given a set amount of currency and multiple small building platforms to construct different towers, to stop the seemingly endless waves of enemies that flow down the path trying to reach your end of the map. 

A key aspect of the game is upgrading your towers. Whether it be simply increasing the towers’ damage or turning them into insanely overpowered necromancers, each upgrade you purchase can drastically increase the power of your towers. Heroes are also a large part of “Kingdom Rush”, due to their powerful in-game abilities and power-ups. 

Though you can’t move your towers, heroes and troops are another story. Constructing barracks during the game will spawn 3 armed troopers that can move anywhere near the tower on the track, to stop and kill enemy units from pacing. Heroes on the other hand are free, and are allowed to move anywhere on the track.

Towers:

Throughout the “Kingdom Rush” games are a large number of towers, ranging from exploding goblins to Tesla coils. But, every game has 4 towers in common. The barracks, mage, archer, and bomb towers are in every game and are the only towers for the first 3 games. This might not seem like a lot, but each tower has around 5 different upgrades and 2 different upgrade paths. 

My review:

One of the earliest games I remember playing was “Kingdom Rush 1”. Although the game is from 2011, it still stands as a very good game to this day. Throughout the game’s history, it has racked up over 70 million players. If I could recommend a game, it would be “Kingdom Rush”…but which one? 

I have played the 2nd game in the series the most, but the one I would recommend depends on what you like. If you want to play an easy, slow-paced tower defense, “Kingdom Rush” 1, 3, or 5 may be the games for you. But if you’re looking to play a very challenging and seemingly impossible game, “Kingdom Rush” 2 and 4 are the way to go.