Developer: Ironhide
http://www.ironhidegames.com/?ref=KRUSH
Sponsor(s): Armor Games
http://armorgames.com/play/12141/kingdom-rush
4/5 Towers (Very Good)Criteria
Style (5/5) : Medieval, traditional non-path finding 'creeps', linear campaign.
Waves (5/5) : Very well-paced, the game can be paused but not halted, and waves can be sent on ahead of time for a monetary bonus. This is by far Kingdom Rush's greatest selling point. There isn't a moment's waste clicking on patches of grass while you bunker down until the next wave. The waves are short and tactful with only a few wave rushes when fighting against boss waves (this can stretch on a bit as the wave multiplies itself).
Graphics (4/5) : Great, humorous style.
Sound (5/5) : Excellent peon voice acting with endless one-liners. Explosions and arrow firing and "aargh" sounds are funny and realistic.
Music (3/5) : A nice melodic tune for the interface, but in-game music doesn't match the game's mood of war and struggle and quickly fades to background noise.
Difficulty (4/5) : Can be quite challenging, with difficulties ranging between easy, normal and the challenging 'Heroic' and 'Iron' modes.
Ingenuity (3/5) : It treats the genre well. The rally point for solidiers- your own mini anti-creeps is a nice touch to a tower-based game. A comely daughter of the Tower Defense genre, with nothing particularly interesting about her except her sense of humor.
Screen Size (4/5) : Adequate. Resolution begin enough to see my units and the stats on the bottom of the screen. Drop-down menu for tower upgrades had me squinting and homing in on my laptop like a bird of prey.
Replayabilty (2/5) : For players of normal difficulty, the game quickly progresses from a gentle pace to extremely difficult, so achieving perfect score and upgrading your stats early on are key to both enjoying and finishing this game. However, no endless survival modes or flexible campaign limit this game to just a couple dozen hours of gameplay.
Bugs (5/5) : Even if you fail or restart a mission, I'm pretty sure achievements in-game remain unlocked. You may in fact win the game, but if you replayed any of the missions. Your a false achiever. This is a common 'bug' perhaps deliberate in many TD games. One achievement called "Indecisive" is unlocked when you sell 5 towers in one level. You probably didn't win that level if you achieved indecisiveness.
TD Rating (4/5) : Funny, Well-made; albeit too short but still quite challenging. I give this game an "A-".
Series : The first and only of its kind, but the game's success will probably bring about a sequel.
Kingdom Rush is a cartoony medieval-styled strategy game with all the basic mechanics of a tower defense in place and well used to entertain and addict anyone who wants to "Come get some!" The interface is nice and clean, with just one in-game ad that once you get past will no longer bother you.
The constant map-per-level change and humorous characters alone make this game worthy of attention. It handles the Tower Defense genre in such a charming way while still serving up a decent platter of difficulty and new challenges for enthusiasts. The star rewards for completing a mission also pushes beginners to challenge themselves and aim to complete every aspect of this relatively short game. A healthy reward system is in place for the war hungry TD veterans. 
Some of my favorite catch-phrases include references to Elvis & Harry Potter and I'm sure there are some Duke Nukem one-liners tossed in the lot somewhere:"Come and get some!"
"Hail to the King baby!"
"I see dead people."
"Avadra Kedavra!"
The skinny storyline serves to build a short 'explanation' as to why you are being attacked and what kind of base you have been given charge of. The horid brigands or evil outlaws simply seek to overwhelm the kingdom. They don't seem to have any particular reason for wanting to do so.
The first few missions/maps are non-campaign, the 'campaign' adds nothing to the storyline and continues the linear missions. While its obviously a short game, with not much more than 10 or 15 hours gameplay, it offers some replayability- in fact it forces you to play each map carefully and win the most stars because you upgrade your stats with those reward stars and unfortunately, with lower stats, the game becomes very difficult to win, let alone unlocking the challenge modes for each level as the 'campaign' progresses alongside game difficulty.
What they did right...
A well executed game with good humor and a slick design. The developers clearly take flash game development very seriously and know their genre well. Colorful and helpful in-game tips that don't interrupt or obscure the level. Something other TD games that force you to continuously upgrade your towers could learn from. However, the drop-down menu for upgrades does slow the pace of the game. One of my favorite elements of Kingdom Rush is that instead of introducing new towers for each level they increased the tower ability variations, leaving the map uncluttered and your mind free to micro-manage each tower. You will never likely have more than fifteen towers on the map. If you do, your doing something wrong!
What they did wrong...
While Kingdom Rush did have many clever tricks such as extra units or towers leftover from a previous invasion that offer a wider variety of tactics to use for the level's map, (my favorite is hulking the yeti who is frozen behind his cave at the start of the level- hint: a little fire will set him free!) Towers have a limited number of upgrades and the initial balance in the game is offset by preferences to each map i.e. for every new map a special upgrade is unlocked. If you don't use that upgrade for the specific tower e.g. Marksman for the archer tower, a small horde is likely to overwhelm you in the first few waves. A minor design flaw that is actually very real to the player. Even with the upgrades to stats, the game feels like its on a linear journey and there's really only one way to finish each level, most pronounced as you progress further along the more difficult levels. The storyline was a ghost: materializing moments before a mission, contributing little to the game and disappearing the moment the waves begin.
Game Tips
This game really requires you to be a perfectionist to advance to the very highest levels on normal difficulty. Achieving stars for each level act as 'Experience Points' that can be used to upgrade tower and unit stats essential for later maps, where the creeps are decidedly stronger and the strategies to win more difficult to execute. Better to win every star by unlocking and completing challenge modes early on to prevent endless repeats of the much more difficult missions later on. Resetting the 'Experience Point' distribution panel enables you to allocate experience points for a different tactical focus in-game. You can choose to upgrade your Militia, Mage towers or even your furious meteor shower ability in whatever way suits your style of play or the mission's unique strategy. A strategy guide is available
This game is sponsored but not exclusive to Armor Games flash game site, and you can find it in the Tower Defense category of most free flash game portals. If you do choose to sign up with Armor Games (free reg), you can play your saved game on any browser. There are probably other sites that offer this same service; feel free to list them in the comments section.
http://armorgames.com/
Armor games also rates Kingdom Rush with a 9.6/10- an impressive score, I feel is more entitled then earned. For serious strategy TD game enthusiasts this game might serve as mildy entertaining but lacking in serious replayabilty. But for the sampler, this is a good medieval dish and the humorous strategic dash to complete each level will leave you breathless and happy- astride your keyboard of course!
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