Fieldrunners is a tower defense

Tower defense

Tower defense is a subgenre of real-time strategy computer games.The goal of tower defense games is to try to stop enemies from crossing a map by building towers which shoot at them as they pass. Enemies and towers usually have varied abilities, costs, and ability costs...

 video game developed for several platforms. Originally released on October 1, 2008 as an exclusive iOS title, the game was later ported

Porting

In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...

 to Nintendo DSi

Nintendo DSi

The is a handheld game system created by Nintendo and launched in 2008 and 2009 in Japan, North America, PAL territories, and other regions. It is the third iteration of the Nintendo DS, and its primary market rival is Sony's PlayStation Portable...

, PlayStation Portable

PlayStation Portable

The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...

, PlayStation 3

PlayStation 3

The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...

, and mobile phone

Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

s. It was released on the Android platform in July 2011, on the Amazon Appstore and Android Market. On October 25, 2011, it was ported to HTML5 and released on the Chrome Web Store with the first level, Grasslands, playable for free. Chrome users can find the game at chrome.fieldrunners.com. It is the first release of developer Subatomic Studios

Subatomic Studios

Subatomic Studios is an independent video game developer with offices in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States.-History:Subatomic Studios was founded in 2008 by industry veterans Jamie Gotch and Sergei Gourski.-External links:** from Frisky Mongoose...

.

Gameplay

Fieldrunners offers three types of gameplay: Classic, Extended and Endless. Playing in Classic and Extended modes limits the number of rounds in which the player must defend to 100. Classic only lets players build the original four towers, Gatling, Goo, Missile, and Tesla (except Skyway which substitutes Laser for Tesla and Frostbite which substitutes Ice for Goo). Extended mode adds the two new towers, Flame Tower and Mortar Tower (except Skyway which adds Tesla instead of Mortar). In Endless mode, the player may defend indefinitely. In any mode, the player may play in Easy, Medium, or Hard mode.

Towers

Fieldrunners offers eight types of towers, each with unique abilities. However, only four towers are available for any particular map (six in Extended play). Towers are used to attack the enemy units and may be placed anywhere on the field. A line of towers may be created to force the land enemies to go around them, creating more strategy.

Name	Description
Gatling Tower	It offers a continuously firing attack, but is weak and has a short range.
Goo Tower	It slows enemies for a limited period of time.
Missile Tower	It is a splash damage tower and has a long range.
Flame Tower	Capable of incinerating multiple fieldrunners in a single fiery swoop.
Tesla Tower	Has a medium range, but it has the most nearby damage.
Mortar Tower	Has a long range attack, but can't attack nearby. Highest damage.
Laser Tower	Has a slow firing laser attack that pierces all fieldrunners in a line.
Ice Tower	It slows all fieldrunners around it for a limited period of time.
Lava Tower	It attacks all enemies in a circle around it.

Maps

In Fieldrunners, there were initially three maps a player could choose to play from: Grasslands, Crossroads, and Drylands. Grasslands is an open field in which enemies cross the screen from left to right, while Crossroads is set indoors where the player must also defend enemies going from top to the bottom of the screen. Drylands has three entry points, top to bottom, and one each at the top and bottom of the screen going left to right. Two additional maps have been added: Frostbite and Skyway. Frostbite has four entry points for soldiers. Skyway is similar Grasslands, with the exception of the former having obstacles already in the map. A recent update provided three new maps: Crystal Caves, MudSlide, and LavaFlow, along with the Shotgun Tower, Plasma Tower, and Lava Tower.

Reception

Fieldrunners has received generally positive reviews, with the PSP version scoring 81% at the review aggregate website Metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

. IGN

IGN

IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...

 gave the game an eight out of ten rating, and highly recommended it.

The PSP

PSP

PSP most commonly refers to the PlayStation Portable, a handheld game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment.PSP may also refer to:-Computing and programming:*Corel Paint Shop Pro, a graphics editor...

 version of Fieldrunners scored a high 81/100 on Metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

. Reviews for the iPad

IPad

The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...

Fieldrunners HD version have been positive.