Square Enix's 'Vanguard Storm' is more Crystal Defenders, but not tower defense

by Alexander Sliwinski { May 13th 2009 at 12:40PM }

It turns out that the Square Enix Vanguard Storm trademark from last month was merely the subtitle for another Crystal Defenders game, available now for $5 on iPhone and iPod Touch (there's a "lite" version to demo). Siliconera notes that Vanguard isn't a tower defense game, but a "monster blocking game," as evidenced by the video after the break.

Instead of a tower defense game where enemies are on a path, Vanguard has enemies moving from left to right. The player is charged with adding the proper character classes to block the monstrous onslaught. No console releases of the game have been announced, but other Crystal Defenders titles started on mobile and moved to home consoles.

Tags: crystal-defenders, siliconera, square-enix, vanguard-storm

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

charlie b. @ May 13th 2009 12:44PM

has an FFTA look to it.
this said, i'm surprised that Squeendios didn't use the "Final Fantasy" brand name.

koehler83 @ May 13th 2009 12:58PM

Crystal Defenders is, for all intents and purposes a Final Fantasy spin-off; just with fewer royalties due.

Snowblind @ May 13th 2009 1:19PM

I with the Crystal Chronicles games would do the same thing. We know it's a FF spin off, it doesn't need it in the title making them ridiculously long.

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers.
Can't wait to see what they do if they make a sequel to it.

NaeemTHM @ May 13th 2009 12:55PM

I bought the first Crystal Defenders game and was floored by the difficulty. I can just barely beat the first few stages. And I have no problem plowing through Field Runners on Hard.

Anyway, I really hope Square starts porting Final Fantasy games over to the iPhone. Or better yet the Front Mission series! It's gameplay would be right at home on a touch screen.

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio PSN-ctclaw @ May 13th 2009 1:21PM

I finally started putting games onto my iPhone, anyone have any good recommendations? I've already purchased a couple of the ones Justin reviewed...I can't remember which ones, but I'm up for any suggestions!

NaeemTHM @ May 13th 2009 1:34PM

You get these now:

Galaxy on Fire
iDracula
Puzzle Quest
Peggle
Tetris
Wolfenstien 3D
Rolando
Top Gun
Terminator Salvation

All of those games have so far given me hours of portable fun. Well...except Terminator. I beat that in about 2 hours :-/ But at least it was a fun ride. In a few days we'll have Zenonia. It's a crazy mix of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Diablo. I can't wait!

phuink @ May 13th 2009 1:35PM

Yeah!

Here's some of my favourites:

Glyde
StickWars
Metal Gear
Rolando
Katamari
Lightbike
Topple
DDR
SkyForce
and
Hero of Sparta

Odog4ever @ May 13th 2009 1:42PM

For starters:
iDracula
Rolando
Crash Bandicoot Racing
Baseball '09
Trism
UniWar
IronSight/iShoot
CritterCrunch
Texas HoldEm
Virtual Pool
Tap Tap Revenge 1 & 2

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio PSN-ctclaw @ May 13th 2009 1:42PM

Thanks for the recommendations! I have a couple of those and I'll have to pick up a couple more of them. It's hard going through the whole mess of games on the app store and finding the good ones.

Manly Mcbeefington (Mr. ESC) @ May 13th 2009 3:29PM

What about MGS Touch? I thought it was cool no way as good as the cellphone MGS but if you like shooters is actually good.

Levi @ May 13th 2009 3:44PM

Nobody mentioned the awesome Eliss. My favorite exclusive.

I second Puzzle Quest and Wolfenstein. Apparently Crayon Physics on out on iphone? I just tried the demo last night on PC. $20 on Steam, $5 on the App Store?! I'm gonna buy that too, an I'll reccomend it just based off of the Steam demo.

Oneiromancer @ May 13th 2009 4:13PM

My list of favorite games (mostly cheap, at least when I bought them):

Enigmo
iDracula
Space Ninja
Heavy Mech
TanZen
Zentomino
The Golden Path of Plumebloom
7 Cities
Rogue Touch
Galaxy on Fire
UniWar
Perfect Balance: Harmony
Flight Control
PathPix
Underworlds
Rolando
Azkend
Toy Bot Diaries (all 3)

Trace and GravBall are totally free (at least, when I picked them up they were) and are pretty fun for the price. I also picked up Dark Raider recently since it dropped from $7.99 to $0.99 and it's definitely much more worth it at that price.

Manly Mcbeefington (Mr. ESC) @ May 13th 2009 3:27PM

Yeah everything is fine and dandy until you reach Horde 29-30 and your whole team get's fuxxored by Bloodhounds and Boomers...Wait wrong game.

David Banner @ May 13th 2009 5:07PM

So this is basically Plants Vs. Zombies?

This looks fascinating, but like most iPhone games it will probably be hobbled by being on the iPhone. I'm really confused as to why people are falling over themselves to play so of the janky ass crap on the platform. Even the good stuff is almost unplayable, and there isn't anything I wouldn't rather be playing on my DS.