Boom Brigade (iPhone) Review

Costas Stephanides’s Review

Touch it, draw it, shoot it

Ok I may have just been listening to Touch It by Busta but touch it, draw it, shoot it does sum up BoomBrigade. It's a strange hybrid of tower defense, line drawing and a top down shooter. You have a base camp (tower) to defend and after picking a soldier equipped with either a minigun, shotgun or rocket launcher it's your task to defend the camp with your solitary soldier.

As enemy creatures start entering the screen, the soldier will start shooting automatically when they are in range. To move the guy around, simply tap him and draw lines for him to follow. Don't get this confused with Flight Control, the enemies will adjust their paths and tend to follow the smell of fear; it's almost a constant case of adjusting your troops and manoeuvring them into position and protecting them while they reload.

As with true tower defense games, the enemies attack in waves and after a few waves you can recruit another soldier. Killing some enemies will reveal dollar icons or health packs. Use the money to upgrade your troops or repair your base. The action is frantic and the longest I've managed is ten minutes.

The hybrid concept works pretty well and it's easy to pick up. The game is viewed from above and the sprites do look a little small but the overall detail is impressive. With good graphics come good sounds with decent sound effects and troop voices.

There are issues with the controls which could hopefully be addressed in an update. Tapping and drawing one soldier around is fine but having to consider the fates of two other guys at the same time is tough. It would be handy if the developers could figure out a way to form groups of soldiers that would only need a single command to follow. Even with this shortcoming, BoomBrigade delivers a great game with a bang.