About Balloons Defence Games
Let's first take a look at the 1st edition that sparked off the great popularity that the balloon defence games have received.
About Balloon Defence 1
Following the huge success of the Bloons and More Bloons flash games this original version of the Tower Defense series was introduced early in Ninja Kiwi's venture. Balloon Defence 1 was developed along the same popular theme of monkeys and popping balloons however it does takes that theme in a and turn it in a new and exciting direction.
In the Tower Defence game there is a fixed winding road for the bloons to flow along and the monkey tower, tack tower, bomb towers, and other destructive items pop the bloons as they travel along the winding road. The initial view one gets as a player is an aerial one of the road traveled by the bloons.
The concept of this game is again quite straightforward to grasp; the bloons come into the road at one end and if not popped they then leave through the exit at the other end. The bloons come in red, blue, green, yellow and black colors and subsequent colors move faster than the previous one in the order listed so blues move faster than reds, greens faster than blues, etc.
Not only are the speeds different in bloons defence 1 but the bloons also have others contained within them, with the exception of the red ones. So a popped blue bloon will have a red one inside it, a popped green bloon with have a blue bloon inside it and that blue one if popped will have a red one inside. The game is played by building towers, and the towers contain common things from the regular bloon games.
There are bombs, pins, which are called tacks in this game, monkeys who shoot darts, and many of the usual items we are used to seeing in other bloons flash games. Each tower has two different upgrades available, so the radius of the throw, the power, and other options are all available as upgrades. You have to get the correct balance of towers and upgrades and position them advantageously.
During the balloon defence game play the player wins points and all of the upgrades, extra towers and other optional items cost points. Weigh your options between upgrades and new towers. The one thing to note in playing the various screens is to position your monkey towers close to the corners of the road. One familiar feature which players of the other versions of games will notice missing is the option to replay the level.
There is a reset button, but that actually restarts the whole game from scratch. The best way to play this game is to invest in four monkey towers as quickly as you can afford them placing them close to the corners as previously discussed. Once you have the four upgrade them as and when you can afford to do so. Next buy three or four tack towers and position those along the straight parts of the path so they don't encroach on your monkey towers.
Always upgrade towers as soon as possible. If you follow this guide in Tower Defender you should find it an interesting and fun flash game to play.
About Bloons Defence 2
As the first offering of the Tower Defense series was so hugely acclaimed almost immediately upon introduction we are now offered Tower Defense 2. Ninja Kiwi have delivered on expectations yet again and produced another 50 levels of fun, excitement, frustration and nerve tugging game play. Many of the well known features and objects return with this version of the "monkey pops balloons" set of flash games.
Balloon defence 2 plays in a similar way to the original Tower Defense however the road layout is different and now features a cross roads. With this version comes the introduction of three difficulty levels, not surprisingly called easy, medium and hard. What is a little unusual in the difficulty level development is that the actual levels played remain unchanged no matter what level you are playing.
In this defence game the differences are in the number of lives you start with and also the price paid for towers and upgrades. The harder the level of difficulty selected the less lives you start off with and the more those valuable additions will cost. New attack features include a spike strip which is quite useful to trap any bloons you missed as they approach the exit.
The bloons colors remain the same as the first version and are red, blue, green, yellow and black colors and subsequent colors move faster than the previous one in the order listed so blues move faster than reds, greens faster than blues etc. Another feature of the bloons retained in Tower Defence 2 are the hidden bloons, so a popped blue bloon will have a red one inside it, a popped green bloon with have a blue bloon inside it and that blue one if popped will have a red one inside.
Beware the black bloons in balloons defense 2, they have what seems to be a huge amount of yellow ones inside and tacks won't pop them all so the trick is to tack the black then get the yellows with a cannon or two. You will also cannons at the crossroads as they are able to fire at both sides of the road. Freeze towers can be useful to help reduce the pace. Overall it appears that cannons, boomerangs, monkeys and tacks are the best weapons to deploy, but that depends on the difficulty levels chosen.
Remember you need to balance the number of lives you have, but more importantly, on the harder levels it is harder to acquire towers and other items quickly as you need to save up your points longer to be able to afford them. One of the old sayings works well for this game, "location, location, location".
Add to that the importance of upgrading as soon as possible but choosing your upgrades carefully is equally important, for example cannon upgrades are almost vital, those which increase range or radius far less so. Once again Ninja Kiwi has delivered the goods as expected, no-one who is a bloons fan will be disappointed, this is yet another well built flash game to provide plenty of fun and excitement.