Commando Jack

As someone who's slogged their way through more than a few tower-defense games this year, that first moment of manning a high-explosive turret put a very big grin on my face. If you're in need of a convincing reason to delve into yet another game in the genre, developer Colossal has a very good one for you indeed.

Commando Jack is a solid entry into the Tower Defense genre, but aside from good presentation and the addition of jumping behind a turret yourself, it's a pretty stock standard experience.

It maintains some excellent tower defense action while adding a new aspect that keeps things interesting enough to deserve attention. It's enough familiarity mixed with some freshness that is definitely worth experiencing.

The shooter portion of Commando Jack is really the most interesting part of the game: the rest of it feels like a fairly traditional genre entry, though the maps have layouts that are interesting to strategize on. This isn't the worst thing in the world, though: just having that interactivity by itself is enough of a wrinkle to make this a definite recommendation for even the most world-weary tower defense fan.

Too often it requires multiple playthroughs of the same level to earn enough money to advance. The levels themselves also tend to last a few more waves than they should given the amount of repetition. But if taken in short bursts, tower defense fans will keep coming back for the strategic and action-multitasking Commando Jack has to offer.

While it has occasional moments of levity, more often than not Commando Jack is an unrewarding slog.

Commando Jack is a cheap alternative in the tower defense jungle, but to conquer all you either have to grind like crazy or resort to IAP.