toy soldiers xbox 360

Your goal in Toy Soldiers is always the same: Protect the toy box representing your base that sits conspicuously on the battlefield. Suitable build points for defenses are arranged close by and, occasionally, across the entire battlefield. They come in two sizes: Small build points are suitable for anti-infantry guns, chemical weapons, and mortars, while large build points can accommodate antiair guns and long-range cannons. The victory condition for campaign missions is that no more than 20 enemies can reach your base, and unlike their counterparts in other tower defense games, enemies don't all follow the same route--even if their movements are still tightly scripted. Infantry, cavalry, armored cars, tanks, fighter planes, and bombers all pose different challenges, and keeping an eye on the enemy's unit queue to see what two or three types are coming next is key.

As you start each mission, the limited resources at your disposal are rarely enough to build more than a few defenses, but you earn money for every enemy that falls so it's not long before you can put all of the build locations to good use. Money is also used to repair and upgrade defenses, though you only gain access to upgrades as you progress through the campaign. And that's just as well, because while the simple controls make all of the build and upgrade options easily accessible, it takes a while to figure out which defenses are the most effective in which situations. A level-three weapon isn't always preferable to a level-two one, and you can often get by with lower level defenses if you're manning them yourself. You can hop onto defensive turrets at anytime, and using them is as easy as pointing them in the right direction and squeezing the trigger button. When they're available, vehicles work in much the same way, though it's worth noting that any vehicle that you leave unattended for too long or which gets destroyed takes a minute or so to become available again.

A good understanding of how all of your defensive options work is especially important in missions that end with a boss fight. Bosses include giant tanks, zeppelins, and trains, and although the same bosses appear in both of the campaigns, your fights with them play out quite differently. Even more so than regular missions, the boss levels often require some trial and error to beat. You need to memorize the boss's movements and position your defenses accordingly. Sometimes you have to tear down one defense to replace it with another in the middle of a fight just so that you have a weapon with the correct range, or manually reposition an existing defense so that it's pointing in the right direction when the boss moves. It can be frustrating to replay the same level over and over again, but every failed attempt makes you better prepared for the next, and because you do a little better each time, you're less inclined to give up.