This video would not be possible without the tremendous help provided by Mmlh for his footage of the game. Go and subscribe to him! Also, take notice of the release date of this video. This is the original state of the game, not the current Junkworld that is on Apple Arcade right now. Please do not draw conclusions about the full release of Junkworld based on this critique.
Hello! We did a soft launch as the game is still in development and it will change and evolve to be improved untill its ready. Every feedback we get is very valuable and important for us and we would also like to thank all the community for the amazing support and really great feedback they are providing us with!
Iornhide we all appreciate your work and love your amazing games we do but please energy is a horrible idea just make this game more like vengeance I loved that game so much
Junkworld feels like Ironhide forgot what made KR superb in the first place, hell it hardly feels average at best as a tower defense game. "The less is more" was one of the main appeals of the original KR trilogy which was executed beautifully too back then. But here, the game design is a lot more "broad" for a lack of a better word, which gives more grounds for comparisons to other TDs. Bloons TD 6 handles abilities better, handles buff/support towers better and also handles tower placement better with how the game works. It's more balanced too, surprisingly. No energy system or aggressive monetization in general either. I've played both BTD and KR extensively for years, and while Ninja Kiwi impressively keeps improving, Ironhide is stumbling with its recent TD games.
I agree with this. Which is why I get annoyed by the common plebeians when I said I was glad ironhide was taking time to develop other game concepts. Because obviously the tower defence genre is intrinsically limiting and ironhide is the only game studio which really innovated on the genre. I love the games but I think this is unfortunately the case where they’ve become too comfortable with their success leading to mediocre mechanics.
My favourite part about KR games is experimentation, figuring out what kinds of stupid nonsensical strategy you can come out with that will work is really fun, adding energy system will make this part of the game just not possible anymore, really hopes ironhide doesn't go this route for the full release
The kr games had unique parts that made them stand out like having limited space to build towers, heroes and ally troops and having to adapt on the fly, that's why tower upgrades worked so well like: this enemy is near the end better upgrade buildings around him and put reinforcements to stop them. The energy sistem is just bad like in the other games you just lost some time and you want to retry but having energy taken from you makes you want to search a tutorial for that level taking out the enjoyment of playing. Talking about the level up sistem it sucks going from a road of upgrades that you choose to generic this stats go up is horrible, the way you earn the stuff to upgrade is also horrible, from stars awarding you for how well you completed a level to going out of your way to do a more difficult version of a level was great and rewarding, here it sucks its rng that's all i gotta say. The only thing that's improved in every ironhide game is the artstile its really good, i think having multiple towers and ally troops to choose from to do a level is a good idea just executed in really bad way, they really struggle to balance them. The major flaws of this game are separating tower building and defending and the lack of a story, even vengeance being bad compared to other kr games still continued the story in an interesting way, i played iron marines the story was interesting while not directly tied to the kr storyline was still enjoyable. To end this it feels like playing bloons td with the kr artstile but without half of the features of bloons so why am i playing this game when i could be playing bloons or the other kr games. 4/10 vengeance was better somehow.
Just a thought on story and ways they could do it better. I do enjoy the comic strips. In fact I kinda wish they rewarded u with more and if they had the budget I would really like to see a short animation feature for the beginning and end of the next game. Seriously even if it was a simple 5 secs I think it would look great if they tried!
Personally I thought vengeance was ok with the addition of the bonus levels, it still did feel a bit lackluster though in it's main campaign. It's honestly tragic Ironhide is just becoming a typical "mobile game" company. I enjoyed all their past games up to vengeance.
5:30 oh how the mighty have fallen, this is your stereotypical mobile game with xp, energy, purchasable regular and special currency, gimmicky daily stuff that you unlock later on, and even a special offer? sigh edit: wait, upgrading the towers in-game is not a thing? you only get that clash royale-like upgrade system? WTF edit edit: not even armor and magic res? what is this garbage? (or should I say, JUNK, haha, ha, ha...)
