After almost a year of waiting for many fans, the long awaited sequel to Bloon Tower Defense 2, Bloons Tower Defense 3 is here. This game is sure to be a runaway success as it is better than the games that came before it and because everyone in the flash gaming world is obssessed with Ninja Kiwi(Bloons tower Defense 2 got 32 million plays). Graphically, this game is much the same as its 2 predecessors, which is fine because the cartoony look and feel of the balloons series appeals to many and gives it a family friendly feeling.

Game-play-wise it is also very similar. There is one extra tower, the spike-mace tower, that Bloons TD 2 didn’t have, and few other options like the exploding fruit, that was also not there in Bloons TD 2. However, the game-play is more in-depth as there are 2x the number of upgrades for each tower there were in Bloons TD 2. In Bloons TD 2, there were only 2 upgrades for each tower, in this game, there are 4 that are in a 2-tier upgrade system. The problem with this is that the upgrades cost a lot and unlike the previous bloons games, it does not tell you how much upgrades cost until you have enough money to buy them(this might be a glitch that Ninja Kiwi needs to fix). But otherwise, the 2 levels of upgrades bring a lot more strategy into the mix, especially on the harder levels of difficulty as the difference between choosing 2 towers over one upgraded tower actually matters. There is also a new “boost” tower which increases the range and firing range of all nearby towers and also has the ability to call in a “super monkey storm” when upgraded. This tower makes the strategy of putting all your towers in the center a much better idea. The monkey storms are expensive at 850 a piece but is a “this will save me now” type thing that you will need to use at times on harder difficulties. Bloons tower defense 3 has a decent enough learning curve(if you start on easy) and is challenging enough on hard to keep the most hardcore TD fans happy.

On a technical note, the game seems to lag less than Bloons TD 2, which is a plus, but the game stopped once for me after level 46 without saying I won or any more balloons coming, which was weird.

If your a TD junkie or even a casual strategy/defense fan, you’ll really enjoy this game. Now onto the easy walkthrough.

This walkthrough is for the “ice map” on easy difficulty to help beginners get started with the game. The first thing I have to say is that the picture I posted with this article is me playing on easy on this map right before I beat the game so you can look at it for hints. You’ll see that I had 3 regular monkeys, 2 fully upgraded snow-towers, 2 fully upgraded missile towers, 1 fully upgraded spike-ball tower, one fully upgraded beacon, and one super monkey upgraded with everything except epic range.

To start out the game, buy 3 regular monkeys and place them at turn points on the map to give them a good shooting radius. This will ensure that they give the maximum number of hits possible on balloons. This should carry you through the first 4 or 5 levels pretty easily. Use road tacks to clean up anything that gets passed. Next buy a bomb tower and work on upgrading to bigger bombs and the missile upgrades. Don’t get the shards upgrade for now as it isn’t very useful. After you’ve fully upgraded the bomb tower, buy a freeze tower and upgrade it all the way. This is very important in slowing balloons down. Afterwards, buy a spike-ball tower and upgrade it to full. The triple shot and the long roll upgrade are extremely good at killing balloons. After that buy 1 more freeze tower and fully upgrade it. Then buy one more bomb tower and fully upgrade it. At this point, buy a beacon tower and set it in the middle of everything. Upgrade it with the range and speed upgrades but do not get the super-monkey storm upgrade yet, that is not critical. At this point, use what you have plus road tacks and pineapple bombs until you saved up enough to get a super-monkey. Put the super monkey in the middle of the screen and get the first range upgrade for him(don’t get epic range because its not worth it). Then save and get the laser vision and plasma vision. After you get these upgrades, you should be pretty set for the game on easy. If you save enough, build and upgrade another super-monkey to make sure nothing gets through. I general all the upgrades for super-monkeys are good except the epic range upgrade because the first range upgrade already nearly covers the entire map if you place the monkey in the center. Eventually, you might want to get the super-monkey storm for the beacon tower just to see what a super-monkey storm is.

So to recap, the build order:
3 normal monkey towers
1 bomb tower
1 ice tower
1 mace-ball tower
1 ice tower
1 bomb tower
1 beacon tower
1 super-monkey tower
1 more super-monkey tower

Remember to use tacks and pineapple bombs frequently as they are cheap and will save you so much of the time. Happy defense!

Other cool games worth a try:

Escape from Crystal lake

Alien Invasion

The focus of the article is on the new action/rpg game The Rise of a King, which is a sequel to The rise of a Knight by Armorgames.com. The story leaves off with the last game. Basically, the princess was on her way to the castle when a bunch of goblins try to ambush and kidnap her. All of the guards were killed except you. You followed the goblins back to their place and killed them all but you learned that Lord Felkon paid them to kidnap the princess.

However, when you arrive at the castle, you find out that Lord Felkon and the princess just got married and the King is holding a banquet. The king rewards you with knighthood for your services but you get in an argument with Lord Felkon, who has everyone under a spell so that they all like him.
This is where the game-play actually begins in this game.

This is a pretty good action/adventure game where you are given quests by the king like killing monsters and trolls to get money to upgrade your character while buying spells and weapons to upgrade your character. As the game progresses, you discover more clues into Lord Felkon’s evil plot and eventually rise to become King.

In the early going(I’ve only played this game for about 45 minutes), I found the best way to kill thieves and bandits was to get as close to them as possible and just continually hack at them. I suggest you buy the lightening spell from the mage before you begin any missions as you can use it on the projectile throwers to stun them while you take out the melee fighters. Your mana is limited so don’t overuse your spells. Remember to duck and shield often to avoid getting hit by throwing swords and other projectile weapons. There is a little cheat here. Basically you can kill globs and thieves all day and collect their coins then when you fall low on health, go back to the castle. Just do this again and again until you get the best weapons. Its cheesy but it works.

For each completed mission, the King will pay you and you will also pick up some coins for killing thieves and bandits on the way. Mostly, this is a hack-and-slash game sort of like the first one where you complete quests while at the same time try to complete the greater goal of toppling Lord Felkon.

Game-play wise, this isn’t too different from “The rise of a knight”, except that it emphasizes the RPG element a lot more than its hack-and-slash predecessor. There are lots of shops to buy weapons, spells, and armor at and there is more dailogue in his game as well compared to its predecessor. Since I’m more of a fan of hack and slash fan most of the time, I enjoyed “the rise of a knight” more, but most people will have a different opinion from me as many gamers favor the RPG element and the improved storyline and character interactions.

In conclusion, this is a solid and successful blend of the action/rpg genres and has a storyline that should be action-packed enough to keep you playing until the end. The length of the game is pretty good too and the options on how to upgrade your character keeps the game interesting. This is an enjoyable game for a weekend or evening play. Give it a try.