Checkout the Game Developers Blog for more updatwes!
Sam & Dan Games are working really hard to introduce a lot of new updates into the game. You can find the latest news about Pokemon TD at their official blog here.
Latest
We have just published 6.4.1, try it now!
4.2 update has been completed.
4.1.0 is now available to play online above.
Version 4.0 is released with updates including:
- New Gym Level - Celadon City Gym Game Corner Section in the Pokemon Center
- New Daily Code Prizes
- New Mystery Gift Avatar
Version 3.9 Released with many bug fixes including putting an enemy to sleep or freezing him or making it flinch will make him stop attacking and many moves that shouldn't affect pokemon now don't including Ice types can no longer be frozen, except by Tri Attack.
Version 3.8.1 is released with a series of bug fixes, a camper mystery gift avatar and a new story level.
Update: Version 3.6.1 released with updates as follows:
- Bug Catcher Mystery Gift Avatar
- Shiny Quest Bug Fix
Update: Version 3.5.2 released with updates as follows:
- New Story Level - Rock Tunnel
- Targeting System - Choose from a variety of commands to your pokemon so that he will attack specific targets.
- Three new pokemon to catch - Onix, Voltorb, Machop
- New Shiny Quest - Save the old man in Rock tunnel to get the quest
- Increased Buff Durations
- Increased Shiny rate
- New Mystery Gift Avatar
- Bug Fixes
Update: Version 3.4 of Pokemon TD is released and features many updates including:
- New Story
- Level - Diglett's Cave Level cap up to 42!
- 2 new pokemon to catch.
- 1 New NPC Trade pokemon.
- New Challenge Level - Hard Vermillion Gym
- 2 New Achievements
- Inventory Section in the Pokemon Center (Previously known as the Trading Center)
- A million and one bug fixes and additions.
Update: Stuck on a level? Try our walkthrough to Pokermon Tower Defense here.
Pokemon Tower Defense is a flash-based tower defense game based on the extremely famous and popular Japanese anime series Pokemon. The game was released in March 2011 by Sam & Dan Games and successfully incorporates the best parts of the original console-based Pokemon games from Nintendo into a tower defense format to create one of the most addictive games in the history of all mankind (yes, that far back). This game only has the original 151 Pokemon though, which while slightly disappointing to the more recent Pokemon fans suits the purists (in the context of the Pokemon world) perfectly fine. Here are some of the key features of the game:
Gameplay
Let's just come out and say it straightaway: This game is absolutely brilliant and a hell of alot of fun. You keep wondering all throughout how Nintendo with all of the millions of dollars that they probably spend on game design never managed to come up with a concept like this, and the fact that you do is a credit to the developers. This is also because while the idea of integrating a tower defense game with Pokemon is awesome, the integration itself in this case is really good as well. This will probably get mentioned a lot more in this review, but once you start playing this game you just can't stop. Even while writing this the game's running in an adjoining window.
Poker Tower Defense starts off much the way the original Pokemon games did. You visit Professor Oak to collect your first ever Pokemon and are given a choice between Charmander (fire type), Squirtle (water type) and Bulbasaur (grass type). As soon as you select a Pokemon, Oak's lab gets attacked by a group of hypnotized wild Rattatas (which are rat-like Pokemon). The hypnosis is carried out by a villainous group called Team Rocket, who do this through the help of their own Pokemon. You defend against this wave of Pokemon attacks by placing your selected Pokemon in a square, selecting the kind of attack it will use, and letting it rip on the offending Pokemon.
The attacks, the upgrades, the Pokemon evolutions, they all work the same way as they did in the original games in Pokemon Tower Defense. Even the storyline followed by both the games is the same in terms of locations visited and challenges to be overcome. Having passed the initial challenge in the lab, you set out to find the actual offenders, accompanied by a very annoying boy called Joey who you rescued from the clutches of Team Rocket. Even the process of catching and collecting Pokemon is mostly the same. Instead of trawling through bushes in the hope of (and eventually in dread of) finding wild Pokemon, battling them, weakening them and then using a Pokeball to catch them, here you will be placed in routes with oncoming wild Pokemon that you must defend against in the old tower defense style; by placing your current Pokemon in the aforementioned provided squares and telling them to attack. The more your Pokemon attack, the more EXP they gain, and the more EXP they gain, the more their levels rise and they become stronger. After a certain amount of levels, depending on your Pokemon, it will evolve into a completely new Pokemon with new, stronger powers.
As for the storyline, you initially end up going to Brock's gym in Pewter City, just like in the original games, and then you visit Misty, who is now married to Ash, the protagonist of the original cartoon series. Both of Misty and Brock are villains in this game, so beware! As you may well remember very clearly by now, spoilers are awesome, so you will eventually find out that a different Mewtwo is behind all this trouble. The game is still under construction and is constantly being updated with new features and additions to the story, so that's where it all goes for now.
These aren't the only reasons to be excited about Poker Tower Defense however, it's also the sheer range of options available to you thats impressive for a free game. You have Training Machines or TMs like the original game to teach your old Pokemon new tricks or moves (apparently that rule only applies to dogs), you have stones that you can buy to evolve your Pokemon as and when you want to and then there's your Pokemon's extreme willingness to learn new moves so you regularly get prompts telling you which Pokemon wants to learn what, what the move does, and asks whether you want to use it or not. The strategy quotient is covered like the Earth is covered by its atmosphere, that is, completely, by Pokemon's in-built strength and weakness charts. It works such that if you have a Grass Pokemon, your attacks will be highly effective against Water Pokemon but not against Fire Pokemon. Similarly, if you have a Fire Pokemon, your attacks will work best against Grass Pokemon but not so much against Water Pokemon. Considering that there are 8-9 types of Pokemon, all with various bonuses or disadvantages against other types of Pokemon, if the very fact that you're playing a Pokemon game in a tower defense format and enjoying it doesn't blow your mind, the options available certainly will.
Graphics and Audio
Seeing as it's been mentioned above that this is game is almost completely based on the original Pokemon games, we will mention again that this game is almost completely based on the original Pokemon games. What this means is that the graphics are identical to the original games. Not similar, not close to, but identical. We have the same pixel-art graphics that we thought we'd left behind in the last millennium. But they make a return in this game, and how. It just increases the "awesomeness quotient" of this game way beyond the stratosphere.
The audio is also typical Pokemon music, and it just feels good. There is no handily available mute button if you don't like it though, which might be a problem.
Conclusion
If you're a Pokemon fan, probably no tower defense game ever will come close to this. If you're not a Pokemon fan I think you will still agree with all those Pokemon fans who say that no tower defense game will ever come close. The degree of complexity, challenge, range of options etc. available in this game are greater than most others with the possible exceptions of Bloons Tower Defense 4. But then, Bloons TD 4 isn't based on a worldwide phenomenon like this game is and, more importantly, it doesn't have 150 different types of towers.
The hacked version of the game can be found here if you want to skip a lot of the game's difficulty.
A sequel to the game - Pokemon Tower Defense 2 will follow as announced on Sam and Dan Games blog - there is no current release date announced for the second title.