With a dozen castle defense games in the store, Chillingo and MoreGames Entertainment brave the waters with their intense filled attempt at the genre.

Knights Onrush ($4.99; Free)

Knights Onrush is a fantastic game. It shows just how well the “Castle Defense” genre can be done. Unlike StickWars and the original game ported to the iPhone, this is much better, very fun, and truly fantastic. It’s a whole new take on this hit Flash based concept. It puts a certain charm to the genre that people just may find to hard to resist.

Presentation

The graphics are what really sets this game apart from the other Castle Defense games. It takes the ugly stick graphics from the other games, and gives it a whole new medieval look, with knights, goblins, nobles on horses, and primitive machines. They look great, and due to the fantastic repeating pattern for each knight, has no lag what so ever. Push notifications popping? Never misses a beat? Time to fetch email? Once again, keeps playing at 50+ FPS. The graphics are amazing, and exactly what the others should be.

Controls

The controls are dead simple. You tap and lift to pick up the enemies, and toss them away to dispose of them and prevent them from further harming your castle.

Gameplay

The gameplay absolutely destroys all the competition, with three gameplay modes, and over a dozen upgrades. This doesn’t just replace the crappy stickman graphics of Stickwars and Defend Your Castle, it makes a whole new, amazing game.

The three gameplay modes are Campaign, Endless, and Madness. Campaign has 12 levels, up to 20 “days” long, and very difficult. The Endless is simply a never ending siege, the only setting that the other Castle Defense apps have. Madness has the day structure, but a single level.

There are upgrades for the door, additional weapons and alters to gain skull power, which allow you to buy other upgrades.

Suggestions

My only suggestion is to include more instructions for how the offerings work, and to have Easy, Medium, and Hard modes inside of Campaign, to add even more gameplay to this already very deep and long game.

Also, make it less repetitive. Make different gameplay modes, with reverse gravity, and ones where you have special powers to set the whole field on fire. This would take this to the next level, making an instant hit.

Conclusion

Overall, this game can’t be praised enough. It’s fantastic, and gives a fresh look to a beaten concept. It’s a great game for any fan of the #1 hit Stickwars. I give it a great 8/10. You can only flick little people into the air for so long, and that repetitiveness really brings it down. Take the idea and innovate, and you have an amazing game.