PixelJunk™ Monsters Ultimate Be the Tower Yourself

Most tower defense games let you click towers into place from above. Here you play Tikiman himself, running around the map on foot. Walk up to a tree and it becomes a tower. Stand under a tower and stomp until it grows stronger. Coins drop from defeated monsters, but they vanish if you do not scoop them up in time, so every wave is a juggling act: build here, upgrade there, grab that money before it disappears. It sounds simple, and the first few levels are. Then the hordes get clever and the multitasking gets real.

You start with the basics: arrow towers that shoot far, cannon towers that hit groups, anti-air towers for anything with wings. Gems dropped by enemies unlock the heavier stuff, like tesla, laser and fire towers, and can also fast-track an upgrade when a wave is bearing down and you cannot wait. Gems are precious, so spending them on a quick fix means one less unlock later. Each tower upgrades in its own way, which shapes where you put it and what it is for. Choosing the right tower for the right spot is the whole game.

Tikiman defends his little ones across three islands with 47 environments, where monsters attack by land and air and every level asks for a different layout. Beyond that sits Tum-Tum island, which randomly generates levels, so no two runs play out the same. There are extra challenges to chase, online leaderboards to compare with friends and the rest of the world, and unlockables like concept art and soundtracks. Perfect scores unlock more levels, and chasing them is where the real difficulty lives. The soundtrack carries it all and is genuinely good.