''SteamWorld Tower Defense'' 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 ...

video game by Swedish video game developer

Image & Form Image & Form International AB was a Swedish video game developer based in Gothenburg. The company was founded by Brjánn Sigurgeirsson in 1997 and formed the Thunderful group with Zoink in 2017. In 2020, Image & Form was integrated into Thunder ...

. It was released digitally on

Nintendo DSi The is a dual-screen handheld game console released by Nintendo. The console launched in Japan on November 1, 2008, and worldwide beginning in April 2009. It is the third iteration of the Nintendo DS, and its primary market rival is Sony In ...

in North America, Europe and Australia on July 5, 2010. It is the first game released in the ''

SteamWorld ''SteamWorld'' is a series of video games depicting the adventures of a race of steam-driven robots in a post-apocalyptic steampunk world. The games are developed and published by Swedish video game developer Image & Form Image & Form Internat ...

'' series.

Gameplay

In ''SteamWorld Tower Defense'' the player controls an army of steam-powered robots in a tower defense-style gameplay. The aim of the game is to take down wandering troops of human invaders in their attempt to steal gold from the robots' mining facilities. To clear a mission, the player must take down waves of human soldiers by building and strategically placing out attack robots with a range of abilities and weapons. It's possible to play the game on several difficulty levels.

Reception

''SteamWorld Tower Defense'' on Nintendo DSi has received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, with a current score of 71/100 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 ...

. Lucas M Thomas of ''

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 ...

'' gave the game an eight out of ten, praising how polished the game's presentation was for a DSi title. Andrew Wight of ''

Nintendo Life Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British mass media company based in Brighton. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and other ...

'' noted that the game's fun was accompanied by "frustratingly difficult" segments that hindered its overall quality, praising it for being a fun title nevertheless.

Development

On their YouTube channel, Image & Form revealed that ''SteamWorld Tower Defense'' is the hardest game the studio has created. Apparently, the game's lead developer is the only of Image & Form employees to finish the game. The game is set before the events depicted in ''

SteamWorld Dig ''SteamWorld Dig'' is a platform action-adventure game created by Swedish video game developer Image & Form. The second installment in the ''SteamWorld'' series and the sequel to '' SteamWorld Tower Defense'', ''SteamWorld Dig'' has the player ...

'' and ''

SteamWorld Heist ''SteamWorld Heist'' is a 2D turn-based tactics shooter developed by Swedish video game developer Image & Form. The third installment of the '' SteamWorld'' series and the sequel to ''SteamWorld Dig'', ''SteamWorld Heist'' has the player control ...

''.

References

External links

Official ''SteamWorld Tower Defense'' website

Developer's website
{{SteamWorld 2010 video games Indie games Nintendo DS games DSiWare games Nintendo DS-only games Single-player video games Steampunk video games Video games developed in Sweden Video games set on fictional planets SteamWorld