The biggest issue I have with the newer games is the lack of innovation in the foundations of what makes a tower defence game. They’ve done great with the reinforcements and heroes but these newer games are bland because they’re simple and basic. A few of my thoughts to improve this would be to make a BIG map that requires multitasking by managing two seperate but distinct parts of the map where you defend choke points that are opposite each other. You would then move the screen just a bit so it’s not too annoying to check up on each part of the field. But if that’s too bold they can inverse previous concepts. Like the moon mechanic on the Halloween enemies but this time it works in favour of us by giving them vulnerable side effects. Y’know what I should just make my own video. This is becoming too long xD
Quick note about the Command Center bit - it's also a bit buggy, and in this specific instance, it was giving +20% to the first Sniper, +10% to the second, and +0% to the third.
It's just... not fun anymore. No more tower upgrades in levels, aka no more strategy, just practically tower spam, no more special tower offbranches, only way to upgrade and gain progress is to grind cards for upgrades which is just TEDIOUS. It's not fun at all.
Ironhide:ok people let’s make a new game with better graphics,new mechanics,launch it on every device and update the game every fucking week Me: just please update KR you don’t have to do too much you can take out your phone go to camera do the middle finger picture it and tape it on the KR map. You might think”that’s not a very good update”bro we live in a world where we laugh at stupid shit like this”balls deep(say it in a funny accent)”
I think the game looks good and has new mechanics which is something good but still,if it didn't had app purchases and energy system would be a LOT better.
Haven’t played it yet but I was hyped to see what Ironhide will do next but it seems like they’ve become the very thing they swore to destroy (shitty mobile games)
I haven't played it myself yet, but separating the building and defence into seprate phases just seem dumb. It removes all flexibility and doesn't allow you to make quick adjustements to your strategy. And why only four towers at a time? Vengence was bad enough with 5.
You know, PVZ3 and Junkworld are very similar in how they stray too far from the formula. I won't talk too much about junkyard (because this is a video about it), but pvz3 made one big mistake which branches out to make the game annoying. That was the decision to remove your ability to pick your seeds. You get a selection of plants for the level, and that's it. Levels are also the easiest they have been in the series (No joke, one of the levels is just 5 basics. It's not the first level, it's around level 16). The inability to pick your seeds makes levels boring, and the terrible zombie variety hurts a lot. The inability to pick your seeds also removes a lot of plant variety, as there are about 7 plants. No, I am not joking. The reason for this is that not being able to pick your seeds means that if they had a similar amount of plants to, say, PVZ1, a lot of the plants would be not used that much through no fault of the plant, but because of the restrictive game design. Imagine if when you were playing BTD6, you only got to use a selection of 3 towers specific to the map. That's not "interesting strategic design", its restricting the gameplay for the sake of restricting the gameplay. Just like an energy system. All in all, these two games made one mistake that permeates the whole game, like a single weed spreading its roots all through a garden, resulting in the whole game becoming worse overall.
Bad design choice to introduce an energy system. It kills free to play users right away- as the stages need many trial runs. The lack of energy also makes it impossible to play test units, so every new unit you get usually ends up costing you the map- and your energy. They mitigate this energy requirement by making each stage only last 3 waves of enemies, and the fact you can free build towers on empty space really tells me that the developers are washing their hands with dealing with user and played complaints; you put a tower in a bad spot? This makes the user at fault.
On the topic of being able to place towers anywhere, I actually have the exact opposite problem. With the KR games, the fact that you couldn't place towers anywhere was a fun challenge, most often not allowing you to have more than 3 towers in one chokepoint. Sometimes it felt like the game was saying "How are you gonna win with THESE terrible placements, buckaroo?" In Junkworld however, being able to place towers anywhere would make it so that you can essentially force a chokepoint anywhere (if the barracks didn't suck). I haven't gotten the chance to actually play junkworld, this is just based on the info you provided.
Earlier i complained about the energy system but. I love junkworlds aesthetic and its lore so far. I cant wait till the other towers and tactics are buffed since im sure they will be.
0:36 nah its not you , a majority of us feel that way. Maybe they didn't put that much effort into it due to it being a free game, but that's just imo.
I think kr vengeance was a step in the right direction in terms of innovating Iron hides style of tower defense. The choice between your towers before each level was cool but the monetization system holds it back. There’s a lot of potential in building off of vengeance mechanics and style and they should’ve made this game like so or put effort into another project.
