Parents' Guide to Clash of Beasts: Tower Defense

In an uncommon twist, kids aren't fighting monsters -- they are the monster, which adds almost too many elements to manage, yet can feel repetitive at times. Kids get a brisk initial introduction to the various aspects of Clash of Beasts: Tower Defense, which revolve around building up their home base and directing a monster to attack enemy lands. -- which is what they'll spend a good portion of the game doing. Kids can select which creature they'd like to use, and can swap it out for another one mid-attack. Generally, the structure is the same, with the monster advancing toward an area that looks like a town, trying to destroy things shooting at him from either side. The various creatures' attack style differs somewhat. Kids tap and hold their finger down on the screen to target objects with some beasts, while others require you to tap twice to shoot fire. Kids can also select from a few special moves, such as invoking a meteor storm. But the visual effects generally feel the same, so the battles don't always feel super energetic or challenging.

The screen design can pose some issues -- there's a lot to look at, including numerous small icons, which require you to click them more than once for anything to happen. The game also starts pushing kids to buy things fairly early, with pop-up ads for special avatar packages and encouragement to sign up for a free three-day trial of a Beastmaster Pass. Due to how much some actions cost, in-app currency packages, can also quickly become an attractive option. Kids technically don't have to buy anything -- they can keep trying to conquer enemy bases for quite some time without significant pauses or delays. But because the attacks are arguably the most dynamic part of Clash of Beasts: Tower Defense, they can start to feel a bit routine after not too long. So kids may end up not wanting to invest too much time in that aspect -- or in other parts of the game.