A fun short addictive tower defense games
346383
I really had a good time playing this game Shooting while micro managing a tower defense.  Time really flew while playing this game.  For me a tower defense lover this game was just more bliss.  Not as great at Defense Grid of course but fun non the less.
4723751
This is a simple, fun game that is easy to get others to play and enjoy!

As someone who enjoys almost all games, I can find it difficult to get my less game-savvy friends to play some of my games - but not this one. This is a great game for those like me that are trying to get friends more interested in games because it's easy to learn and can be played anywhere, quickly.

In this game, you have cards numbered 3-35, you shuffle the deck and randomly remove 9 cards. Each player is given chips worth -1 point each, and the person with the lowest score at the end of the game wins. My group of friends likes to play 3-4 rounds in total, and take the collective score, but you can play however many rounds you like, which is something else I love about this game. By changing the number of rounds you play, your strategy definitely changes!

Pros:
-Compact size, easy to take anywhere (we play while waiting for tables at restaurants)
-Simple, easy to learn
-Can play multiple rounds
-Quick game

Cons:
-Limited number of players (wish there was an expansion so we could play with a big group)
340785
So here is a great medium length game filled with strategy and very little down time in between turns. Take cards on your turn to then turn in on another turn to buy out an entire row of goods. Ship the good to Osaka and score points. Sounds easy, but when your friends can choose to hold the good you need for themselves or ship goods prematurely to Osaka, they can force your shipment to sink costing you victory points. This is a great game for those that like a light amount of strategy and game times of around 30 minutes. The only complaints I have are that the board and pieces are small and the scoring is a bit odd the first time so the rule book needs a second read through to get the idea. After a few rounds though you will pick up the rules and be devising your own plans to get your goods to port and sink your competition.
4537664
This game is awesome. I can't believe I almost didn't buy this. In this game, you scale a tower to save the world. However, with each floor, you must kill off one of your team mates. The gameplay is fun and the graphics are great. Getting to know the characters was also fun,but it broke my heart when I had to kill off someone I really liked. The members that you must kill are randomized, so you won't play the game the same way twice. I highly recommend picking this one up.
429849
I haven't played all of these yet but there are plenty of games in here to pretty much guarantee something for everyone's tastes. The ones I've played so far have been nontimed hidden object games with well-integrated tasks and searches that all tie back to a final goal. The atmospheres have been great so far and the scenes rich enough to enjoy spending time in. The characters are a little dumb and sometimes feel like they were written in a country not the US (What American woman doesn't know how to drive?) but you can skip all the video and go straight back to the game at any time. Hints refill with a timer and no penalty otherwise, no click penalties (so far)and objects usually not impossible to spot. The only downside is that because you're buying a huge bundle, the games tend to run shorter than single disk mega search games. Still, so far so good. Games included:

Exorcist
Stray Souls
Grace's Quest- To Catch an Art Thief
Natalie Brooks and the mystery of Hillcrest High
Behind the Reflection
Vampire Saga
Gourmandia 2: Kitchen Confidential
Magic Encyclopedia: Illusions
Alabama Smith: Quest of Fate
Mind's Eye
Twisted Lands
Journey of Hope
Treasures of Mystery Island 2
Undercover PI
Mystery Cruise
2022165
This game is a great little time-waster.  I sat down for a quick game and ended up playing for hours.  While challenging, this isn't a game that's going to frustrate you.  Too many stress-relief-type games leave me more stressed out than I was to begin with, but Big Kahuna Reef is genuinely pretty fun to play.  You basically just have to match puzzle pieces together until all of the tiles have been "used," so even a child can play pretty much right of out of the gate.  As you advance, you'll encounter more advanced challenges - portions of the puzzle have to be unlocked, narrow little sections test your analytical skills, etc.  Fortunately, you can start back where you left off before (or any of the earlier levels you've cleared), so you don't have to worry about slugging through all of the easier early puzzles just to get back to where you already were.  The ability to periodically remove any given puzzle piece can also be a big help. If the time limits prove too much for you, you have the option of playing without that type of pressure.

The screensaver is a nice addition - and adds incentive for playing the game.  Your screensaver aquarium features all of the fish you've unlocked in the game, so you have to reach those higher levels to add those hard-to-get, special fish to your little virtual underwater menagerie.  In all honesty, I would not have downloaded this game had it not been free at the time - but I definitely found this to be quite enjoyable and somewhat addictive.
2489130
After downloading this game, I learned that it's something called "Sokoban".  I don't know what that is, but I certainly enjoyed playing Pirate Stash.  Essentially, you push chests of "booty" (aka gold, treasure, goodies) around a maze to push the chests into predefined X's (you know, X's mark the spots) to keep them safe.

