I still remember that summer, I hid in bed, secretly turned on the backlight of the GBA, and played a pirated cassette called "Plants vs. Zombies". The tower defense screen at that time was so small that the pixels were visible to the naked eye, but every step had to be carefully calculated. If you misplaced a sunflower, you might lose everything. The pure strategic pleasure makes people feel hot just thinking about it now.
I saw this "You Tang Tian Xia" today. I originally thought it was a mobile game that was sold for money on the market, but after trying it for a few times, I actually got the soul of the classic tower defense back. To be honest, as soon as the 3D picture came out, my youth was a little confused - the gray screen of the handheld computer back then, how could I have imagined that such a dazzling light effect can be produced on mobile phones now? But if you play it carefully, you will find that the core still has the same flavor.
What impresses me most is its hero matching system. Five races, five attributes, and positioning and formations must also be considered. Isn't this what we were thinking about when we played "Final Fantasy Tower Defense" on the NDS? At that time, in order to get a racial bonus, I could stay up all night looking at the strategy. Now "You Tang Tian Xia" has incorporated the mutual interdependence of the five elements. Although automatic combat is worry-free, if you really want to fight difficult levels, you still have to manually adjust the formation. This kind of design of "sweeping if you are too lazy to use your brain, and doing it with your hands if you want to abuse" is simply tailor-made for us old guys.
But it's also a bit of a pity. When playing GBA back then, every game required hard-core instant reactions, and both hand speed and brainpower were indispensable. Now "You Tang Tian Xia" has added automatic combat. Although the fragmented time is taken care of, the tension of holding your breath and staring at the waves of enemies seems to be diluted a little. Also, back then everyone played tower defense solo, but now you can compete online and even play in teams to play dungeons. This was something I could never have dreamed of at that time - I once imagined how great it would be to be able to defend the same position with my deskmate, and now it has really come true.
In short, if you also miss those tower defense times hidden under the desk or under the quilt, you might as well give "You Tang Tian Xia" a try. It didn't lose the skeleton of the classic strategy, it just put on a new 3D suit. And I found the boy with the handheld device and the light in his eyes on the screen of my mobile phone. 😭🎮