We’ve been waiting for Battle for Hoth for a good few weeks so as soon as it was released we download it and started battling on Hoth. It doesn’t disappoint, but there is room for improvement.

Battle for Hoth is a tower defence game using the Star Wars franchise, so being a Star Wars fan of the original films this was an exciting prospect of controlling the allied forces to battle against the advancing enemy waves.

Deploying your troops and defences is relatively straightforward  with the drag and drop control system. And as you would expect with a TD game you can upgrade and sell your defences. Money is awarded by destroying the enemy and you must tap the cash/resources icon, which appears after a wave of bad guys are destroyed, before it devalues and then ultimately disappears.

Unfortunately Battle for Hoth, slightly stumbles at the first hurdle: graphics. I can’t speak for the iPhone 4 display, but on older devices the level of detail is not what we might expect from a SW franchise. However, the video cuts scenes are great and will excite fans but to other gamers they may want (even on a mobile) a more polished look. I find the background terrain that the game is played on (Hoth) a little blurred and murky and the definition of the ships, guns and troops not crisp enough.

Anyway, having written all that, as we all know (and go on about here at AppZilla) is that the quality of game play can make or break a game. Developers can be forgiven for optimising their graphics to ensure the game play smoothly and that the game play doesn’t suffer. Battle for Hoth is an enjoyable game, it only takes a few hours to complete on easy but it’s good fun and exciting to play, with all the right audio and sfx.

Sci-fi TD die hard fans will prefer the Sentinel series, but Star Wars fans will very much want to see an AT-AT stomping through the snow and destroying their rebel army again and again. It’s so damn cool. Price and graphics keep prevent it from being a 4 or 5 star performance.

Star Wars: Battle for Hoth, v1.0.0
Seller: THQ, Inc. (4+)
Price: £1.79