I really like logical and strategic games and this is a great but simple one.  The graphics are very clear - right down to his peg leg and his footprints in the sand.  There are 118 puzzles (if you count the introduction and advanced training puzzles) in 7 different categories, with each category growing progressively more challenging to solve.  It includes the standard game features (restart, undo, timer, reveal solution, leave the game and return to it, etc.).  The "Undo" is great in that you can reverse move after move rather than only being able to undo the last one.  I also like that the timer doesn't start until you make your first move, giving you a bit of time to assess the board and plan your moves.

There is a "Teleporting" feature that's unlocked after the first 20 puzzles.  Beam me up baby!  Using this feature, you can select a place on the game board, and, if your pirate could walk there, he will be automatically moved to that space.  Saves you a lot of clicking to get him to where he needs to be.  The other feature that unlocks is the ability to just move the treasure chest.  In the first games, the pirate must push the chests, but with this second feature, you can just select the chest and use the 5-way controller to move it and the pirate automatically follows behind.  Once you can "select" things, whether that's the pirate or the chest, the board will be filled with little squares to indicate to you which squares on the board you can move to (because some chests might be blocking some pathways), but I didn't find this feature all that helpful.

Scoring is based on the number of "pushes" it takes to get each chest to an X.  You'll get 1, 2, or 3 stars.  Each puzzle has a par (the average number of expected pushes it should take to get each chest to an X) and your scoring is based on how close you come to that.  I love that there's a par... I immediately know if I'm thinking about the maze in the wrong way or if I'm spot on.

The instructions are slightly helpful but could use some work.  The game is simple enough and, after a few minutes of play, you'll pick it up, so it's not a big deal that the instructions aren't as clear as they could be.

One thing that grated on my nerves was the phrase "Try and get a perfect score of ##".  In school, my grammar teacher taught us that if it is your intention to try something (i.e. it is your intention to try to get a perfect score), using the phrase "try and" is incorrect... that you should use "try to".  I don't always write or speak correctly, but that's just one of those things that I immediately notice.  It seems that "try and" is generally accepted now and I'm just an old fuddy-duddy, but I'm hoping Amazon will change that in version 1.2.

In the end, this is a great game to wile away some time while your parrot is at the vet or you're waiting for your ship to sail.  I don't know that I'll enjoy replaying the solved puzzles, but I imagine there will be more games out to play by then so it won't be a problem.
1332440
This is one of the better "Gauntlet clones" that I've played recently. It combines simple action rpg elements with simple town building. It's meant to be played in 30 minutes or to over 4 hours, depending on play style and options used. I'm having a lot of fun with it.

I really like the graphics and art. The graphics remind me of Darkstone, the art reminds me a little bit of The Temple of Elemental Evil and even Icewind Dale. The music is standard fantasy, you've heard it all before in other games, but I like that kind of music, and this music is great. I won't be putting it on mute anytime soon!

Character customization is lacking. I enjoy customizing my character, but all that I get to choose here is a name, portrait, and class. There isn't that many portraits to choose from, just a few for each race, but there is a good variety of classes. There is also a good variety of models. Some are fatter than others, some have short hair and some have long hair, there are white people and black people. You just can't pick when creating your character(ex. a courtesan will always be skinny, a brawler will always be bigger. Can't make a skinny brawler. However, skin color is based on portrait used).

The city building part of the game is a lot of fun. From deciding which guys you want in your town, which buildings to upgrade, and where to place your buildings. Having to manage food, search the map for resources for the town, and defending the town against attackers. Some buildings even have more than one upgrade option. Starting out by yourself and building a town from nothing is part of the fun.

Combat is just the basic old style of action rpg. You raise your attack and defense as you fight, gain levels and raise stats and gain new skills, find new armor, weapons and items, left click the mouse to attack till the monsters fall down. Even though it's just like it was years ago, it's still fun here. They even made it easier for you, with auto equipping and using as few left clicks as possible. Having people in town auto-equip and the auto-sorting makes things so much easier. If I have someone in my town guarding it against attackers, I don't have to worry about making sure they equip newly made weapons and armor, they do it themselves, freeing me up to continue my adventure for loot and resources.

Something else that I like, is the ability to take your townspeople and have them fight with you. Take the priest out of his church and have him fight with you, healing you in battle. Or take the farmer from their field and slap some armor on them. You can have up to 3 npc's fight with you. I enjoy the challenge of creating an all female town. Because men and women will come to your town looking to build, I always have to kick the men out, waiting for more women to show up.

The interface is just perfect. Everything is made easy. Looting monsters and from chests takes a split second, selling is as easy as pressing shift and left clicking, there's auto-sorts and auto-equips, the menus are all easily accessed and any important information is just a single left click away. It truly makes an rpg and town building easy.

