22. Anomaly: Warzone Earth
Release date: August 11, 2011
Developer: 11 bit studios
Publisher: Chillingo
Given how big tower defense was in the formative years of mobile gaming, it’s hard to find an example of the genre among the most highly regarded iOS games of all time. Why that’s the case is a topic for another time, but Anomaly: Warzone Earth is almost one — just not quite.
That’s because the game throws the genre up in the air and flips it by 180 degrees. This is tower offense, as you strike back against Earth’s alien invaders by putting together a convoy of vehicles that can defeat their entrenched defenses. Sometimes you can get a lot of innovation by just a simple adjustment in game design, and you’ll find that in practice here.
At least for yours truly, it’s a more compelling exercise than tower defense anyway, speaking to some kind of primal urge we have to play offense over defense (except for J.J. Watt, of course). Warzone Earth is like the RTS classics of days gone by, except without having to worry about gathering resources or having the enemy attack you while you’re launching your foolproof assault plan.
Simpler too, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing in an iOS game. This Anomaly also released several months prior on PC, but touchscreens allowed it to shine the brightest.
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