Game Review: Mote-M, First Tower Defence for iPhone/iPod Touch!

by Adam Yan on August 12, 2008 at 9:45 pm

A lot of us have been waiting for a tower defense for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Our wish has finally been granted by an individual developer called GXJONES when they released Mote-M into the App Store for $0.99. Mote-M is short for Mote Massacre which is the newest Tower Defense game out.

For those of you who don’t know what the flip a Tower Defense game is then you should be scolded. Tower Defense is a simple, addictive game where enemies (or in Mote-M’s case, “motes”) try to get from one side of the board to the other. Your goal is to stop them by strategically placing towers that shoot the enemies as they cross the board. Placing towers is the most essential part of the game and should be placed intelligently. Enemies come in waves which get harder as you progress. You continue this trend until you lose by letting enough enemies get past your towers and drain your life.

Mote-M allows you to build three types of towers: physical, ice, and fire towers. Each tower has their pros and cons. You can upgrade your towers up to level 4 which makes them stronger. But currently, you’re only allowed to upgrade your physical towers to tier 2, which makes them temporarily block the field.

There’s only one mode which is normal gameplay, so no extended modes for now, but the game also has local highscores and the ability to save your game upon exit if you press the home button or answer a call (state saving); you can continue where you last played.

The game is pretty simple to use. You select the spot you want to build a tower then a pop up will show you the tower you can build/upgrade. You can also upgrade existing towers to make them stronger.

Though we’ve awaited this game for ages it still has some flaws. First of all, it’s a tad bland. The motes look like little gears and your perspective is a birds eye view, so you won’t be able to see the depth of a tower or anything; the graphics could use some help. Also, the field cannot get bigger (at least to the length I’ve tested it), and if you get past the high waves with the best strategy and the motes just barely hit your life meter, then basically game’s over. I believe a bigger map with zooming features would make the game more enjoyable and lengthy. Some users might also experience that the point that they touch to build a tower isn’t exact if your fingers are big.

So far, Mote-M has lived up to its purpose; a Tower Defence game. But it surely doesn’t exceed it. If this game wants to be more successful it better start fixing some graphics, adding more gameplay modes and adding in bigger fields. But, overall it’s the first day of release for Mode-M and it’s pretty decent quality and control. More content is confirmed in a forthcoming update, but until then, I give Mote-M a 7 out of 10 score for its great concept, semi-intuitive gameplay, some implemented features and addictive gameplay, but it could’ve been better with more gameplay modes, better graphics and more interesting or bigger fields to play on.

You can find more about Mote-M direct from iTunes or at GXJones, the developers site.

Click the thumbnails to enlarge the images.