Honestly, another thing that could be rectified is the fact that they introduced an armor mechanic into the first world... and promptly threw it away entirely for the second, where there are exactly 0 enemies with armor or armor-giving abilities. Underused Game Mechanics are kinda sad. There should have been something like a mutated crab enemy with high armor but low HP (they had expies of radstags and bloodbugs, mirelurks wouldn't hurt), which would make armor-piercing mechanics have a use. Or even just make 3/8s of the gator rider's health into armor so there's more incentive to use snipers on them. Or heck, make some of the Order Soldiers/Scientists' HP into armor, since they are actually wearing armor!
Yeah. Those and the motorbike guys that give other enemies armor by throwing junk at them. This shield mechanic is used in the first world... and is completely ditched in the second.
Guess I'm waiting a few years until it's released in it's best state on PC like I usually do. I can see a few things that have potential but it's obviously in it's very early stages. I'd never even heard of Apple Arcade until the release of Legends of Kingdom Rush. I just read that as "Coming to PC soon". Guess I can treat Junkworld the same way.
Damn, the tower balance is even off. Kingdom Rush is fun because even though you *probably* shouldn't if you want to keep your sanity, you can basically just use one tower type and get away with a win on the campaign, even on the hardest difficult. But not just a tower type, any of them, and even just restricted to one of their variants at that. It's a testament to the design of the game that you can do this. It doesn't make the game easier (the opposite in fact; it's very demanding). But it basically means "You can do anything you want...but you also have to know what you're doing with it." Which is very, very fun.
My take on the progression of the game is that they should stick to their tried and proven campaign path and so you can unlock the extra paths after defeating the boss, also having more bosses for the different paths like how the old games used to do it made it more fun and made people more motivated to play them
If they want to keep extra paths, without forcing you to fight the boss first they should have very interesting traits, like some levels in the KR games, like poison rain, or an unusual path or strict type of enemies
They actually listen to player criticisms and change stuff, so I feel like they can be trusted to do the right thing - compared to the money grubbing shitebags that produce most mobile games Ironhide are still gods who deserve to get a little bit of a slice of the money for all the free content they have given, just as long as they don't get too greedy.
@@josephstewart2821 idk how much they really listen, there's a difference between making an apology letter and actually using player feedback to improve, I hate the constantly pessimistic cynical video essayists but Ironhide really does seem like they're on a downfall, consistently fumbling new releases what feels like more and more starting with Origins (still a good game but probably the first where the community has expressed some distaste)
It seems that IH doesn’t know how to make a good wave composition anymore. In JW they remedy the problem of singular enemies coming out in a long procession, but they’ve simply changed it to predictable groups of enemies coming out in a long procession rather than waves strategically designed to test the player. Granted, this is likely due to new devs but it’s still unfortunate (at least this is my hope, and not that they’ve simply become lazy, which would be truly unfortunate).
It feels like on the later levels the waves are extremely tough now, with too much HP to kill in a realistic timeframe before they have forced their way though the defences and virtually forcing players to either spend months grinding their tower damage up or pay the iron price for upgrades
God, the phase system is awful. Now you simply cannot adapt your defence to the current circumstances. The playstyle loses its plasticity, but that's the thing that makes KR games really stand out from the crowd. Without upgrades you now cannot change your strategy depending on a situation. No control over the game, basically. It's so heartbreaking to see Ironhide following in the PopCap's footsteps. This path leads to downfall...
Thanks for the great review. Card upgrade and energy mechanics were telltale signs of the direction of the game, but I wasn't expecting core gameplay to be so weak. I don't like the evolution of ironhide's tower defense games. The original KR game ends up having the deepest core gameplay of the whole series and holds the best for me. It feels like the following games each suffered from gameplay gimmicks, and disruptive monetization-focused features that all made them shallower and less replayable in the end.
Okay so before I say anything I just want to disclose that due to limited release I haven't played the game yet and I base my opinion heavily on the description of the game provided in the vid. So while the critique seems valid both the vid and the comments seem to agree that the game should go more in the direction of KR. Don't get me wrong I love KR but I also really want this game to become its own thing as I believe was the authors intention. To tell the truth I was hoping for a more RPG like experience where u choose how to level up your towers and abilities and perhaps even have a global amount of currency so that if you manage to safe on some missions you will have a little bit more in the next one. A big selling point would also be if you would have to choose appropriate towers for appropriate missions and not just steam roll with one setup (as in vengeance). From what I saw the game has the potential to become something like that. It just requires some (possibly a lot of) work. Btw. Great video and thank you for opening this discussion. I hope it helps to make this into a great game.