I would love a game like this with more depth. There are no dungeons to enter, you can only explore above ground. Entering dungeons, having more detailed quests, and having a more robust economy side would have made this game lots better. As a casual action rpg with town building in it, I don't see how it could get any better on the casual side.

A note about the DRM used. There isn't any. There's no cd key. The game cd doesn't need to be in the drive to play.

5 stars overall: The game plays smooth on my medium range computer. The game only crashed once in 10 hours of play. When I opened up the game after the crash, the game was saved right when it crashed. I don't have to worry about losing gameplay in case it crashes. That's a big plus!

5 stars for fun: After 10 hours I'm still enjoying playing it. It's so simple, yet so addictive.
1137521
Well worth the price via Steam and DLC at only $1 makes this a no-brainer if you need to scratch a tower defense itch.
4784539
Fairly simple and fun to play game.  The starting rules fast and easy to learn and give a good feel for the game.  The Exhibition rules give you pre-built teams with special abilities.  This makes a more interesting game with a bit of a learning curve.  We played 3 games this weekend an absolute hit with my friends.  Fantastic minis, and fast play.
4029679
very fun game of luck and a little strategy. What I love about it is that each round is fairly quick. You can play for 10 min or a couple hours or anything in between.
1798843
I like this game because of:
- Simple rules you can explain to everybody in 1min (I was playing with my 8yo nephew and my 70yo father-in-law).
- Relatively short game duration (up to 10-15 mins in most cases). You can squeeze 2-3 plays in your coffee break time.
- Small size and durable case, you can bring it anywhere and challenge anybody. I used to play it with my co-worker during the lunch time while we were waiting to be served.

So, for me its like a short time brain workout exercise :)
4111796
I would put this game in my favorite five all time games!  I got it around a month ago and it has put even the mighty Elder Scrolls: Skyrim on the back burner for now.  The game is addictive in multiplayer and is one of the best I've ever played with friends.  I highly recommend it and at the price it is at the point of this review it reiterates to me why I spent my money building a decent gaming PC, BECAUSE THE GAMES ARE CHEAP!!!
If you do buy this, put at least 2 hours into it before deciding whether you like it or not.  You don't get the full feel of the game until you learn the nuances of how it works and begin to progress through the story.  Also, start out as a knight or a wizard or you will have a very hard time progressing through the game.  I made a hunter after I had a high level knight and it made it very easy to get him leveled up.
All in all,  A+ game and the developer continues to produce both paid and free DLC for it.  It's a must own for anyone who enjoys tower defense games.
4699006
This is a well-designed game translated from a movie. The graphics are good, and gameplay is consistent. There's enough variation to keep a seasoned player from getting bored. The cutscenes are entertaining and humorous.

In terms of gameplay, keep in mind that this game is relatively short, and probably will not take a seasoned player more than 5 hours or so to complete.  Each level has a specific set of optional challenges, however, so to complete each level "100%", you may need to play each level at least twice, and sometimes three times.  As with any "fighting" game, there is a wide variety of button combos to unleash various types of attacks.  This is a button-masher game. It's quite easy to get through most enemies by using only slight variations, or one or two buttons.  Again, this game is designed for everybody "10 and up", so if you're looking for a real challenge, this game might not be for you.  The game even sports an upgrade system, so you can increase Po's powers and abilities, which seems to make the game even easier.

The sound in this game is good.  I enjoyed the voice-acting.  The music helps set the mood.  Sound-effects are standard for this type of game, but don't expect to be blown away by any of it.

The game has one annoying design flaw which I cannot forgive. When you complete a level, the only on-screen option is to "upgrade" or go to the "next level".  You cannot launch a menu to "replay" the level you just completed (in case you did not complete it 100% and want to try again).  You have to launch the next level, wait for it to load, bypass the cutscene, exit the game, and then load the level you want to play from the menu.  This involves entirely too much effort to replay a level.

Overall, this is a fun game to play.  It does not have a lot of replay value, however, and for an experienced gamer, it may provide only 10 hours or so of entertainment.  However, it is a good diversion from the standard shooters, if you're looking for a quick break between games.
2320114
Dungeon Defenders is a shining example of why the indie game revolution has been so great for gaming.  A few short years ago, a game like this would have probably been too risky for a big publisher to take a chance on, but thanks to rise of the downloadable space and all the creativity it has unleashed, we are able to get gems like Dungeon Defenders beamed to our hard drives that provide hours of fun for a great price.

