So I downloaded Robotek HD much against my my first thoughts after reading the reviews, but I was curious. A very simple game that really does not deserve the HD in it’s title, yes the graphics are high enough rez to display well on a larger tablet sized screen; however those graphics are sub-par cartoon for 2 year old quality. The game itself is actually quite fun and I’ve put a good 20 hours or so into it already over the last 4 days (even though it has been on my Notion Ink Adam tablet for close to two and a half months already). The basic concept is that the world has been taken over by computers and you are the last human, you have to hack into all the worlds mainframes and defeat their defenses to take possession of them back.
To defeat the mainframes you have to spin a slot wheel (yes a slot wheel…) there are 3 different wheels to spin and choosing the right one at the right time will determine if you win or lose at any point in the game, sure you can do things differently, but there are key moments where a bad roll can cause you to have a very bad day. Each wheel has three icons, you get to choose the first, the second and third are random, their effects increase if you hit more than one of a kind, and they occur in the order that you received them (starting with the one you pick, it is easy to select it, you get about a 70%/30% shot at the one you want). The Developer relies on you spending money through the in app purchasing system (it uses google check out) to buy your self some VERY minimal advantages at a cost of what I consider to be more than the game is worth if I had to buy it. Without spending money, you find yourself constantly struggling, the farther you climb the greater the gap between your skills and your opponents. The good news is that the system is similar to an Emperor style card game (anyone who played Magic the Gathering will understand), the “droids” get trashed first, THEN your main system can be attacked; however there are certain abilities that will bypass this on the wheel, and when your droids go boom, you can take residual damage.
To quickly give a strategy to use to win, I recommend first putting 1 point (you gain 1 point for skills per level up) in each of the following (preferably in this order):
- Firewall Deflector
- Energy Superboost
- Critical Hit
- Messy Hack
- Repulsor Armor
- Lucky Strike
- Firewall Deflector
- Energy Superboost
- Firewall Deflector
I say this for several reasons, first off, the firewall is the only way to survive once you start fighting systems above your level, without the firewall all your droids will be destroyed before your next turn basically wasting those droids. Next is the Energy Superboost, this decreased the damage your enemies do on their next attack (immediately after the wheel spins) and increases the damage your droids will do for the next attack also. The other options I selected will benefit you in various ways, some more than others and you can pick however you want after level 9. This is not how I did it, as I really had no plan going into the game, since I really had no idea how to play (there is a tutorial and it is short, and only shows you the basics). If I had put less time into the game at this point, I would restart to follow this guide.
The next thing you need to know to survive are these simple tips:
- Round one, summon the Tankbot, he has the most HP and does the most damage (hope for an advanced one)
- Get your firewall up, firewall=life, and you may get a quick hack that steals one of your opponents droids to your side of the battle
- If you hit three of a kind you get another spin, I have seen the computer get 4 spins in a turn an decimate me
- If you have no droids and no firewall, go for a hack, you may get lucky and get a buffer AND a firewall, summoning droids at this point is not helpful, the enemies will just kill them and rank up.
| Developer’s page | http://www.hexage.net |
| AppBrain link – Free | http://www.appbrain.com/app/robotek/net.hexage.robotek.hd |
| AppBrain link – Paid | free game with in game purchases, no ads |
Marketplace direct DL links
| Free Version | https://market.android.com/details?id=net.hexage.robotek.hd | Paid Version |
Castle Crusade is a very fun, very simple game that does not have very good graphics, they look poor on my HTC Evo, but look even worse on my Notion Ink Adam. The game has achievements and 7 upgrades that can be purchased 4 or 5 times between levels, also the game comes with three difficulty levels and 10 small levels to play on. Only issue I have is it always wants me to view the tutorial every time I load the app… The goal is to gather resources (lumber) to upgrade your troops and build catapults to destroy your enemies castle before they destroy yours. Some levels also give you the opportunity to capture towers that build archers to further assault your enemies. The towers offer even more upgrades for your units (none of these upgrades carry over from level to level). It is an interesting twist on a “tower defense” style game. This game is also available to play as a flash game on your computer.
Marketplace direct DL links
| Free Version | Paid Version | |
Armored Defense II is a very fun game, I’ve spent countless hours (= more than 40, mostly because I switched from my HTC Evo to the Notion Ink Adam as my primary game playing location) playing this game, absolutely love it! 9 different difficulties, 3 per “group”, rankings achieved for not allowing any units to clear the map after 5 consecutive waves, default tower levels increase as you rank up, and carry over, even at the start of a new game (as long as it is the same map and level group), acceptable graphic levels, looks ok on my Notion Ink Adam, and pretty darn good on my Evo. One of my biggest complaints is also a feature (and most likely was a bug fix too), occasionally one of your towers (located on tracks only) will just disappear between waves and the money you spent on it (including upgrades) will be given back, maybe if there was a sound effect and a flashing cursor or something to indicate where it happened, I’d be less bothered by it. One of the best things about the game (and without this it would be pretty unplayable), is that you can place towers while the game is paused, in fact there are some things you can only place while the game is paused (tracks and land mines, before you get your hopes up, the land mines are how this game manages slow towers, they don’t go boom!)
Marketplace direct DL links
| Free Version | Paid Version | |
Hex defense, a bit retro with the Graphics (just a step above PewPew), but amazingly fun Defense game, with lots of maps that have slows, speed ups, health minus and health plus spaces (all in Hex) for the enemy units to walk on, and you to deal with! When I first got the game every level was limited to 20 waves, the game would install but never load on my Notion Ink Adam, while working perfectly on my HTC Evo. A couple of updates later (there have been at least 4 since I got the game some time in May/early June) I tested it on my Adam again, and it launched and runs perfectly. some of the updates added Achievements, removed the wave limit on the maps (at least I have not gotten far enough to find a cap on any of them), added some new levels and a few other tweaks. However the graphics do not scale well to the 10.1″ screen on my Adam, a bit disappointing considering what little there is to them. Different enemy units are weak/strong against different tower types too. There is a fast forward button too, and you can make the next wave start sooner by taping the Hex they originate from.
A couple of things I would like to see in future versions:
- More detailed upgrades – currently you don’t know what your towers can do, or what they receive when upgraded.
- Information about which units are weaker or stronger against certain towers.
- Improved graphics – it looks fantastic on my Evo, then when played on the Adam it looks like I’ve dropped into 8bit Nintendo on a 65″ TV world.
- Sometimes when I try to select a Hex it picks the wrong one (ok, so most of the time), it seems like I have to touch slightly below the one I want, which is actually a good thing, if you know in advance, but since no other game does this, it is hard to remember, it also makes it hard to select the Hexs on the bottom row (especially on my Adam where they are sometimes covered by the buy/upgrade options).
- A preview of the map before starting the game, since there are 20 levels it would be nice to see what they look like before starting them!
- A global high score board would be nice also, there are many options out there that you can just link your game to without having to create your own. Although none of them are integrated into any social system, it would be nice if Google+ allowed you to see high scores from people in your circles and made the API’s available to Devs… just thinking out loud here…
Something I really like about the game that no other tower defense game I have played will let you do: place a tower when an enemy is already in the square, once that unit passes through all remaining units have to go around the tower from then on. Also that there are so many levels! I don’t play this game as often as other games, but I know there is always a level to play that keeps me from ever being bored with the game.
| Gotow.net | http:// |
| AppBrain link – Free | http://www.appbrain.com/app/hexdefense/com.gotow.hexdefensefree |
| AppBrain link – Paid | http://www.appbrain.com/app/hexdefense/com.gotow.hexdefense |
Marketplace direct DL links
| Free Version | Paid Version | |
