[General Topics] Menneisyys:
* there is a nice trick worth keeping in mind: the game constantly evaluates the shortest path and dynamically re-routes the enemies if it founds a shorter path to the exit. This means if you quickly destroy a tower, the game might re-route the enemies to go through the hole. While this can be pretty dangerous (I’ve lost several games because I wasn’t able to replace the tower fast enough - if you try to build it while there’re enemies on the ground / over it, it won’t work; then, you’ll need to re-select the tower icon to build and try to build it again) if the last (or the just-coming) enemies are still pretty near, if they aren’t, it can pay off by forcing them to go backwards. Some screenshots showing removing a low-cost Sniper (to minimize costs - remember you always lose 20% at every sell) at the top of the center column:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/072008Towers/trick1.jpg

(the enemies have left the tower but the shortest path to the target would still be through the hole created by removing the tower)

http://www.winmobiletech.com/072008Towers/trick2.jpg

(the enemies still under the newly-created hole start moving backward, which is also shown by their “faces” looking up. During this, they take extra damage from your weapons they’re passing again)

http://www.winmobiletech.com/072008Towers/trick3.jpg

(another screenshot - from a bit later)

Of course, try not to wait too long - rebuild your tower before it’s too late and the enemies start pouring over the new hole:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/072008Towers/trick4.jpg

Problems

CPU usage. While it certainly doesn’t necessarily need 100% CPU, it still uses it (as of the just-released 1.1 version), resulting it most CPU’s chewing through the battery very-very fast. On the desktop, you’ll want to force underclocking; for example, with the free(!) Notebook Hardware Control. For example, on my 1 GHz Centrino-based HP TC1100 tablet, forcing the system to remain at 600 MHz radically decreased overheating and battery usage. You can do the same on non-VGA Windows Mobile devices too (the game is a bit slow on VGA ones). Note that it’s also pretty quickly chews through the batteries on Symbian S60: it consumes about 1.2W (as opposed to the ~0.3W when the game isn’t running and the backlight is on). Finally, also note that, on Symbian, the current version seem to have some sound problems (tested on the v21 Nokia N95).

Speed problems on some high-resolution (VGA) devices. Strangely, it’s pretty slow on my Windows Mobile 6.1-based, 624 MHz / PXA-270 Dell Axim x51v (which is one of the, unfortunately, very few models to come with a hardware underclocker utility built-in) - definitely slower than on the PXA310-based, VGA iPAQ 210. (This means underclocking the Axim to 208 MHz renders the game plain unplayable). I had no speed problems running it on QVGA devices (the 195 MHz TI OMAP 850-based WM 6.1 HTC Wizard and the 400 MHz PXA-255-based WM2003 HP iPAQ 2210), on the other hand.

No upgrade info is given on the new range and strength - unlike with some of the comparable games; most importantly, Desktop Tower Defense (see below). With the former, only beforehand - after the upgrade, you’ll already see the new range by clicking the tower. An example of this is shown HERE, where the last-but-one Sniper is selected having all the upgrades and, therefore, a very impressive range.

It’s not possible to cancel the process of selling a tower. This is really bad as it’s very easy to click selling a tower on a Pocket PC (this is less of an issue on non-touchscreen platforms and desktop Windows). If enemies start pouring over the newly-created hole, you may be doomed and may need to restart the game. And, if no such thing happens, you still need to purchase the tower again (and upgrade it if necessary), which means a loss of 20% money.

The good

Multiplatform (both WinMo platforms, Symbian S60v3 and desktop Windows)

Hi-res on VGA (albeit can be a bit slow on some devices)

Really-really addictive

Trial version not crippled and can be started several times before it expires

Online high score table

Compared to Desktop Tower Defense:

You may already know Desktop Tower Defense (DTD for short). It has a bit similar weapons and strategy to use; for example, DTD doesn’t have any invisible enemies. A quick comparison between its weapons and their Towers Trap counterparts:

Pellet Tower = Sniper

Squirt Tower = no real counterpart (it isn’t an equivalent of Rocket Launcher as the latter is anti-ground only)

Dart Tower = Cannon (with the same splash damage)

Swarm Tower = Air

Frost Tower = Shock (with splash damage; Shock doesn’t have splash damage, unfortunately)

Note that as it doesn’t have anything like the icy enemy (locking down nearby towers), the TDD example mazes available for example HERE aren’t as useful under Towers Trap. You may still want to give them a look.

Unfortunately, there’re no hotkeys in Towers Trap, not even with the help of external button redefiner apps to, for example, quickly start the next round etc. In this respect, TDD is definitely better. Hope this shortcoming will also be fixed.