2:40 No way, I never realized that being able to build towers on only dedicated spots was a big part of the game, but now that you mension it, idd adds quite a lot of strategy that would be gone, had you been able to build towers anywhere
sooo basically, i like ironhide and the way they develop games, but this game just feels like a money mine that probably wont work without advertisment towards small children as the more serious players prob wont buy this one
I'm not even sure that it can be a money mine, cause content is finite and runs out quickly. It doesn't have a structure that allows infinite play like typical F2P mobile games. It's sad to see really.
Yeah, they seem to be struggling to find their way between premium and F2P models. It's also concerning that they seem to be dedicated to a losing path, since player base seems to be shrinking with every new game. I can only imagine the internal political struggle at the company. In the end, it also sucks because all we want is good games, and they showed that they can deliver...
Ive got a very simple question. In KR:Vengeance the slot limit is 5...and since Junkworld doesnt have the tower fork where it splits in to two specializations like in the og KR and frontiers and origins....then why the hell is the slot limit not 5 for Towers and Tactics in Junkworld?
hopefully, pc version won't have energy eventually. Strategic points is what actually drew me to Kingdom Rush. Free placing is boring. I guess I might pick it up on steam eventually, but there was no reason to change the winning formula of old kingdom rush games. It's not like they have a serious competitor.
Oh god they did the freemium model, lol. Plants vs Zombies also got absolutely wrecked by the same result. Ironhide does really good games, but the fact is, that mobile games are *not* what you want to follow in making good, quality games. Even though KR has mobile versions, it always did feel like it was a *version* of the game and not *the version* of the game. Between the trailer showing the upgrade system and the "energy" system, this was *tailor made* for the mobile bullshit. I've played *a lot* of mobile games; I can find ones that were good, underneath the nonsense, and some that were special and didn't engage in the nonsense at all. (As you can guess...these are very rare). And I have recognized every dirty trick in the book that they throw at you to incentivize throwing cash at the thing which, ultimately, doesn't make the difference that it should. 15 dollars on Kingdom Rush, you get a good game. 15 dollars on gems or whatever in a mobile game, and you'll get like 1% further into it. It's nonsensical. Maybe they'll release a steam version that...doesn't have that stuff (unlikely; once it's baked in, there isn't really an easy way to get rid of it). But alas, it's been almost a year now. And it doesn't even have a steam page...
Loot chests and energy bars. I won't even touch this game with a 10 foot pole. I bought all three Kingdom rush games on steam and I am very disappointed in Ironhide Games
This review makes me nervous to buy Junkworld. Really enjoyed all 4 kingdom rush. Didn’t feel like paying monthly for one game on Apple Arcade. Iron Marines kinda flopped a bit for me too.
Nice Video! As a big fan of the The Kingdom Rush games this is new game is a disappointment it reminds me of a bad tower defense game that i find in google play store. In my opinion kingdom rush was different from every tower defense game but this one is similar to the most td games on google play. Hope they will make the next game better
I really like Ironhide games, they are amazing... but energy, come on and no spots for building towers come on... I am sorry Ironhide but i do not know if i am going to play this Junk(world).
HEY IRONHIDE, just add more maps to the first 3/4 KRs, we will happily pay for them. Stop trying to reinvent tower defense games because your old developers have obviously moved on or they have just become drug addicts or I have no idea what.
limiting what you can chose at the start of levels,l ike what vengeance did, sucks in my mind. IT means there will always be some optimal pick to have and anything less you're almost screwed. If all towers were available right away, more style and strategy is available.
I just recently downloaded and have been playing this game and I have to say I really enjoy it. The energy isn't an issue. I have personally never run out of energy. You can't just power through this game because you need cards and that can take some grinding and checking in a few times a day but I haven't felt like I am required to pay money to enjoy this game. I wonder how much of your feedback and other's feedback they have implemented. I'd be curious to hear an update on your opinion of the game as it currently exists. Certainly the game is nowhere near as frustrating for me today as it was for you when you made your critique.
Does anybody know how to get the game? I tried using a VPN to connect to the countries it soft launched in but I couldn't play it. I know it's not great but I at least want to try it so if anyone knows how to get it that would be useful.
