Scribble Defense presents some great twists into the Tower Defense genre, and is a very addictive and playable game.
As most folks are likely aware, Tower Defense games all utilize one simple gameplay element: there is a path from a source-point where enemies emerge through a variety of turns, to an end-point base, which typically contains civilians you must protect. While each TD game provides twists on that format, the TD genre is saturated by this mechanic which also provides the addiction that comes from these sorts of strategy games. Scribble Defense, first of all, covers the bases quite well: for each level you'll have a variety of different towers available (slow enemies down, snipe from afar, burn them, pull or push the line of travel etc) to eliminate the enemies before they totally wipe you out. While there's no story per se (other than defending the Scribbles from the invading Scrawls) there are 3 modes of difficulty, wherein each level is appropriately easy, medium, or hard. The ramp-up in difficulty is, therefore, done quite well, and gives a sense of satisfaction to completing the game. Also, clicking through available towers and placing them has never been easier, and frees you up to play fluidly (which you'll need to) instead of fumbling through menus. Furthermore, the visualization of the towers and enemies are all quite serviceable, so you'll be able to distinguish what's happening in a glance. On top of that, the musical score is perfect! Ambient, a little weird, and very sci-fi, it fits the game right on.
Scribble Defense also modifies the TD field in a couple of ways. The most noticeable is that the path(s) traveled are not static. You'll find plenty of levels where the paths move about the screen, and you'll have towers available in many maps which can further alter the path to your (strategic) advantage. It's a gameplay twist I hadn't seen elsewhere, and Scribble Defense uses it quite well. Secondly, despite the lack of narrative, Scribble Defense provides replayability for the performance-driven player by grading each match according to a) the amount of money you have left over (which is earned from killing enemies, and used to buy towers), b) the number of civilians left unharmed, which are rolled into a final grade. So if you want to go back and retry previous levels to master them, there's some incentive to do so. Also, each level allows only a certain set of towers at your disposal; while in some games this is a significant drawback for me, in S.D. it works quite well since you'll always have enough towers on hand to do your work, and it definitely plays well as strategic.
While Scribble Defense doesn't have much of a downside, I would like to note the general lack of a campaign mode narrative. While I do think that S.D. is a solid enough game to warrant some time investment, especially at 80 MS points, it does feel a little on the "shallow" end if you're used to having more context for your play. Do i think this is an essential flaw? No. Do I think that it would've helped to elevate the game? Absolutely. Also, you don't have a good sense (other than through lots of trial and error) which towers affect which Scrawls in what ways. This is especially critical in later very hard stages, which the introduction of newer and more resiliant enemies, where you'll feel like you're fumbling around since you don't know how to proceed best. Some sort of Scrawl encyclopedia where you identified enemies and then, based on which towers you used, recorded the effects would be great, and would give you the necessary information to proceed. As is, it's just a lot of messing around trying to figure that stuff out.
Bottom line, Scribble Defense is a very solid Tower Defense game, with enough twists on the well-worn medium to elicit some feeling in those arthritic limbs.
Rating 8.5/10