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Swag Saturday: Toy Soldiers! (XBLA)

Signal Studios' new game Toy Soldiers might sound like any other tower defense game at first glance, but it has art direction that will knock your socks off. It's one thing to pit the Kaiser's forces against the boys from England, but Toy Soliders turns them into little clockwork toys, full of cogs and springs. Combine that with addictively fun gameplay and Facebook integration and you have a winner.

So worry not if you have moral objections to pumping howitzer shells into approaching baddies, they're just toys! We want to share this toybox full of fun with you, so we're giving away three codes for this game on Xbox Live Arcade. All you have to do is follow the rules below, and tell us what your favorite toy was. Or is. There's no shame in still playing with toys, is there?
  • Leave a comment telling us what your favorite toy was (or is).
  • You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec, at least in part due to our vehement opposition of the Montreal Canadiens).
  • Limit 1 entry per person per day.
  • This entry period ends at 7:01PM PT on Sunday, March 7.
  • At that time, we'll randomly select three winners to receive a code good for one copy of Toy Soliders on XBLA (ARV: $15).
  • For a list of complete rules, click here.

What is Joyswag? Since we don't keep the games and merchandise we receive for review or promotional purposes, it becomes "Joyswag," which is passed along to our readers. Please note that Joyswag may be in "used" condition. For more info on our policy, click here.

PopCap harvesting a money crop with Plants vs. Zombies on iPhone

We had assumed that putting PopCap's devilishly addictive Plants vs. Zombies on a handheld device was a recipe for commercial success. However, we didn't anticipate it setting a new sales record for the App Store, moving over 300,000 downloads in just nine days. At $2.99 a pop, the game has already netted the casual developer over $1 million on the iPhone platform alone.

We're sincerely hoping this inspires PopCap to explore other match-ups between things in nature and humanoid aggressors. Trees vs. Ninjas? Migratory Geese vs. Robots? The Ocean vs. Witches? Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus vs. Everyone Else on Earth?

Plants vs. Zombies shambling to iPhones February 15

PopCap today announced that the iPhone port of Plants vs. Zombies is heading to Apple's handheld on February 15, seemingly aiming for the exact day that it had originally approximated for a delayed release. What's more, the publisher has also released the first trailer for the game (seen above), showing off the port's pared down touch-based controls and getting us even more (trepidatiously) pumped for the impending release. Sure, some other games are releasing this month or whatever, but do those games grab us by the dopamine receptor and refuse to let go? Yeah, didn't think so.

iPhone port of Plants vs. Zombies delayed, coming mid-February

If you prefer your zombie-slaying iPhone Apps to be a bit more botanical in nature, you're going to have to hold out for a little longer than you may have anticipated. A recent PopCap Tweet explained that the initial "late January" launch window of Plants vs. Zombies for the iPhone is no longer accurate. "The game has been further delayed, but we are *confident* it will launch in mid Feb," PopCap explained.

This isn't great news for fans of the pseudo-tower defense game -- however, the use of asterisks in the message above makes us certain that PopCap is telling the truth this time. See, asterisks are like little truth symbols. Check this out: "Man, Beaches is my *favorite* movie of all time." Totally, totally true.

[Via ShackNews]

Savage Moon lands on PSP December 22

It looks like the PSP is quickly becoming the new destination for tower defense games. Savage Moon joins the growing list of tower defense games on Sony's handheld, such as PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe and Fieldrunners; however, unlike the other games listed here, the handheld Savage Moon isn't a port, it's a brand new game, adding "two new species, a new interface and the ability to unlock vengeance mode for each Imoon."

Savage Moon: The Hera Campaign can be downloaded from the PlayStation Store next week, December 22, for $9.99. See a trailer after the break.

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TGS 2009: Impressions: Toy Soldiers (XBLA)


While it has become an extremely popular style of game over the last few years, tower defense titles have always struck me as a boring concept, personally. Perhaps it's my penchant for firing weapons at moving targets in first-person, but I can't really articulate my lack of enthusiasm for the strategy-style gameplay.

My initial reaction to Toy Soldiers -- a tower defense game in a World War I setting -- in a behind-closed-doors Microsoft demo? Snore. Imagine my surprise, then, that I soon got genuinely excited to play the game when it lands sometime next year.

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Watch one frame of Gratuitous Space Battles being rendered


Indie games developer Positech Games caught our attention again with more footage of its upcoming tower defense title Gratuitous Space Battles. In the latest video, Positech shows off the process of rendering a single frame in one of the game's marquee deep space standoffs. If you're a fan of tower defense titles -- or some kind of time-lapse photo enthusiast -- check out the clip after the break.