I always wonder how game developers destroy their franchise because of a few dollars when they could make millions more off consecutive games that are similar but different. I mean, just look at CoD or Fifa. Im really angry because i knew that would be happening the scond i saw how KR Vengeance was like... Sadly, Kingdom Rush is dead...
Honestly I'm very disappointed but again I didn't play the game so I'm not gonna be too harsh on em but I do miss the great storyline and the fantasy world of the kingdomrush games I get that not everyone cares about fantasy and that fantasy doesn't equal good but idk I just miss the old games
Vengeance was waay to easy so they made junkworld insanely tough. I mean they didn't bother to listen to other criticisms of vengeance. They made them worse and added an energy system on top. RIP
This video would not be possible without the tremendous help provided by Mmlh for his footage of the game. Go and subscribe to him!
Also, take notice of the release date of this video. This is the original state of the game, not the current Junkworld that is on Apple Arcade right now. Please do not draw conclusions about the full release of Junkworld based on this critique.
Mmlh op
Dude, have you played Dungeon Warfare?
He really does everything, doesn't he?
I've played the game on iOS and couldn't finish it. I'm not certain why, but @IronhideGameStudio has lost something critical beginning with Vengeance.
Hello! We did a soft launch as the game is still in development and it will change and evolve to be improved untill its ready. Every feedback we get is very valuable and important for us and we would also like to thank all the community for the amazing support and really great feedback they are providing us with!
Take notes ironhide
Please Ironhide, no energy! It’ll be the death of your games. Just set a price for the game + premium towers like Vengeance.
Yes, an energy system is totally unneeded. Most kingdom rush/tower defense fans i know will usually be happy to buy these games at full price
Iornhide we all appreciate your work and love your amazing games we do but please energy is a horrible idea just make this game more like vengeance I loved that game so much
Energy would be a bad idea. I wouldn't purchase junk world if it had an energy system
Junkworld feels like Ironhide forgot what made KR superb in the first place, hell it hardly feels average at best as a tower defense game. "The less is more" was one of the main appeals of the original KR trilogy which was executed beautifully too back then. But here, the game design is a lot more "broad" for a lack of a better word, which gives more grounds for comparisons to other TDs. Bloons TD 6 handles abilities better, handles buff/support towers better and also handles tower placement better with how the game works. It's more balanced too, surprisingly. No energy system or aggressive monetization in general either. I've played both BTD and KR extensively for years, and while Ninja Kiwi impressively keeps improving, Ironhide is stumbling with its recent TD games.
Yeah man its kinda sad. The original trilogy was so fun and amazing.
I agree with this. Which is why I get annoyed by the common plebeians when I said I was glad ironhide was taking time to develop other game concepts. Because obviously the tower defence genre is intrinsically limiting and ironhide is the only game studio which really innovated on the genre. I love the games but I think this is unfortunately the case where they’ve become too comfortable with their success leading to mediocre mechanics.
KR Frontiers was the gold standard of tower defence games for me.
@@WingWingHerro tbh, origins is the most fun out of all them it's the only game i comeback to once in while to replay it!
Bloons TD 6 ? Péssimo jogo.
This is so good. I’m also glad I don’t have to make this video now.
My favourite part about KR games is experimentation, figuring out what kinds of stupid nonsensical strategy you can come out with that will work is really fun, adding energy system will make this part of the game just not possible anymore, really hopes ironhide doesn't go this route for the full release
Oh god why did they add an energy system, I hope they make a definitive/PC version without it along with other fixes
or just no energy on all platforms
@@ja9mz663 that would be better
@@ja9mz663 Paid games usually make very little money on mobile.
The kr games had unique parts that made them stand out like having limited space to build towers, heroes and ally troops and having to adapt on the fly, that's why tower upgrades worked so well like: this enemy is near the end better upgrade buildings around him and put reinforcements to stop them.
The energy sistem is just bad like in the other games you just lost some time and you want to retry but having energy taken from you makes you want to search a tutorial for that level taking out the enjoyment of playing. Talking about the level up sistem it sucks going from a road of upgrades that you choose to generic this stats go up is horrible, the way you earn the stuff to upgrade is also horrible, from stars awarding you for how well you completed a level to going out of your way to do a more difficult version of a level was great and rewarding, here it sucks its rng that's all i gotta say. The only thing that's improved in every ironhide game is the artstile its really good, i think having multiple towers and ally troops to choose from to do a level is a good idea just executed in really bad way, they really struggle to balance them.
