Spoids (XBLIG): "Low-Budget Tower Defense With A High-Budget Quality"

Reviews have really picked up for me in the past month. I have gotten several requests from various XBLIG developers, and it has been quite a nice surprise. I'm sincerely honored to get such requests, because my website was made as successful as it is today due to the fact that a couple of indie game developers gave me the chance to prove myself. 'AirWave Games' was among the developers that recently contacted me. While they weren't the ones who made "OtakuDante's Gaming Inferno" possible, they are just as important to me. Initially I knew nothing about 'AirWave Games', or their indie game called 'Spoids'. I'm definitely glad I got the chance to review their game though. It's not often that I get to review an XBLIG title that does everything right, and presents the game in a near XBLA quality. Hopefully I can express what I experienced during my playthrough without making a mess out of things. There's a lot involve in 'Spoids' which means there's a lot of things I need to cover.

'Spoids' tells the vague yet somewhat involved tale of an intergalactic invasion. The year is 2540, and the invaders are called spoids. They come in a variety of forms (squawks, spinners, bruisers, faders, zoomers, enforcers, rockers, and cruisers), but their intent is all the same. They are determined to wipe out all planetary civilizations in their path. It is up to you, the last line of defense, and your interface guide (Oesti) to thwart these invasions of various planets (Aleon, Poltor, Phyca, Sasuva, Eston, Ceress, Strodar). At your disposal you have some advanced weaponry (radar, homing missiles, beam cannons, volt bolters, heat rays ...). This supply of defense weaponry does come at a price though, and to continually increase your defenses you must defeat wave after wave of incoming spoids. The good news is that spoids will not attack your defenses, but they are very intent on reaching their targets.

The game is designed in a retro fashion with updated graphics. If you have ever played classic tower defense games such as 'Flash Element TD (PC)', or 'even 'Plants vs. Zombies (PC/Xbox 360) then you'll have a clue as to what this game is all about. To explain it better a tower defense game such as 'Spoids' gives you a maze with a starting, and stopping point. It is your job to stop the incoming enemies from reaching the end point by placing defenses along the maze's pathway. In 'Spoids' you are given a mission that is played out in voice-over fashion through the current character's point of view. The character involved tells you what they need to accomplish, and you are given a time limit for each of the three sub-objectives within that mission. You will earn one of four medals (bronze, silver, gold, platinum) according to how well you did.

The various types of spoids will require different weapons in order to effectively eliminate them. You will also need to strategically place each defense unit in a place that will best stop the incoming waves of enemies. 'Spoids' is an unmerciful game that offers the player a true challenge. If you wish to succeed in getting the platinum medal for each mission you will need to pay attention to the interface guide's (Oesti) advice as well as the info that is given about the spoids, and available defenses. I will be honest with you. It took me several playthroughs of each mission before I was able to get my first platinum medal. Going for the gold or even the platinum is definitely a challenge of hardcore proportions.

The characters (T. Reinor, Rann, Lukim, Mosper, Belsath, Riskal, Nyrak) involved in this game all have their own unique personalities, and voice-overs. Some of the characters you work for sound as if they were and army general while others sound as if they came from Star Trek. I definitely liked the wide array of emotions involved with each characters vocal performance. This is one reason I say this game is of high-budget quality. Even the interface guide's (Oesti) voice is well done, and in a way sort of reminds me of HALO's 'Cortana'. I could tell that a lot went into making both the soundtrack, and dialogue composition of 'Spoids'.

In case you are worried about the controls they were kept to a bare minimal. This is definitely a good thing considering a lot of your time will be spent focusing on defenses, and the incoming waves of spoids. What you control within 'Spoids' is basically a cursor that can be moved around the maze area, and can be used to place (A)/recycle (B) defenses along the grid marked walls. As you make it further into the game you will encounter a certain type of enemies that will require attention to flight paths. Tracking flight paths can be done by holding down (LT). You can even control the speed of the game if you feel things are moving too slowly by pressing the (RT). That's basically it when it comes to controls, but in case I did leave something out the game does an excellent job of explaining things for you via the training mission.

In conclusion 'Spoids' is a game that's definitely worth having. If you're into retro games like I am then you'll love what 'AirWave Games' has done for the classic tower defense genre. I mentioned at the beginning of this review that the game had a high-budget quality (near XBLA), and it does. Not many XBLIG companies can design a game as close to perfect as I found this one to be. The audio in the game was truly brilliant, the music soundtrack was amazing, the visuals were of next-gen quality and the gameplay (as challenging as it was) was fun. 'AirWave Games' did it right all the way with 'Spoids'. There's not much else I can say. If you haven't got this game yet I strongly suggest you do so!