Crafted by the same folks who brought you Drawn to Life, Lock’s Quest for the Nintendo DS is a build and battle strategy tower defense game. Play as Lock, a talented young builder who uses the magical Source to craft walls, turrets, and other defense mechanisms. When Lord Agony and his relentless Clockwork Army invade Lock’s kingdom, starting with his peaceful seaside village, it’s up to Lock to use his talents to defend his land from evil.

Gameplay has two phases in Lock’s Quest. A Building Phase and a Battle Phase. In the Building Phase, place walls and gun turrets strategically to defend your target. Find spare parts and combine them to make newer, better gun turrets and other items. You have limited amount of Source to use and a limited amount of time to build, so you have to think wisely and stay on your toes.

In the Battle Phase, waves of Clockwork Soldiers march out to destroy your walls to breach the defenses. Control Lock directly to repair damaged walls and fight hand to hand with any stray Clockwork baddies. The game is over if Lock collapses in battle or if the enemies reach the target you’re defending.

Play control is done entirely with the touch screen and stylus. Lock’s Quest does a great job teaching you in-game how to build and battle, so getting into the game is easy. Drag and drop walls and turrets into place with the stylus, and you also move around Lock in the same fashion. Tap on walls to repair them or enemies to attack. Sometimes you’ll have to play a mini-game with the touch screen. Rotate a wrench to repair walls faster or tap numbers in the correct order to perform stronger attacks. You can even do battle with a friend who has a copy of the game and their own DS.  For fans of these kinds of tower defense games, Lock’s Quest is a crafty little DS title they’ll love.

Kid Factor:
Lock’s Quest is rated E for Everyone with a ESRB descriptor of Fantasy Violence. Even though the game is all about battles, the violence is pretty mild. Most of the time you only fight clockwork robots, and if you get defeated, Lock just falls to the ground. Strong reading skills are a must as the whole game is text-based. Lock’s Quest is probably best for older kid gamers though, since the game requires a heavy amount of strategic thinking and multitasking skills. But any kid who loves building forts out of LEGOs or Lincoln Logs (do they still make Lincoln Logs?) will enjoy building and battling in Lock’s Quest.

Tags: Game Reviews