The major flaws of this game are separating tower building and defending and the lack of a story, even vengeance being bad compared to other kr games still continued the story in an interesting way, i played iron marines the story was interesting while not directly tied to the kr storyline was still enjoyable. To end this it feels like playing bloons td with the kr artstile but without half of the features of bloons so why am i playing this game when i could be playing bloons or the other kr games.
4/10 vengeance was better somehow.
Just a thought on story and ways they could do it better. I do enjoy the comic strips. In fact I kinda wish they rewarded u with more and if they had the budget I would really like to see a short animation feature for the beginning and end of the next game. Seriously even if it was a simple 5 secs I think it would look great if they tried!
Personally I thought vengeance was ok with the addition of the bonus levels, it still did feel a bit lackluster though in it's main campaign. It's honestly tragic Ironhide is just becoming a typical "mobile game" company. I enjoyed all their past games up to vengeance.
5:30 oh how the mighty have fallen, this is your stereotypical mobile game with xp, energy, purchasable regular and special currency, gimmicky daily stuff that you unlock later on, and even a special offer? sigh
edit: wait, upgrading the towers in-game is not a thing? you only get that clash royale-like upgrade system? WTF
edit edit: not even armor and magic res? what is this garbage? (or should I say, JUNK, haha, ha, ha...)
Haha level 13 ebarbs go brrr
I honestly wouldn't mind tower abilities and even the free placement (as I play Bloons) but the energy is what kills it.
The biggest issue I have with the newer games is the lack of innovation in the foundations of what makes a tower defence game. They’ve done great with the reinforcements and heroes but these newer games are bland because they’re simple and basic. A few of my thoughts to improve this would be to make a BIG map that requires multitasking by managing two seperate but distinct parts of the map where you defend choke points that are opposite each other. You would then move the screen just a bit so it’s not too annoying to check up on each part of the field. But if that’s too bold they can inverse previous concepts. Like the moon mechanic on the Halloween enemies but this time it works in favour of us by giving them vulnerable side effects. Y’know what I should just make my own video. This is becoming too long xD
I genuinely have no idea how Ironhide made an almost perfectly balanced game (KR1) 12 years ago, and are now making stuff like this and vengeance
Huh
Quick note about the Command Center bit - it's also a bit buggy, and in this specific instance, it was giving +20% to the first Sniper, +10% to the second, and +0% to the third.
It's just... not fun anymore.
No more tower upgrades in levels, aka no more strategy, just practically tower spam, no more special tower offbranches, only way to upgrade and gain progress is to grind cards for upgrades which is just TEDIOUS.
It's not fun at all.
I would rather have Legends of Kingdom Rush on every platform than have this game fixed tbh. I'm worried that it has too many problems
Ironhide:ok people let’s make a new game with better graphics,new mechanics,launch it on every device and update the game every fucking week
Me: just please update KR you don’t have to do too much you can take out your phone go to camera do the middle finger picture it and tape it on the KR map. You might think”that’s not a very good update”bro we live in a world where we laugh at stupid shit like this”balls deep(say it in a funny accent)”
When your footage is basically
_insert The Real Morgan's 'FAILURE'_
😘
*E V E R Y O N E I S H E -*
wait shit, where's Rexy?
I think ironhide is trying new ways of td systems and it isn't just working
I think the game looks good and has new mechanics which is something good but still,if it didn't had app purchases and energy system would be a LOT better.
Nice video Voduke, I was looking forward to this, I’ll wait a bit. Why are people disliking the video, criticism is supposed to help improve games.
Haven’t played it yet but I was hyped to see what Ironhide will do next but it seems like they’ve become the very thing they swore to destroy (shitty mobile games)
I haven't played it myself yet, but separating the building and defence into seprate phases just seem dumb. It removes all flexibility and doesn't allow you to make quick adjustements to your strategy. And why only four towers at a time? Vengence was bad enough with 5.
just why... why did they go down this energy and permanent tower leveling route
Money
Vengeance was okay, but Frontiers was the peak of these games. Origins was good but seemed limited at times.
from making apple arcade exclusive to this energy based game bullshit, Iron Hide really try its best to lose its player base.
