Towerix91 is a short, yet fun incremental Tower Defense game. As noted by the dev, it is inspired by PC games from the 80’s-90’s - giving it a notably unique look for modern games. There are 10 different areas, or as the game calls then, sectors - with each becoming harder than the last. As you play you will also collect gems to do multiple things like increase the damage of your towers, and unlock new abilities.
The gameplay is nothing crazy or overly complicated. There are 5 different towers you can place on specific map points, with the tower type only being limited by gold. The later the round - the more money you receive. Enemies will also constantly drop different gems as they die. There are seven different gems and each tower needs a specific combination of them. The amount and how to obtain are under the “R&D Upgrades tab” where you can also convert gems into other types. This is something I had to do often for rubies and sapphires, since in the later sectors they don’t seem to drop much. Yet there is an abundance of emeralds to easily trade them for.
Each of the five towers have their own specialty. Knight has large range and general attacks, with good damage. Berserker has attacks that hit rapidly with good damage, but in turn suffers a short range. Magic shoots out lightning that can chain to enemies. Frost slows enemies, and in later upgrades can freeze the map to slow the whole wave. Inferno leaves a fire AOE on the ground, dealing damage to all who pass by.
The best early towers to me were Knight and Berserker. But as you start to unlock the permanent upgrades I would suggest getting a lot of use out of the others, especially Inferno - that tower is very strong later. I was getting to round 50+ on late sectors with those carrying. I’m pretty sure all of my late/long runs purely ended from choice, since I felt like I was so strong it would never end. In a typical TD I would probably recommend nerfing some of these towers and their abilities. For example, there is one ability that gives the enemy an 8% chance to teleport back to the start. Once you clear a wave of the smaller enemies, the elites are impossible to fail as they just teleport back and are guaranteed kills. But incremental games usually want to make the game become trivial for the player, so it is not really a complaint to be made. Although I do think some of the skills are a little *too* strong. But I am also someone who has played a ton of incremental games, therefore I have spent a lot of time at the point of “I have nothing to do but watch”, so maybe it’s just me being picky.
Based on the above, if you ever struggle, genuinely just start farming and focusing on upgrades. If you struggle early it may be best to prioritize something like the Knight since they are the cheapest and you can always start with two of them. If you struggle in the later waves, I’d recommend both Inferno and Frost together and focusing on their upgrades. But do use a range of towers! I always make sure I have at least one of each since they all have strength in different departments. You can also temporarily upgrade towers with gold, but also gems relevant to the towers colour. Ruby for Knight, emerald for Berserker, etc. Gold has 3 upgrade levels, with gems having two. You can make the towers do several different things with gem upgrades. Those are buffs like more power (strength), more gold drop on kill, or higher gem chance on kill. Enemies also have a chance to drop chests which can contain stuff like gold or tower upgrades, or if unlucky - can destroy your tower. Each chest rarity shows the chance of failure before you roll, and you can choose to skip opening a chest if you’re unsure.
For an incremental game, I found Towerix91 fun and refreshing enough to recommend. It’s very easy for a genre to become repetitive and a lot of the same but I feel this one has done enough to stand out. I can’t say I’m familiar with TD incremental games, after all. The only other complaint I could make is once again, justified by the game’s genre. I wish there was more, that the game was longer and there was more to do since it really is fun. But then you would have to start stepping away from its roots, maybe adding mechanics, fancy bosses… You would just have to go too far into the TD side, and abandon the incremental part of the game. The game was fun nonetheless. I just want more… MORE!
Overall, Towerix91 is pretty simple and easy to understand. If you like incremental games, especially those that add something unique and fun to the category, I would suggest you put this one on your radar. The start is genuinely a little tricker than expected so it will take you a bit of time learning the tower strengths and weaknesses, as well as making sure you genuinely worry about the permanent upgrades. I hope this game does well, and that the developer might even go more in-depth with this game, or at least a similar idea, in the future. Regardless, this is a solid, fun recommendation.
Otome Lovers wishes to thank [i]MrArcivorum[/i] for providing a free review copy for this game.
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