Welcome to our review of Anthill, a new touch-controlled tower defense game out now on Nintendo Switch.
FOR QUEEN AND COLONY!
Join the ranks of Anthill, a gorgeous strategy game from Image & Form – the studio behind the SteamWorld series!
By drawing pheromone trails, you direct your ground forces to different destinations, working with streams of units rather than individual ants. Much like a tower defense game, your mission is to protect the hill as wave upon wave of enemy bugs are thrown at you.
The Nintendo Switch version is absolutely packed! It comes with the top-rated base game, all previously released DLC updates, a brand new soundtrack and is 100% dedicated to handheld play to boot – perfect for Nintendo Switch Lite!
Slay a bug with your soldiers, then direct your workers to bring back the carcass for dinner. Yum! Direct bomber ants to perform air raids through hordes of bugs. Satisfaction guaranteed! Turn your bombers into carpet bombers, inspire courage in your workers, and make your soldiers more brutal. Boo-ya! Dedicated to handheld play: The intuitive touch controls are perfect for the Nintendo Switch screen.
Anthill is clearly a mobile game ported to Nintendo Switch and it perfectly uses the touch controls to control your army. Your mission is easy, the way you do things as well. Everything about Anthill is designed to ease yourself into the best way to defend the hill.
At first, you are given quite a decent tutorial on what to do. Kill the inbound bugs, get food, bring in defenses and so much more. Being from the devs of the Steamworld games, it is clear what to do and how to do it. The game starts off slow and easy.
When you get to pass a few levels, it becomes clear how strategical this game has become. Sending in bombers to take out ladybugs and then sending in workers to grab the loot. It all works out in the way you’d expect it to be.
As you get more food in your hill, you are able to send out more and more workers or attackers. My personal favorites? The bomber bees. I just love sending them out with a tap on the screen to take out hordes of ladybugs and other bugs alike.
Anthill might not be the brightest game in terms of gameplay but it is one of the most fun tower defense games and it just keeps dragging you in. I had more fun than I expected as well as a nearly sleepless night that was well spent with this game. Not sleepless because of the game, though it might have helped a little.
In conclusion, Anthill is more than just a tower defense game in my opinion. It has a real strategical feeling despite its more child-friendly appearance and that is where it does things right but also wrong. It is right to assume this is a smart game, it is wrong to assume it will be overly easy. It can pack a punch!
