''Fortress'' is a

tower defense Tower defense (TD) is a subgenre of strategy games where the goal is to defend a player's territories or possessions by obstructing the enemy attackers or by stopping enemies from reaching the exits, usually achieved by placing defensive struc ...

strategy Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the "art ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed by

Pipe Dream Interactive Majesco Entertainment Company (formerly Majesco Sales Inc.) is an American video game publisher and distributor based in Hazlet, New Jersey. The company was founded as Majesco Sales in Edison, New Jersey in 1986, and was a privately held company ...

and published by

Majesco Entertainment Majesco Entertainment Company (formerly Majesco Sales Inc.) is an American video game publisher and distributor based in Hazlet, New Jersey. The company was founded as Majesco Sales in Edison, New Jersey in 1986, and was a privately held company ...

for the Game Boy Advance (GBA)

handheld game console A handheld game console, or simply handheld console, is a small, portable self-contained video game console with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are smaller than home video game consoles and contain the cons ...

. It originally released in North America on August 13, 2001, and later in PAL regions on November 23, 2001. It was originally announced as ''Fortris'' for

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

and Dreamcast by developer Prometheau Games, but was acquired by Majesco and moved to the Game Boy Advance. The game has players building and defending their fortress against either another player or a computer using falling blocks to build it up and falling weapons to fight back against opponents. Since its release, ''Fortress'' has received mixed reception, holding a 64 out of 100 on ''

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

''.

Gameplay

''Fortress'' tasks players with creating a stronghold using pieces that fall from the sky. These pieces include both walls and weapons, which are used to defend from and attack opposing fortresses respectively. The game can be played

single-player A single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. A single-player game is usually a game that can only be played by one person, while "single-player mode" is usuall ...

against a computer-controlled opponent or

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

against another player. It has multiple modes of play.

Development

''Fortress'' was originally announced in June 2000 as a

and Dreamcast game under development by Promethean Designs with the title "''Fortris''". In January 2001,

announced that it had acquired the game, then titled "''Fortres''", alongside nine other titles for release on the GBA. The game was given a final name change the following month. Development moved from Promethean Designs to

, Majesco's internal developer. Majesco announced in July 2001 that ''Fortress'' was to be published in PAL regions by

THQ THQ Inc. was an American video game company based in Agoura Hills, California. It was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, originally in Calabasas, and became a public company the following year through a reverse merger takeover. Initial ...

as part of an international publishing deal between the two corporations.

Reception

''Fortress'' received generally mixed reception, holding a 64 out of 100 on ''

''. ''

GamePro Gamepro.com is an international multiplatform video game magazine media company that covers the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software in countries such as Germany and France. The publication, GamePro, was originally la ...

'' writer Stardingo felt that it was hard to control due to not being able to see your entire fortress, but still found the game fun to play. ''

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

'' writer Craig Harris felt the game was unfinished, though he appreciated some of its "clever ideas" and wished he could see a better version of it someday.

References

2001 video games Cancelled Dreamcast games Cancelled PlayStation (console) games Game Boy Advance games Game Boy Advance-only games Majesco Entertainment games Tower defense video games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in the United States Pipe Dream Interactive games {{Strategy-videogame-stub