Parents' Guide to Riftbound

It's not terribly original, but anyone aching for a new Plants Vs. Zombies-style experience should be plenty satisfied by this polished little strategy game. Riftbound has a lovely fantasy cartoon aesthetic complimented by an upbeat and dynamic orchestral score that helps set an adventuresome tone. It doesn't spend any more time than necessary establishing the setting and story, opting instead to ensure players move straight into combat and jump quickly from one level to the next. Elementals and spells are gradually introduced at a pace of no more than one per stage. This gives players a chance to learn about and experiment with each new addition to their magic arsenal so that they can make good use of them in later levels. It's pretty straightforward, but if things get too tough, kids can knock down the difficulty to suit their abilities until they become more practiced in deploying their defenses.

But it's difficult not to notice just how similar Riftbound is to PopCap's classic tower defense series. From the standard five-by-nine gridded field upon which the action is set to the types of defenses provided -- energy harvesting units, enemy-slowing units, barrier units, et cetera -- it sometimes feels like the folks who made Riftbound perhaps went beyond inspiration and homage and stumbled into rip-off territory. It does have a unique tower combination spell system that allows players to unleash devastating attacks (with a high energy price) when certain conditions are met in specific lanes, but players aren't even introduced to this ability until nearly 20 levels into the game. A little more novelty and innovation in mechanics and presentation would have helped separate it from the franchise that so clearly served as its muse. That said, the genre isn't exactly bursting at the seams, and what's here remains fun despite (or perhaps because of) the copycatting. Players looking for something to satisfy their lane-based tower defense itch could do a lot worse than Riftbound.