iOS (iPhone/iPad) Critic Reviews

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.

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.

Fans of the tower defense genre will love this game. It adds a refreshing dynamic that makes it more than just a top-down turret dropping event.

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.

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.

Commando Jack is a fairly standard addition to the TD genre save for its ability to put you into the thick of the action.

For the most part, Commando Jack offers a fairly standard tower defense game that doesn't change the formula too much. Obviously, the big outlier is the inclusion of a first-person mode, which I think does a lot to differentiate it from the hordes of other tower defense titles on iOS.

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.

Commando Jack isn't balanced. Not as a tower-defense game or a first-person shooter, and most certainly not as combination of the two. It's a cheap, pretty, time-sucking gimmick for the curious fan of the genres. A shallow snack chock full of corn syrup.

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