To be honest, as an old player who has played in the Saipan era, when I saw the name Kingdom Defense 4, I felt a little emotional. 😄 I remember playing the Java tower defense game on the Nokia N95. It was a grid-by-frame layout on the small screen. Enemies popped up from the edge of the screen, and you poked your finger on the direction keys to control the troops. I miss it now when I think about it.
In the tower defense genre, after so many years, there are not many classics that people can really remember. Plants vs. Zombies counts as one, Defense Formation counts as one, and then there is Ironhide Studio's Kingdom Rush series on the mobile game platform. Not to brag, this series is considered to be at the ceiling level in mobile tower defense, and its operation, balance, and easter egg design are quite mature.
This time, Kingdom Defense 4 changed the perspective to the villain Lord Wiznan. To be honest, I was stunned for a moment when I first heard about this setting. The righteous heroes in the previous game are gradually declining, and the story direction is indeed a bit reversed. However, after playing it, I found that this villain's perspective makes the plot a little more fresh. It is no longer the old-fashioned "saving the world", but "overthrowing the incompetent ruler". The pattern is a bit interesting.
The gameplay of the game itself is still the same, with the traditional tower defense mechanism of building towers, upgrading, and using skills, but the newly added types of defense towers and hero skills bring the strategic depth to a new level. The picture quality is much more refined than the previous game. The details of the movements of the soldiers on the battlefield and the special effects of their skills are quite good, and the immersion is indeed strong. Moreover, the zero-yuan party can also play quite comfortably, and there is no forced krypton gold routine, which is rare in the current mobile game environment.
Speaking of nostalgia, I actually recently picked it up and played Kingdom Defense 1 again, and the pixel quality is still pleasing to the eye. The category of tower defense may indeed not be as popular as Chicken Fighting and MOBA today, but the sense of accomplishment of laying out the game step by step and watching the enemy being disintegrated layer by layer is difficult to replace with other types of games. Kingdom Defense 4 can retain this essence and add new materials. As a veteran player, I am very pleased.
If you are a tower defense fan, or just interested in this type of strategy game, I really recommend giving it a try. Open the game, make a cup of tea, and slowly study the combination of towers and hero selection. The afternoon passes in a flash. 😌