CastleStorm

For a company so well known for it’s console-spanning pinball franchise, Castlestorm is as beautiful and precise as any one of their fantastic tables.

More than just the typical tower defense game, CastleStorm packs a thunder and lighting one-two punch with a stellar single-player campaign that has plenty of strategy and old-school hack & slashing along with a solid online mode when it's time to test the tower defending mettle against human adversaries.

It's warm, frequently funny, and stylish. It's extremely good value at 800MP. It's just hard enough to keep you biting. And most of all, it's just bloody great.

It’s Angry Birds meets tower defense meets beat ‘em up meets crack cocaine levels of addictiveness in a hodgepodge amalgamation of stuff that absolutely should not work as well as it does.

Vikings replace the pigs in this Angry Birds inspired tower defense mash-up.

Many of CastleStorm’s mechanics have been seen in other games, but Zen Studios blends them all together to create something fresh: a strategy title with a lot of real-time combat elements and a goofy charm.

A funny, entertaining, and deeply satisfying experience well worth the $10 price. Zen Studios has proved that it has more to offer than pinball, and gamers who enjoy building and destroying in equal measure owe it to themselves to check it out.

A deep and intriguing cross between tower defense RTS and the popular Angry Birds formula. A new classic for XBLA.

Simple, compelling and really hard to put down. [Issue#100, p.87]

Mix of genres and mechanics difficult to categorize, CastleStorm is proposed as one of the most interesting Xbox Live Arcade of the moment.

A quick paced tower defense game that tries to turn the tables to offer something new to the the genre. A steal at 800 ms points.

It came as a surprise, and we actually enjoyed it. For 800 MSP you can get a interesting mix of hack & slash and Angry Birds that will stay on your console for a while.

CastleStorm represents the best of its muses’ ideals – namely those belonging to the tower defense genre and Angry Birds – and fuses them into something specially made and distinctly enjoyable. Minor quirks don’t leave a damaging impression, either, which can’t be said for every joyously destroyed playhouse castle you’ll come into contact with along the way.

CastleStorm draws from a seemingly unmanageable array of inspirations including real-time strategy, tower defense, and Angry Birds, and does so with remarkable virtuosity and humor.

A great mix of action, strategy, and endearing silliness – and also a great reminder that there are some games only download services like Xbox Live Arcade can provide.

CastleStorm offers plenty of tactical elements to please fans of the tower-defense genre, yet it also provides plenty of twitch-reflex action to keep players on their toes.

The occasional control issues are regrettable but hardly insurmountable, and the blend of offensive and defensive objectives and the competitive play are sufficient reasons to overlook that minor flaw as you happily commit yourself to the task of ruining the marauding Vikings' day.

CastleStorm steals elements from a bunch of games and turns it into a fun whole. The charming style and many options to attack of defend with your castle make this a fun trip to the middle-ages.

Despite the inane story, Castlestorm's well-balanced systems and mechanics make for an enjoyable — and memorable — twist on genres.

CastleStorm is proof that ZEN Studios can do more than exciting Pinball games. The amount of fun you can have here largely outweighs the minor gripes and annoyances you will come across while playing.

Between managing your troops, attacking with the ballista, and choosing when to cast spells or send in your champion, there's a lot of challenge present.

In the end CastleStorm is a great little game that is worth the asking price if it’s a genre that you’re interested in.

CastleStorm's unusual mix of elements never quite congeals into anything too brain-taxing. But hurling bombs at buildings and flinging pointy sticks at barbarians is bound to get your blood pumping for a little while. [July 2013, p.76]

Castlestorm is a fun game which mixes Angry Birds with a Tower Defense game. The big downside of the game is the time consuming adjustments you constantly have to make to your castle, but next to that it's all good fun.

An entertaining and well-thought-out game, adding interesting new elements to the famous Angry Birds formula.

Castlestorm mixes action and strategy in a tower defense game reminiscent of both roleplaying games, Warcraft and Angry Birds. It’s a mix that is sometimes messy, oftentimes fun and with unexpected amounts of depth and variety in its mechanics.

Its colourful presentation and various nods to other fantasy realms is a rather entertaining, if not limited, method of giving these usually pretty one-dimensional games a bit of much needed character. However, the control scheme is incredibly frustrating, particularly trying to aim the ballista with precision and accuracy and could turn the tides of war just enough to turn a few armchair generals off the game completely.

A nice mix of a handful different genres, where tower defense and Angry Birds are the most prominent ingredients. As you can probably imagine, the use of so many game mechanics at the same time can get too messy from time to time. The game is still worth checking out, though.

The gaming equivalent of a robust, salty and fatty Sunday afternoon hangover meal. It may not be rich on fiber, but it’ll get right on your sides and stay there for quite a while. Be warned, it’s highly addictive.