Defendin' de Penquin
Ages: Everyone

Tower defense games involve strategically placing armed towers to defend a location. This is done often in lieu of battling enemies hand to hand. In this case the Penguin, Little Blue, is trying to save his colony's fish supply from marauding animals and amphibians. He has various types of towers that he can build, ones throwing snowballs, ice cubes, icicles, frost with variations on rate of fire. The enemies are bears, wolves, turtles, crabs, sea lions, walruses, foxes, a Yeti and even a Mammoth -- each one having different resistance to the ammunition being fired. The strategy is to place the towers in such a way as to prevent the enemies from entering the colony or leaving the map with fish.

Little Blue can also go fishing to increase his supply of fish and gather ice coins to enable him to build more defense towers. As Little Blue progresses through the story, various maps will be unlocked. Each wave of enemies will get increasingly harder. At one point I got a knife but I wasn't sure how to use it. I don't think Little Blue was to do hand combat - maybe it was for cleaning fish? It is an amusing game for kids and the violence is toned down - that is except for the knife.

Fun Factor: Clever idea but eventually gets repetitive
Female Factor: Penny - spunky penguin girl from nearby colony
Player Friendly: informative manual with save and controller configuration.

Reviewed by: Editor - 01/09