Castle Smasher

Castle Smasher is one of those well designed, nice looking games that can become very addictive thanks to a simple but well polished gameplay. The game is pretty challenging to beat and it requires quite a bit of practice to master the art of castle smashing.

Design
Castle Smasher design is minimal but efficient, it provides a nice online high score boards, with a simple tool to create your own group challenge with friends. Options are limited to a sound mute button and nothing more is needed.
A short instruction page could be useful to give a description of upgrades available between levels and some of the game details. The purpose of castle soldiers and guards is not immediately clear, until you lose a game because of them.
The game provides only five levels, with increasing difficulty. If the firsts do not require much thinking, counting the stones left in your arsenal and choosing the right upgrades can become critical for the last levels.

Gameplay
The gameplay is dead simple. Choose an angle for the catapult, then press and hold the mouse button to set the power, and release it to shot. Nothing new but the implementation is good.
It is a handful small details that makes the game interesting. First of all the way the stones are bouncing on the different parts of the castle can make a good, well aimed, shot much more efficient than a direct one. You are also running on a very limited supply of stones, that force you to think before you shot, and to target the stone supply bonus if you can first.
Soldiers and guards also provide a nice little twist to the game, putting a bit more pressure on the player to get rid of the soldiers attacking the catapult or to invest in one or two extra guards to protect it.
The castle design is inventive and each level provides a distinct challenge.

Presentation
Castle Smasher use good old school 2D sprites, with an excellent overall result. Graphics are clear, colorful and nice looking. Music and sound effects are kept to a minimum but appropriate, a background music theme could be a nice addition even though I am not a big fan of repetitive background music.

Play Castle Smasher on Kongregate.