[Thanks, Cliff]

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Defense Grid protects XBLA on Sept. 2


Developer Hidden Path has shown the way to Defense Grid: The Awakening's release: it hits XBLA on September 2. The tower defense title was well received in its PC incarnation and will cost 800 ($10) on the console.

The Xbox version of the game includes the Borderlands (not be confused with the other Borderlands) mission pack, along with a few new challenge modes. The game already comes with a full campaign and what appears to be a significant amount of content for the price.

[Via Eurogamer]

Crystal Defenders attacking PSP

What's Square Enix's most prolific game this generation? Well, apparently it's Crystal Defenders, a 2D tower defense game that's appeared on iPhone, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii ... and PSP, according to the German USK ratings system. Considering the low-fi quality of the graphics (the Xbox 360 version is in the video above), it shouldn't be a very difficult game to port.

[Via GamerBytes]

Comic-Con 2009: South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play! in action

Update: Above, we've added our own footage form the Comic-Con show floor!

Whatever you've been doing for the past 15 minutes, we promise you it's been more productive than us. See, we've been trying to make heads or tails of UGO's gameplay footage for South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play! you'll find after the break.

It looks sort of like a typical tower defense game, except the kids seem to be building the towers themselves. Also, they're sort of like mobile towers of their own, and it seems that several people are playing cooperatively. It's all very puzzling, but at least it can't be worse than Chef's Luv Shack.

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Gratuitous Space Battles is just that


Indie games developer Positech Games has been quietly working on a tower defense game set in space, and has uploaded the first footage. Gratuitous Space Battles doesn't have any kind of tentative release date, and this video is more a brief demonstration of the game's goals, but we think it's kinda cool. And if that doesn't do it for you, squint hard and pretend you're watching Battlestar Galactica.

Head past the break for the footage.

[Via Offworld]

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How's Life as a Darklord?

"Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord may have a name that's similar to predecessor My Life as a King," Andriasang writes, "but the two games are nothing alike." So much for the dream of running an evil town full of evil adventurers.

Instead, Andriasang describes the WiiWare game as a unique variation of tower defense. As heroes storm your tower, you delay their progress by adding floors to the structure and filling them with monsters. The strategy comes not only from managing your resources enough to build as many floors as you can, but also in placing things so that there isn't too much stuff on one floor. If there is, the heroes can just skip over a floor!

See a video of the game in action after the break.

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Joystiq review: Plants vs. Zombies


Something terrible happened to the Joystiq staff in the spring of 2007. Our desire to work was leeched by some uncanny force, some primordial vacuum of journalistic motivation. These sapping energies could be easily identified by scanning our browser history -- there, a repeated phrase, a moniker for our destitution: Desktop Tower Defense, Desktop Tower Defense, Desktop Tower Defense, Google, Desktop Tower Defense -- and so on, et cetera.

Two years (and a hundred thousand Pellet Towers) later, our thirsts had been quenched, and our diligence restored. Then, on May 5, the minds at PopCap gave birth to a new source of blogger work ethic poison -- as is their nefarious custom -- titled Plants vs. Zombies. Yes, those monsters combined our two biggest interests (the undead and household horticulture), and wrapped the whole package up in a neat Tower Defense crust, which they then sprinkled with humor, and roasted until brilliant.

Also, there's probably some crack (or equally addictive narcotic) in there as well.

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Midnight movie: Plants vs. Zombies, the music video

In the battle to determine which is more bizarre -- a game about plants battling zombies or a music video about a game where plants battle zombies -- the latter has prevailed. Ladies and gentlemen, for tonight's bedtime snack we present Plants vs. Zombies: The Music Video, based on PopCap's upcoming (and if you hadn't guessed, totally weird) tower defense game for PC ... Plants vs. Zombies.

What's your favorite part? The zombies with butter on their heads? The zombie dolphins? The whole mad thing? It takes a company like PopCap -- purveyors of unicorn-infused digital crack like Peggle -- to invent something that just has to be an April Fools' joke but, we swear, totally isn't.

Brace yourself, then click through after the break for animated insanity.

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Comet Crash hits PSN tomorrow for $9.99

Tomorrow's Spring Fever game is Comet Crash. And guess what? It's yet another tower defense game. Debuting on the PlayStation Network tomorrow, the game will feature 28 stages, and two multiplayer modes: a 3-player co-op mode and a 4-player offline battle mode. Not only will the title feature 1080p visuals, but you'll be able to play your own music thanks to its XMB music support.

The PlayStation.Blog has more details on the upcoming game, but for now you can watch the trailer. We know there are many that are hankering for some more tower defense, but we feel like this might be too soon after Savage Moon. Check it out tomorrow for $9.99.

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