Here's another pleasing Flash game to play. StormWinds is a 'Tower Defense' type of game created by Hero Interactive. However, instead of being the typical top-down view, like we're used to in Desktop Tower Defense, it's a side view. Enemies approach from the right side of the screen and your objective is to defend your buildings on the left side of the screen with a various assortment of guns and turrets. Being powered by Flash, the game runs quite well with few load screens and smooth animations. The menus look nice and are easy to navigate. Turret animations and controls work well and are simple to handle and switch between.

You begin by selecting a campaign on the world map. There are eight in total to choose from, but be wary, some of the campaigns can get difficult quick. Starting at an easier level like Ocean Guard (as shown in the screenshots) is recommended. There are multiple waves of attacks in each campaign and after each wave you get to go back to your inventory screen and buy/sell units with the cash you earn by defeating enemies. You also earn experience points and upgrade points by defeating enemies with your turrets. Upgrade points allow you to tweak each of your turret's power, reload time, and health.

Hero Interactive actually also has a short video clip of the game on YouTube which you can find here. In the video you can see that each location is designed quite nicely and has its own unique characteristics to them. You can also see some of the different weapons being used. The video however, shows some of the extra content, which unfortunately needs to be bought at their website. Every week they say they are updating and adding to the game, so maybe the $5 price tag isn't all that bad. The paid plan has seven more weapons to choose from, new enemies, and more campaign options.

The next step is to proceed with buying your weapons which will defend against the hordes of enemies. They have a nice arsenal to choose from, including: sniping turrets, lightning guns, and remote missile turrets, etc. Once you're ready to start the wave, you'll be bombarded by various flying enemies. Some are small and agile while other larger juggernauts chug onto the screen and prepare to lay the smack down. The sound effects for all the guns are respectable, but it's a Flash game so you can't expect the best. The background music goes well with the theme of the game also. You can only control one turret at a time and certain guns have different reload times, so managing your heavy artillery which reloads slower is crucial. For some of the canon type turrets, you judge the power simply by holding down the mouse button. The machine gun you can just hold down the mouse button and aim. The Sniping Rifle requires you to judge your angle at your target, without any guides, but correctly angling and hitting the enemy results in some nice damage.

I found a couple cool things with StormWinds. Chain reactions can occur when you hit certain enemy units. For example, there are hot air balloon type of enemies that flies vertically up the screen. If they are near other enemies units when you destroy them, then those other units will take damage as well. Also, there is a unit that fire a very slow, large moving missile. You can aim at the incoming missile to destroy it before it get to your base. Most Flash games won't even bother with collision detection on enemy fire, so it just adds a little more strategy to the game.

I like StormWinds. There are still some weapons I want to try out, but I don't have enough money to buy them. There are also some gun upgrades that look pretty nifty, but I need more exps. Gah. Overall, StormWinds is a nice get-away from the popular Desktop Tower Defense and if you're looking to play StormWinds, you could always head over to Kongregate and get some achievements done while you're at it!