Defend Your Honor

I post links on twitter a lot to various short indie games that I like, but I'm trying to get into the habit of making more thoughtful journal entries on them (like I did for Continuity).

Today's game of choice is Defend Your Honor, a Flash fantasy-themed tower defense game. I went into this one cautiously, because I'm generally not a huge fan of tower defense games.

This one, however, was great! It has a silly story and a rudimentary but appealing art style, and the music is quite enjoyable (the theme that plays when you're out in the dungeon picking out which door to go to is delightful and addictive).

I think the theme wrapper of the game as a sort of classic, D&D-style dungeon fantasy adventure helped hook me in. The units you control are quite simple, and the battles themselves are relatively short. I never failed a battle more than twice, but there were plenty of close calls that made me feel clever and kept things interesting.

Having the meta-game of getting the keys and statues to progress through dungeon rooms really helped to break up the pacing, as tower defense games I've played in the past have exhausted me with their format. Plus, having the units be introduced to you as characters is a nice little tie-in, but they didn't overdo it by trying to over-explain things (like how you can buy multiple units of what appears to be a single character). The lightness and crudeness of the story makes this tactic acceptable.

I played through the whole thing in an evening, but it does save your progress. So, if you've been "meh" about tower defense games in the past, give this one a try. It's quick and fun!