The Top 5 Free Online Tower Defense Games
Tower Defense: From Rampart to Desktop Tower Defense
Tower defense games are popular across mobile platforms and the PC. A sub-genre of strategy games, tower defense is not a new concept. The 8-bit era saw Rampart, the first-ever proper tower defense game released by Atari in the early 1990s. Much before Rampart, a reverse tower defense game by the name Bokosuka Wars was released by ASCII in the early 1980s.
In the age of browser games, Flash Element Tower Defense and Desktop Tower Defense were released and of these two, Desktop TD gained immense popularity because of its simple gameplay style and no maze-type structures (the game allowed players to create their own “maze” of turrets to eliminate cutesy invaders. Today, there are plenty of free online tower defense games that are as immersive and engaging as the original browser game. With power-ups, interesting plot and a wide range of turrets and cannons to eliminate invaders, the variations these games boast are quite impressive.
GemCraft
GemCraft adds a twist to the ever-popular tower defense gameplay concept. Instead of building towers, players will have to create shiny trinkets and place them on towers already built in a maze. The objective is to eliminate monsters before they invade your keep. You can also build towers, but they need to eliminate monsters and earn manna to build one. There are plenty of power-ups to enhance the attack capacity of the gem-powered tower. They can be unlocked once you earn more manna.
GemCraft stands out from the crowd because of its unique gameplay concept. You can combine gems to create powerful trinkets and place them on towers to attack a vicious wave of enemy monsters. The fact that you will have to create gems and towers and place them strategically to zap down enemies makes the game more interesting than other free online tower defense games.
Desktop Tower Defense
This Flash game was one of the first tower defense titles to grace the Internet. Developed by Paul Preece, Desktop Tower Defense (DTD) made it to the list of most-played flash games of 2007. With an office desk backdrop, the game lets you build and upgrade towers to kill swarms of creeps before they reach their destination. The creeps attack in waves in set intervals and as time goes by powerful creeps immune to turrets will gnaw their way to victory.
When compared to Flash Element Tower Defense, DTD is more challenging. It doesn’t have a maze-like design. Players will have to design their own maze by strategically positioning turrets that will eliminate any invading creeps in a jiffy. This feature made DTD much popular than other free online tower defense games and even today, it is one of the most played Flash games.
Cursed Treasure: Don’t Touch My Gems
Cursed Treasure is another great tower defense game known for its unique gameplay concept. It adds more variations to the defend-your-castle-by-building-towers objective. You will have to build towers to prevent invaders from stealing gems and carry it back to the entrance. Your keep has plenty of gems and invaders will try to sneak past towers and steal it. You will have to successfully eliminate waves of enemies before they steal all gems from the cave and take it back to the entrance. You will have to save at least one gem even if it is out of the cave.
Cursed Treasure has RPG elements infused to its gameplay. This makes it stand out from other free online tower defense games. You can upgrade towers and use special attacks to kill waves of invaders. However, the challenging aspect of the game is the tower position. Each tower has to be built on special tiles. For example, the Den tower can be built only on glass tile or the temple tower can be built on the Rock tile. When you drag and drop the towers, you will easily identify the matching tiles. Every successive elimination earns you gold, with which you can build more towers. There are also special power ups to be unlocked, which is why Cursed Treasure, like GemCraft stands out from the crowd because of its impressive and out-of-the-box gameplay.
Play Cursed Treasure: Don’t Touch My Gems
Whiteboard Tower Defense
Like Desktop Tower Defense, this game has an office backdrop. You will have to build turrets on a whiteboard and stop cute critters from reaching their destination. Each kill will earn you cash, with which you can buy more turrets and upgrade your firepower. Make sure you fend off all critters as you may lose “respect” points if they escape from your turret traps. As you progress, you will meet powerful, and ever cuter, critters immune to your basic turrets. Make sure you position your fire power strategically and update them to get even with your enemies.
The unique aspect of Whiteboard Tower Defense is its visuals. Everything from the menu items to the assault turrets are sketched using a marker. These out-of-the-box visuals create more interest in gameplay.
Mini Tower Defense
With a typical maze-like arrangement, Mini Tower Defense lets players build turrets to destroy waves of mini tanks. The game allows enemies to run through a maze and each level has a more challenging maze than the previous one, compelling players to plan their turret placement before the first wave of enemies hit the scene.
Mini Tower Defense has nice 8-bit colorful graphics that give a retro look to the game. It retains the original tower defense gameplay concept and is as addictive as other free online tower defense games.
