E3 Impressions: Defendin’ De Penguin (Wii & DS)

I mentioned earlier that I noticed a trend in several newly unveiled E3 games, one with a focus on repurposing genres for a younger audience. Similar to how EA’s upcoming Zubo is trying to rework an RPG for the seven-year-old demographic, Defendin’ De Penguin hopes to bring desktop tower defense to a whole new age bracket. For those who haven’t wasted half a week at the helm of a few dozen desktop towers, here’s the basics, via Wikipedia:

The goal is to try to stop enemies from crossing the map by building towers which shoot at them as they pass. Enemies and towers usually have varied abilities and costs. When an enemy is defeated the player earns money or points, which are used to buy or upgrade towers.

But while Crave’s goal for Defendin’ De Penguin is to boil down the concept for kids, they seem to be taking it to new territory. While the stream of enemies — represented here by a penguin’s natural predators — may be pretty light, the fact that you have several screens to scroll across means hellacious catastrophe could be happening just out of your view, a first for the genre as far as I’m aware. You’ll also have to multitask with your starring character, Little Blue, having him fish for money and hunt down special items all while managing your growing array of towers.

I’m not expecting to get hooked on Desktop Tower Defense all over again with this Happy Feet makeover, but I am intrigued by how quickly the addictive online game has been adapted for retail release (see also Pixeljunk Monsters on PS3). Both versions of Defendin’ De Penguin are scheduled for release in mid-August.