The lords and ladies of Arcturia have had it far too good for far too long, with their fancy castles and fancy clothes. It's time to bring in a medieval siege weapon and do some crushing.
The App Store on iTunes is packed with physics-based games that have you tossing, flicking and shooting one object at another. They've never really been my thing. But when you introduce a trebuchet into the mix, then you have my attention.
In Crush the Castle the object of the game is to tear down the castles of the kingdom and pulverize the people inside in as few shots as possible.
Don't know what a trebuchet is? Than you better read this review of Crush the Castle.
Loved
Concept: In Crush the Castle you tap the medieval siege weapon once to drop the counter weight of the trebuchet, swinging a lever and the sling affixed to it in a forward arc. A second tap on the screen releases the payload, catapulting it across the screen and, hopefully, into the castle. The object is to kill all of the castle's inhabitants from serfs and knights to the king and queen. Using the sling device to launch your attack is oddly satisfying and surprisingly hard to master.
Ammo and Building Diversity: The game starts off by giving you a standard rock to take down a standard castle with. But as you make you way through the lands of Crush the Castle you get access to bigger rocks, the ability to toss three at a time, explosives and even flasks of flaming liquid. The castle building materials change over time too. There's stone, wood that can be burned with the flaming liquid and walls reinforced with metal. The end result are castles that have to be carefully picked apart or burned down until you can get to the population cowering inside.
Hated
Incomplete Castle Editor: It was a good idea to add the ability to create your own castles and populate them. But the editor mode is missing quite a bit of substance. There's no way to share your creations. You can plop your castles down into a map, instead you have to play them by testing what you've built. And the process of placing and manipulating the pieces of your fortress is, at best, painful.
I've grown quite fond of Crush the Caste. I managed to storm my way through the five regions of Arcturia, destroying the 50 castles, in short order. That unlocked Skull Island, which is a much more difficult, but also more enjoyable experience.
At $2, if you're a fan of medieval siege weapons or physics games, you should probably pick up Crush the Castle. That probably would turn into a definite if the developers were to fix the editing option and maybe add a multiplayer capability. I'd love to exchange trebuchet fire with my son over two devices.
Crush the Castle was developed and published by Armor Games for the iPhone and iPod Touch on Jan. 19. Retails for $1.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played through both maps and created a few of my own castles to crush.
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