Dungeon Defenders takes two genres that have been mainstays on PCs for years, tower defense and action RPG, and fuses them together brilliantly.  After creating your character from a choice of 4 classes, you are thrust into an area where you have to protect a centrally-located crystal from waves of enemies.  In addition to setting up your defenses (which are unique to each class), you are involved in real time combat against the invading enemies.  Many enemies drop loot once they're killed, whether it be new weapons, armor, or equipment.  The brilliant move here is that you will eventually accumulate weapons and gear for all the game's classes of heroes, including the ones that you are playing as in your current game.  These items can be managed in-game, or from a tavern that serves as your hub world in between battles (the tavern also has a merchant and the helpful added feature of practice dummies to experiment with your new battle moves and abilities).  Since all this loot can be stored in a huge item box, it encourages you to create new characters and experiment with the different loadouts using the loot you've gained in your battles.  In addition to the loot system, each character class has skill trees that you can develop over time to boost character skills, tower attributes and special abilities.  The option to purchase via DLC many other classes of heroes aside from the original 4 adds lots of gameplay potential, and the developers do a marvelous job supporting the game via downloadable updates and patches.  Dungeon Defenders is a great bang for your buck, and given its vast content and addictive gameplay, it's a game that you'll likely spend lots of time with.

Dungeon Defenders is also a great-looking game that utilizes the Unreal 3 engine to bring a very attractive, cartoonish, almost cel-shaded art style to vivid life.  Character animations are great, and the game has a good sense of humor to it.  Also worth mentioning is that Dungeon Defenders is a game that really comes to life when you play it cooperatively.  Not only does the game get quite difficult when playing solo, but it also feels kind of incomplete.  Playing with other defenders of different classes allows you to utilize all the different types of class-specific defenses to create numerous strategic traps that are delightful to see in action.  Also, with the different combat styles available in a multi-class cooperative game, you'll have much better chances of surviving and getting that all important XP and loot while protecting your territory from the evil hordes.  My only complaint about the game is that it can be quite overwhelming to the new player.  There are lots of numbers, meters and icons on the screen, and most of it is not explained very well, particularly when you are comparing different stats of equipment pieces you come across.  Also, managing your inventory chest can be a convoluted process, as the menus can get quite messy.  But it's a learning curve that can be overcome, and it gives you another reason to play the game with some friends, as you can learn faster together, or a more seasoned player can always get you up to speed much more quickly.

Overall, I've found Dungeon Defenders to be one of the most surprising, enjoyable indie games that I've played, and I always look forward to playing the game on Steam with friends.  The hours will fly by as you strategize together to defend your crystal, slay monsters, and collect loot.  Don't miss this joyful game, especially if you enjoy tower defense and action RPGs with lots of loot and leveling.
1802214
The price is cheap and well worth the purchase of you are a fan of tower defense games. The concept is fairly cool, as you walk around and collect coins and use you guy to do upgrades even by standing there. the visuals are on par with a really good flash game. I had a lot of fun with this game and recommend it to anyone who owns a psp.
3462484
Tom Vasel from the Dice Tower whole-heartedly recommends this game, in fact "it is going into his collection". I watched this reviewed by the Dice Tower, then watched it played on the youtube channel GAME NIGHT. It looked like fun. I was right - It was fun.

First off - we play with four people on the easier setting. There are seven different "boards" with goals of their own. The Princess board allows the 1st through 3rd place winners to advance one of their markers on any other board. The two blue KNIGHT boards award 3,2,1 points, the EDUCATION board gives negative points to the losers, the KING board grants anyone 6 points that makes it to the middle (12 at the end), the Dragon board grants 1st through 3rd some big points (17 for first), and the last board (CHARITY) gives negative points if you are the last two.

Each player is dealt 5 cards and drafts their hands either to the left or the right (depending on the round). Once your hand is established, you lay down one card at a time and move your marker. If you lay down a BLUE 3 card, then you move your marker on either of the blue KNIGHT cards. You play 4 out of the 5 cards in your hand - which is a great strategy element. Every time I have played I wasn't sure until the end which card I was not going to play. Some of our players said that they felt 'trapped" in playing cards that gave them no real choice in moving, but after a few plays they realized what the should do to help their game play. Everyone agreed that there was more strategy then they believed was possible with a card drafting - move your piece game. Its the fact that you have to figure which cards to keep - and which pieces to -- AND when to move those pieces. Numerous times my wife would pass me up and think she was safe from the negative point boards, but then ---KAPOW -- at the very end I played a card that I had been saving just in case she moved in front of me. After your four cards are played you simply count your points. Its that simple. Repeat this five more times for a total of six rounds.

Some of the boards don't count every round -- some only count at round three and round six -- and others only count at round six. Some of the boards get reset after round three -- which helps in case someone is running away with it.  There is a lot of play in the game. I can't wait to play with a different group to see their strategy. So far I can't tell if the game is "broken" -- you know like Everybody knows you buy Board Walk and Park place in Monopoly to win the game -- but so far the games have played differently and nobody's strategy seems a lock for a sure win.

We like it. My 11 year old and 13 year old played last night, and they had fun talking in English accents and saying Medieval things as they beat us on many cards. I will give you this hint -- try to keep the education card -- negative three points hurts.