Developer/Publisher: Orient Maple
Genre: RTS/Defense
Price: Free at the time of Review
Acquired: Review Copy Provided
Review Platform: iPod Touch
Verdict: Doomsday should be far more engaging than this.
Pros: Relatively easy to pick up.
Cons: Graphics and soundtrack are lackluster, and you may find yourself wanting to sift through your junkmail.

“The attack began at 6:18 P.M. just as he said it would. Judgment Day. The day the human race was nearly destroyed by the weapons they built to protect themselves. I should have realized our destiny was never to stop Judgment Day. It was merely to survive it.” – Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

John Connor was on to something. This week it was my turn. The machines were rising up and it was my turn to try and save my world from the onslaught of deadly robots. My turn to command my troops and inspire the will of man to overpower and out-think the calculating strategy of the cold killer steel that was marching our way. Wave after wave of endless destruction. There were lasers and bullets, rockets and explosions. You’d think the end of the world would be something to see with all of this carnage. You would be wrong.

2012 Counterattack is a sidescrolling RTS/Defense game that essentially puts you in the role of a John Connor type general. The action of our little drama is set throughout the United States of America. Each level takes place in a different state. As you move on the map reappears and shows you the next conflict zone. In each scenario, your base is at the left, the bad guys are at the right. There is a radar at the top of the screen and a troop building toolbar at the bottom. You need to drive your troops across the screen and overrun the enemy base.

You start off each level of 2012 Counterattack with a given number of funds that slowly increases. As you send out your troops to fight the chrome-plated hoard, that number dips down. Each unit will cost you funds, but those funds do regenerate as the war wages on. In the beginning both your troops and the enemy’s are fairly simple, but that complexity increases as you go deeper into the game.

You can control your view of the battle by either tapping and dragging along the radar at the top of the screen or by tilting your iPhone or iPod Touch. As you generate troops in 2012 Counterattack, they march out of your fortress and across the sandstrewn battlefield until they engage the enemy. Once they meet up with the mechanized combatants, there is a flashing of rifles and explosions. And, truthfully, it is rather unimpressive.

You can support your ground troops with air strikes launched from your base. Simply target the robotic bad guys by dragging your finger on the screen. You need to touch and hold until the energy level extends from your base at the left out to the pooint of the battlefield that you want to engage. Once you’ve done that, release and a pulse weapon will out to strike down a group of enemy combatants.

Back when I was in high school, there was a period where I was into professional wrestling. If you’ve ever been to one of the live shows they will start out with the new unknown wrestlers and after several minutes the crowd will inevitably start to chant, “Boring. Boooooring.” It was all I could do not to chant along as I played 2012 Counterattack. Surely, the end of the world must have more flash and excitement than this ? On many of the levels, I would send out troops, and the enemy would send out troops. I would drive them back, they would retaliate, and drive me back. And there we sat, locked in a combat that just would not end.

I was so focused on the green dots that represented my forces and the red dots that represented the robotic onslaught that I couldn’t really enjoy the action on the battlefield. Not that its really that much to write home about, as I believe I have already indicated. The soundtrack is sort of a generic, dumbed-down version of what sounds like the soundtrack to the TV series, 24. I believe it is meant to inject the game with a tense feeling of imminent doom.  I think that was the intent, anyway.

As I write this review, 2012 Counterattack is free in the iTunes store. The opinion seems to be split, with an equal number of fans and detractors. I think you know which side I fall on. This review is over, and I have survived it.  John Connor would be proud.

Developer: Origin8
Genre: Tower Defense
Price: $2.99
Verdict: Extreme fun with hours of replay value.
Pro: The ability to pause the game and speed up the game is a great feature
Cons: Need to be able to remove new player notifications

Following the critically acclaimed Sentinel: Mars Defense, Origin8 has created another masterpiece with Sentinel 2: Earth Defense. The game takes place two months after the failure on Mars. Reinforcements never arrived and all personnel were lost. In preparation for the coming attack, your dropship, Sentinel, has been upgraded with an arsenal of devastating weaponry.

On a platform where tower defense has flourished, Sentinel 2 has taken some progressive steps in the evolution of the tower defense (TD) genre. Some of the new features within this game include the ability to build mobile attack drones, construct boosters that will increase fire rate, boost power to all surrounding offensive units, and it includes the upgraded sentinel weapon system I will call “Special Weapons”. As you can see from the below screen capture, there are four different Special Weapons from which to choose. As one progresses through waves of attacks, harvesting drones will be gaining vital resources to fuel these weapons. The more your drones can gather the faster you will be able to launch one of the four Special Weapons.

The monetary arrangement that is implemented in Sentinel 2 is similar to the vast array of other TD games. As the player destroys the aliens through waves of attacks, money is acquired based on the level of the attacking alien wave. With these funds one can construct a variety of weapons, i.e., turrets, grenade launchers, slowing pulse towers, electrical towers, and boosters. The player can also purchase repair drones that repair the gates if it takes damage from the attacks.

I have played many TD games before, and the format is much the same. You setup towers, wait for the next wave, and then build new towers or upgrade existing ones. However, Sentinel 2 provides a little more challenge than one might expect. For example, one of the alien waves when hit by the slowing pulse tower is teleported away from the attack. This allows it to bypass any of the defenses the player may have in place assuming the player has not built up defenses further down the line.

Sentinel 2 has definitely given me the most exhilerating experience I have ever had in a TD game. When lying in bed with closed eyes, you can feel and hear the humming of the booster generators going off and turrets firing at a break neck pace. You sense the smell of gunpowder and dust flying through the air as a grenade explodes in the trenches.  With aliens charging at you, as a last defense, you use a singular shock tower blasting beams of electricity over your head. Your hair is now standing on end.  The alien explodes and there you are alone but ready for the next wave.

The previous campaign on Mars was a failure. The colonies fell to ruthless creatures. Are you going to let them take over earth without a fight? Prepare your sentinel and dig in for the long haul, because you aren’t going anywhere soon.