essentially tower defense; but the added game mechanics make it both uniquely interesting and frustratingly difficult.

User Rating: 7 | Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaikida. PSP
holy invasion of privacy, badman! what did i do to deserve this? is bizarre and weird from the outset. the title alone is confusing, giving you no hint as to what the game is about. what the hell, right?

this is essentially a tower defense, real time strategy game; but the execution and the added game mechanics make it both uniquely interesting and frustratingly difficult. this isn't to say that the game is unplayable. if anything, holy invasion of privacy, badman! what did i do to deserve this? is the type of game that you can recommend to anyone because of the sheer WTF factor. the stylized graphics and the quirky tutorial will pull you in enough to play at least one or two games, even if you're not really a tower defense fan.

as a strategy game it's got a lot going for it. built into the tower defense frame are additional strategy considerations, like path creation and ecological system maintenance (trust me, it sounds odd but it's really part of the game). the tutorial teaches you the basics, but eventually you'll have to figure some things out the hard way. the main goal is to prevent enemy units from overrunning your area and reaching a character called your "lord." to do this, you dig away units of soil to form tunnels and rooms -- path creation! -- using a finite number of "dig points" that the game assigns at the start of the round. sometimes, soil units have "nutrients" that give rise to "slime" when you dig them away. This slime is the basic living thing in the ecological system that you will create to survive the round. If you wait longer for the nutrients in the soil to mature, there's a greater chance that you will get bigger creatures, like maggots, flies and lizards (which feed on the latter, so watch out for an imbalance). The system cycles because whenever a creature dies, it deposits nutrients back into the soil.

now, how is this ecological system a tower defense strategy? simple: instead of relying on currency earned each time you destroy an enemy unit (like most tower defense games), holy invasion of privacy, badman! what did i do to deserve this? forces you work within the means of the ecological system you create. You need to do some smart digging and release just enough creatures to create a balanced system that will support enough offensive units for the duration of the round. The currency here is nutrients, which are thankfully recycled each time a unit (enemy or not) dies.

a huge pro here is the unique game play. despite the weird title, the core idea of this game is sound. the tactical and strategic considerations are challenging. coupled with the sense of humor (also weird), the game has more to offer than just pure hype. it's obvious that a lot of work was put into the conceptualization of holy invasion of privacy, badman! what did i do to deserve this?.

the cons are few but formidable. at first i thought my main complaint was unique to me, but i checked online and people have been saying it since the game was released: the units go haywire sometimes and don't do what they're supposed to be doing! this is really frustrating because it takes a lot of effort to figure out where to dig and how much slime to let out vs. how many nutrient-filled tiles to keep. units that misbehave often times lead to a round restart or massive strategy compensation. while i understand that this may be a natural game element, it doesn't seem like a good idea especially since this is a brand new game wishing (i'm assuming) to capture a core audience. you're not going to get that with the steep learning curve the misbehaving units bring about. aside from this, it's also sometimes difficult to figure out right away what exactly you need to do in order to advance to the next round. conversely, the reason for failing a round is also unclear at times. hopefully these are issues that are addressed in the holy invasion of privacy, badman! what did i do to deserve this? sequel.

i'm giving this game a 7/10. -2 for the misbehaving units (they are just THAT annoying), and -1 for the round requirements confusion. otherwise a solid game that deserves a sequel (because we all know that so few games get it exactly right the first time).


(originally posted on my blog: http://miaowow.blogspot.com/2010/03/holy-invasion-of-privacy-badman-what.html")