Cubed3:
It's fair to say that tower defence as a sub-genre is a fairly recent descendant of the real-time strategy genus, with humble origins that have evolved from Adobe Flash powered games lightweight enough to be played in an Internet browser. Digging a bit deeper, though, reveals that certain key elements of the genre have been in existence for some time, with the earliest prototype dating as far back as Atari's 1990 coin-op 'Rampart,' which involved defending a castle from an invading armada by maintaining a number of working cannons in set locations. A quarter of a century on and even big name franchises as diverse as Assassin's Creed and Gears of War have incorporated a tower defence component to augment what would be considered by some to be the very antithesis of a real-time strategy game. As if that wasn't unseemly enough, Plants vs. Zombies, the poster child for mainstream tower defence, has recently dipped its toe in the team-based shooter arena, with the excellent Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare. However, for all the purists out there still wanting an undiluted shot of tower defence, it doesn't come any more straight edge than the Defense Grid series.
The Nerd Stash: "Everyone loves setting up killzones and laying waste to waves of enemies, so here are our picks for the best tower defense games ever."
It's also free to try on the mobile headset and Oculus Rift.
Tower defence games have become incredibly popular on iOS and Android devices over the last few years but they are also incredibly fun to play on your PC.
