Balloon Tower Defence 3

Balloons Tower Defence 3 is the game most fans were expecting when the 2nd edition came out. It has a plentiful supply of new features in terms of level design and defence tower design.

To look at the game from the intro screen you have the feeling this is going to be the real deal. Ninjakiwi came up trumps and they were 3rd time lucky in delivering a game that satisfied all Balloons fans.

There are 8 new tracks to choose from, 4 are exclusive to the Ninjakiwi website.

• The first is a grassy race circuit but is far more pleasing on the eye than the similar landscape in Balloons Tower Defence 1 and 2. The level of graphical detail has really been improved in game 3, with a noticeable difference in the minute landscape details.
• The second track resembles a chocolate fudge brownie surface, with a light milky brown background surface and a deep dark inner track where the balloons race across the screen. Again the track has a pleasing level of graphical detail and offers excellent aesthetics for the player.
• The third track is a sort of plumbing theme, with background cogs and a turquoise colour scheme.
• The fourth is a flakey snow covered landscape, a very bright and clean design and very good track to play if your going to be on the game for a long time.
• The fifth is a monkey shaped track that looks the spitting image of the balloons monkey.
• The sixth is a lava molten track with several cross over points. Balloons can come from three different paths on this track making your tower positioning all the more crucial.
• The seventh is a green circuit board track, again with multiple paths from which the balloons can come and go.
• The eighth and final track is a tubular construction with balloons coming from many different angles, this makes defending the path ways extremely difficult, even more so than the two previously mentioned tracks.

For any hardcore Balloons Tower Defense fan, we recommend you go straight on to the hard difficulty setting as you won't even notice the difference until level 37 and beyond. Easy and medium level settings are merely tutorials for those who don't know how to play the games.

So what new defence weapons are included in the Bloons Tower Defence 3? Well you will be pleasantly surprised at the much improved variety, in particular the level of attention given to existing and new defense weapons regarding upgrades. There are now 2 levels of upgrades for each defense tower.

The new towers are as follows:

Spike-o-pult Defence Tower: Hurls a huge spiked ball that pops everything it touches. Can be upgraded to improve its range, speed and multi shot.

Monkey Beacon Defence Tower: Increases the attack range of all stuff within the beacon area and grants access to a special weapon.

Top Secret Weapon: Obtained through first building and upgrading the Monkey Beacon Defence Tower to its maximum capacity. The top secret weapon is a life save in many situations, especially on the hard difficulty setting on round 45 and beyond.

Pineapple Bomb: Explodes shortly after being placed on the track, this weapon is a life saver when your towers are really feeling the pressure.

2nd Tier Upgrades: Applies to all defence towers, not just the new additions. So for example the monkey boomerang tower that was introduced in the 2nd Balloons tower defence game, can now be upgraded into a star throwing ninja monkey, this defense tower works amazingly well and is essential for popping lead balloons.

New Types of Balloons to Watch Out For

Balloons Tower Defense 3 plays host to a whole new breed of bad boy balloons. Where as in the first and second game there were merely many plain colourful balloons, this game features some notoriously difficult to pop scoundrels! In particular, lead balloons, multi colour balloons, black bloons, white balloons, brown tattered balloons and even balloons ships!

The order of play goes like this:

• Red: Singular red balloons that take one attack to pop
• Blue: A blue balloon contains 1 red balloon and thus takes two attacks to pop
• Green: Contains a blue balloon and so must be attacked three times to be neutralized
• Yellow: Contains a green balloon and has to be attacked four times
• White and Black: Requires popping five times over and comprises of yellow balloons
• Multi colour: Comprises of white and black balloons and needs popping six times over!
• Lead: Lead balloons also release black balloons when popped, but each lead balloon unleashes not just one but a series of black balloons making the number of times a tower has to attack one immeasurable to the naked eye.
• Brown Battered: These balloons are very nasty and once popped unleash a whole bunch of multi coloured balloons that can be very demanding on your tower defences.

A bit more about the Tower Defense Upgrades

The new upgrades to the existing and new towers are really fantastic and have been well thought out and designed. If we take the tack shooter for example (formerly known as the tack tower in 1 and 2). In the first two Balloons Tower Defense games this tower felt weak and powerless against large swarms of balloons. The effects were pretty crummy as well yet in third game the tack shooter can be upgraded to a blade shooter that has a far greater bite. A tack shooter that has been upgraded to the max spits out a large collection of saw blades at a rapid pace and can easily cope with 10 balloons going past at any time. Any army of tack shooters is a serious problem for any balloons looking to escape their path.

The graphical effects of the upgrades are also very detailed and give the player a much higher level of satisfaction when deploying the defence towers.

Refering back to the Boomerang Defence Tower that was introduced in the second game, the final upgrade sees a ninja monkey being deployed with ninja stars that pop multiple balloons. The look of the ninja monkey is sublime and its power is felt by the stubborn lead balloons that can only be popped with certain towers and the monkey boomerang tower is about the only economical option early on in the game, so it is essential that deploy at least two of them to cope with the lead balloons.

The cannon defence tower provides a very powerful ally and is very versatile. When it is upgraded to the maximum it fires out rocket frag missiles that when exploding release many small pieces that blow up a substantial area of balloons. The missiles are also fired out at an extremely rapid pace.

Key Moments

Round 37 will bear witness to a ship that sails along and must be stopped early at all costs or the game is over. Referring to the tactics required on the hard level setting, you must ensure you have a super monkey deployed by this round to have the best possible chance of surviving. The ship will blow up into a whopping collection of balloons that if unleashed towards the end of the track will surely seal your fate. You may also find yourself spamming the road spikes button here to give your super monkey a much needed helping hand with the balloon attack.

Key Strategy Moves throughout the Balloons Tower Defence Game

Deploy a super monkey before round 37: As stated before this is a must if you wish to survive the attack of the ship boss.

Beyond this point, good luck and god bless!

Best Upgrade

Super monkey with laser eyes: Just watch this monkey go to work on the balloons, he is mightily impressive and can gun through a huge amount of balloons in a matter of seconds. Laser eye super monkeys are an imperative tower defence, especially for round 45 and beyond.