App Classic: The Creeps! [App Store]

This series of articles intends to look at the games that every iPhone should have installed, it intends to help dedicated iPhone gamers find those hidden gems in the App Store, through the plethora a games released each day into our lives. The App Store regulations have changed in that updated apps will no longer be listed at the top of the release date chart; meaning that we can only see the best selling games and the most recent.

What Make an App Classic

To be considered for these articles a game must meet at least some of these guiding points;

• Be at least 6 months since the games first release – this is a must!
• Be a constant top seller and stood the test of time
• Change the genre of games they belong to
• Have constant high ratings
• Be a great game! – even if it was largely overlooked

The Creeps

Tower Defence games have been a huge success on the iPhone, but the market for has become saturated with developers hoping to cash in. There are three TD games that we can consider classics in The Creeps, Geodefense and Fieldrunners (which will be featured soon), they have stood the test of time and deserve to be played, bringing us back for more, just to beat a level on hard or beat a high score.

The Creeps is special in so many ways, created by a part-time developer it differs to almost every over TD game, from the graphics, level design and even the format of play. Released almost a year ago in December 2008 and even with infrequent updates and the lack of promised new levels (which are still in production), gamers still rate The Creeps highly in the App Store, and is almost always the top selling game on the AGON social network platform.

The Graphics

It’s unusual to start a review with the graphics, but its one of the aspects of The Creeps that makes it a classic. Given the format of TD games, they are usually set in war zones from differing periods from sci-fi (Sential) to the medieval (Defender Chronicles). The Creeps is set in  maps with you trying to stop the monsters getting to a sleeping child Monsters Inc. stlye . The Graphics are of a cute cartoon form, with a whole variety of monsters in all shapes and sizes.

The Maps have been well designed, with a set path for the monsters to travel through, but further from this The Creeps makes  most of the map destroyable,  from stones and trees through to carved faces, gaining extra points to upgrade you weapons, which are also designed as if a child was playing with boomerangs instead of the traditional arrows and torches in place of laser beams.

Gameplay

The Creeps so far contains 30 levels over three different types of mission, each with three difficulty modes, creating a total of 90 levels to complete. Each level perfectly completed will gain a gold star (and who doesn’t want a gold star!), but there are also several other level achievements to earn, from killing all the enemies, destroying all the terrain or even not selling any weapons, meaning there is a lot to so in The Creeps.

It has often been criticised for being too easy by reviewers, although The Creeps is designed to look childlike it by no means plays so, with the hard levels actually being quite difficult and requiring some thought process and tactical decisions. Where you place weapons and what bits of terrain you need to clear first actually do count towards how the game plays out. Although differently designed all the basic weapon elements exist from short range shooters  to beams and a form of glue to slow the monsters down. An added element to the game is the use of special weapons, which are only available on some levels and can only be used once every 10 waves, creating a need to plan their use. The addition of a Piggy Bank, which earns coins for each wave you face is different from a lot of games and allows you to save up for those later levels when you will need the extra cash the most!

 The 3 different modes of game help to keep the player interested and add new dimensions to the standard TD game. Survival is the main game format, in which you must face a set number of waves in order to win, usually facing a boss at the end, or in some levels several bosses. In most cases the boss monsters can be beaten with the use of special weapons but these are not always of use and so it is vital to keep you weapons upgraded as much as possible (each weapons has three upgrade modes available). Endurance is similar to survival apart from there are no set limit of waves and the game will continue until all your lives are lost, with AGON achievements providing a reason to play with awards for lasting 100, 200 and 300 waves of attack. Door Buster is a version of TD is not prevalent in games but just seems to work with the Creeps, the aim is to destroy the door the monsters come out, the map is full of destroyable objects which in order to gain the gold star, must be removed before winning,  in a further variation you start with points rather than earn them and must win before your points reach 0.

Crossover

The Creeps can appeal to casual gamers as well as hardcore gamers, its cute graphics can draw in even the most casual of gamer to own and iPhone along with children and pure gamers interested in TD games who are willing to put the time in required to gain all the stars and achievements. One of the key features of The Creeps that has drawn in gamers however is its crossover with other games, characters from both Doodle Jump and Pocket God have made an appearance.

AGON

The inclusion of AGON online leader boards and achievements help to make the game even more playable and addictive than it already is. The leader boards are highly competitive with over 5000 scores on the overall leader board of Survival, the only other AGON game even comparable is QuizQuizQuiz. Unlike any other game I have played many of the achievements are secret, leaving you coming back time and time again to try and unlock them (or you could just check out our article :D)

 The Creeps is a classic iPhone game; the amount of work the developer has put into his product and still only charges 59p is amazing. It challenges the genre its in and even a year after release still stands out in a very large crowd, let your inner child out, add to it a bit of gaming will and enjoy!