Flash Element TD (Tower Defense) is an free online Flash-based game where you, not surprisingly, are tasked with building towers to defend against a wide variety of invaders (called “creeps”). David Scott programmed this from scratch and used Adobe Photoshop and the Warcraft III level editor to create the graphics and sounds.

Let’s take a look at the game and some FETD strategies.

Update (Jan 27, 2007): Also check out our new Flash Element TD Walkthrough to 130,000 points.

Tipping Point for Online Games?

This was mentioned at Download Squad then again as evidence that online games have reached a tipping point where they become mainstream. Frankly, so many people play online games, from puzzles like Sudoku and word games to chess and Flash games at Pogo, Popcap, and their ilk. that the tipping point has probably already come and gone.

Mini-Review

FETD is a simple but challenging mix of puzzle game and miniature real-time strategy game. The graphics and sound are acceptable but not breathtaking. Pretty typical for an online Flash do-dad.

How does it stack up? Well, it’s not as stunning as, say, Eyezmaze puzzle games or Flow, but it’s fun and addicting. Compared to current Flash games, Flash Element TD gets about a 7 out of 10.

Flash Element TD Strategies

Anyway, back to Flash Element TD.

The high score list is a tough nut to crack; scores of a few thousand are pretty easy, but beyond that you have to execute solid, efficient strategies to keep going.

• Of course, you want to place your towers where they are in reach of at least two lanes, if not three or four, so they have more opportunity to kill the creeps. Corners are good here too.
• The center island is good for placing heavy weapons.
• Do not build anything you don’t need. Most important is to keep building your pile of gold, which means conserving what you have and letting it accrue interest.
• Forget about arrow towers — use a minimum of canons through level seven.
• Research carefully. After level seven, you want fire towers. Research it and build one fire tower and upgrade it. That should get you through level eight, the first airborne level. Then bump your interest rate to 15 and 20 percent after levels 14 and 21, respectively. After level 28 research the water tower — slowing your enemies becomes more important. Forget about earth towers. They are only good for getting access to the combo tower which does tons of damage but is terribly slow.
• Fire and Water — basically you want to paint the ground with fire towers and carefully-placed water towers.

Tags: Flash · Free · Mini-review · Online games · Platforms · Reviews