Anyone remember The Battle of Pirate Bay? Well this next game is that, but on land!

Boom Brigade ($2.99)

It didn’t take long for line drawing games to get saturated, but thankfully there are still developers trying to be creative with that basic mechanic. Boom Brigade is one such game. It combines the genre with tower defense, set against an onslaught of alien invaders.

It actually does the job pretty well, as long as you bear in mind that this game was not designed for those who don’t like a challenge.

Presentation

Apparently the game takes place in a land similar to the Lilliputians, because everything is tiny. That being said, the graphics look pretty sharp. I’m not big on the overhead perspective because it seems a lot harder for artists to make something look good when all you see is the top of everything you’re looking at.

However, artists on the iPhone have been doing a pretty good job with this perspective, and Boom Brigade is no exception. The creatures look good, the building is appropriately bunker-ish, and the couple decent size renderings they have of the soldiers are very nicely done. I was a bit disappointed in the in-game version of the soldiers, but I think they simply suffer from being too small for their own good. Everything is well animated, and there are just enough special effects to make the visuals pop a bit.

The sound effects that exist sound pretty good, whether it’s a gun firing or a critter gnawing on one of your soldiers. The soldiers even make a comment as they come out of the bunker. Unfortunately, a couple of things are missing. First of all, the soldiers should make wise cracks every once in a while as they’re running for their lives shooting the aliens. Relieves tension, you know. Second, where are the groans of the critters as they are dying? I’d also love to know where the background music is. There’s some playing during the menu sequences, which is cool, but I’m spending more of my time in the game, not on the menu.

Controls

The basic control mechanism is moving a soldier by pressing on him and dragging where you want him to go. You can click on the bunker to get an upgrade menu, and you can click on an enemy to target it. That’s really all there is to controlling Boom Brigade.

Game Play

The game play is about as simple as the controls. You have been tasked with defending a bunker. You start out with one soldier, and periodically you can recruit more (periodically being a long enough time that I’ve only been able to recruit two extra soldiers in any given game). Wave after wave of aliens will swarm towards the bunker, and you must keep them away as long as possible. All you have to do is move the soldiers around. When they get close enough to a creature they will start shooting. For the most part creatures will follow you, so if some get too close to the bunker just get within firing range and then start backing away, and the creatures will stop attacking the bunker and go after you.

On occasion critters will leave behind money or health when they die. To collect items simply walk over them. It’s important that you pick up everything you can, because you’ll need it. Health will restore some health to every soldier on the field. Money can be used to repair damage done to the bunker as well as to upgrade soldiers. There are three types of soldiers, and each one is upgraded separately, but upgrading a soldier type upgrades all soldiers of that type.

The key to Boom Brigade is to be continually on the move. As I mentioned before the creatures will usually follow you around, so leading the creatures keeps them away from the base. Moving around also helps you to keep from getting eaten. Every once in a while your soldiers have to reload, and it doesn’t take long for critters that aren’t getting shot to dispatch the people that were shooting them. The trick is that as you get more soldiers on the field it’s harder to keep all of them going, especially if you don’t want them in roughly the same location. The critters won’t rest so that you can work out a plan of attack.

Suggestions

I don’t feel quite so strongly about this as I’m starting to get used to the game, but they might want to consider an easy mode. I know the first few times through I didn’t even make it to the first boss. That level of difficulty could turn off less skilled players. The other thing that would be nice would be the ability to heal your troops through the bunker. Item drops are really random, and sometimes you can go quite a while without any health packs.

Conclusion

Boom Brigade is a lot of fun. The developers managed to merge the line drawing mechanic with tower defense in such a way that it works quite well.

This is tried and true “blow up the aliens” type mayhem. You also need to make sure you’re expecting a solid challenge, because you’ll find it here. For those ready to step up, this little army needs YOU!