Dillon's Rolling Western combines elements of several different game types that come together as an exciting, fun whole.
You play as Dillon, an armadillo ranger with a mysterious past who's come to the wild west to make his fortune. The towns of the wild west have recently come under attack by dangerous rock monsters called Grocks. The Grocks come at night to prey on the town's livestock, known as Scrogs. It's up to Dillon to protect the towns from this threat and ensure that they have enough Scrogs to survive.
During the day, you roll around the countryside surrounding the town, collecting food that allows the town to raise more Scrogs, looking for mines where you can find raw materials for the city walls and precious gems to sell for cash, upgrading and equipping your towers with weapons, and searching for ancient ruins containing treasure. Moving controls on the map work by drawing the stylus down on the touch screen, holding for a moment, then releasing. This will send Dillon rolling forward. Directions are controlled with the circle button. During the day, you're more or less safe, though you are occasionally attacked by a hidden monster.
At night however, the Grocks come out in full force, emerging from the Dens that dot the landscape, and attempt to make it to the town gates. If they make it there, they'll eat some of the town's Scrogs. If the town's Scrog count reaches 0, it's game over. You can defeat the invading Grocks in two ways, letting your weapon towers destroy them, or engaging them in combat yourself. Combat takes place in a small arena that appears when you touch a Grock on the map. Other Grocks on the map continue moving while you're fighting though, so you have to be quick. Fighting controls work similarly to moving on the map, with several additions. The direction you draw the line back determines which direction Dillon will roll in, and you can charge the attack by holding longer. Fully charged attacks do more damage and cause area of effect damage to nearby Grocks. Additionally, after connecting with a roll attack, you can quickly tap the touch screen to do several consecutive claw attacks, or touch and hold the touch screen to do a grinding attack with spikes that you receive after the first day. You continue to get more attacks as the game goes along. Combat is fun, challenging, and moves quickly.
After all the Grocks have been destroyed by either you or your weapon towers, the night ends you get a well deserved rest in the town saloon. You'll also get payed based on the amount of remaining Scrogs and how many Grocks you defeated. In the saloon you can eat to restore your health, meet with townsfolk to accept and turn in quests, buy weapons, sell precious stones, practice your fighting moves, and rest to save and start the next day. Quests are relatively simple, such as "Collect 10 gems" or "Defeat 10 Grocks with weapon towers." Upon completion, you'll receive some bonus cash, but fail to complete them by the end of the 3rd day at the town and you'll pay a penalty.
After three days successfully defending the town from the Grocks, you'll move on to the next town. Each new town gets progressively more difficult, and you face new foes and more complicated land layouts. You also don't get to take your entire amassed fortune with you to the new town, each town has its own starting limit of cash you're allowed. If you ever get a game over, this limit is increased, making it a little easier on you. There are 10 towns in all, each having 3 days of play, so 30 days in all of play.
The art style is adorable; the characters are all animals like Dillon. There are nice little touches here and there, like Dillon taking of his hat when he goes into a roll and taking care to put it back on when he stops rolling. The graphics are quite good for a game of Dillon's price, comparable to Ocarina of Time 3D.
All in all, the game is a blast to play, fast paced, challenging, and exciting. It's a steal at 9.99 in the 3DS shop, so pick it up!