Friday Free Game: Flash Element TD Friday, January 19, 2007

Last week I featured a pretty low-tech defend-the-base game called Tower Defense. This week, thanks to Jay from jayisgames, I'm happy to present a more polished and interesting take on the same theme: Flash Element TD.

Just like the other game, the concept is simple: kill the baddies with your towers before they invade your castle. But the execution in this case is significantly better for a number of reasons, including some amusing sound bites, good graphics, and a fair amount of variation in the enemies, including foes that attack by land and by air and the occasional boss. As well, each tower has its own advantages and disadvantages. For instance, arrow towers are cheap and versatile but don't do enough damage to be useful later on. Water towers slow your enemies, and the "combo" tower, while very powerful, shoots so slowly that it's almost useless when the speed rounds come around.

One thing I really liked about Tower Defense was how it managed to keep tension by giving you only twenty seconds per wave to think, build and upgrade. Flash Element TD pauses in between waves and so lacks this same sort of intensity. Other than this one quirk, I think Flash Element has it all over Tower Defense, so if you liked last week's Friday Free Game, then you'll love this one. Now go and defend your castle!