You know, PVZ3 and Junkworld are very similar in how they stray too far from the formula. I won't talk too much about junkyard (because this is a video about it), but pvz3 made one big mistake which branches out to make the game annoying. That was the decision to remove your ability to pick your seeds. You get a selection of plants for the level, and that's it. Levels are also the easiest they have been in the series (No joke, one of the levels is just 5 basics. It's not the first level, it's around level 16). The inability to pick your seeds makes levels boring, and the terrible zombie variety hurts a lot. The inability to pick your seeds also removes a lot of plant variety, as there are about 7 plants. No, I am not joking. The reason for this is that not being able to pick your seeds means that if they had a similar amount of plants to, say, PVZ1, a lot of the plants would be not used that much through no fault of the plant, but because of the restrictive game design. Imagine if when you were playing BTD6, you only got to use a selection of 3 towers specific to the map. That's not "interesting strategic design", its restricting the gameplay for the sake of restricting the gameplay. Just like an energy system.
All in all, these two games made one mistake that permeates the whole game, like a single weed spreading its roots all through a garden, resulting in the whole game becoming worse overall.
New games used to be a step up. Now days its the opposite way round
Bad design choice to introduce an energy system.
It kills free to play users right away- as the stages need many trial runs.
The lack of energy also makes it impossible to play test units, so every new unit you get usually ends up costing you the map- and your energy.
They mitigate this energy requirement by making each stage only last 3 waves of enemies, and the fact you can free build towers on empty space really tells me that the developers are washing their hands with dealing with user and played complaints; you put a tower in a bad spot?
This makes the user at fault.
I hope they can see this vid
If this is really full version i think i will not play it for long
On the topic of being able to place towers anywhere, I actually have the exact opposite problem.
With the KR games, the fact that you couldn't place towers anywhere was a fun challenge, most often not allowing you to have more than 3 towers in one chokepoint. Sometimes it felt like the game was saying "How are you gonna win with THESE terrible placements, buckaroo?"
In Junkworld however, being able to place towers anywhere would make it so that you can essentially force a chokepoint anywhere (if the barracks didn't suck).
I haven't gotten the chance to actually play junkworld, this is just based on the info you provided.
You know ironhide messed up real bad when people say krv was better then this.
Earlier i complained about the energy system but. I love junkworlds aesthetic and its lore so far. I cant wait till the other towers and tactics are buffed since im sure they will be.
0:36 nah its not you , a majority of us feel that way. Maybe they didn't put that much effort into it due to it being a free game, but that's just imo.
I think kr vengeance was a step in the right direction in terms of innovating Iron hides style of tower defense. The choice between your towers before each level was cool but the monetization system holds it back. There’s a lot of potential in building off of vengeance mechanics and style and they should’ve made this game like so or put effort into another project.
Ngl the balance of the towers where atrocious like just spam boners and spectral mausoleums and the enemies would just be stalled forever.
Having to pay to play a level is like having to pay to attend your job
Oddly enough that's a real thing for certain professions.
Well now it doesn't feel as special that it came early where I'm at
Praying for patches soon
Early access means your input can help shape the patches, since the devs are listening for feedback.
Honestly, another thing that could be rectified is the fact that they introduced an armor mechanic into the first world... and promptly threw it away entirely for the second, where there are exactly 0 enemies with armor or armor-giving abilities. Underused Game Mechanics are kinda sad.
There should have been something like a mutated crab enemy with high armor but low HP (they had expies of radstags and bloodbugs, mirelurks wouldn't hurt), which would make armor-piercing mechanics have a use. Or even just make 3/8s of the gator rider's health into armor so there's more incentive to use snipers on them. Or heck, make some of the Order Soldiers/Scientists' HP into armor, since they are actually wearing armor!
The shield enemies do have armour - if you watch closely you'll see they have two bars, one for the shield one and for the HP
Yeah. Those and the motorbike guys that give other enemies armor by throwing junk at them. This shield mechanic is used in the first world... and is completely ditched in the second.
Damn. I was excited for this and now I'm disappointed. Oh well back to Origins I guess.
Guess I'm waiting a few years until it's released in it's best state on PC like I usually do. I can see a few things that have potential but it's obviously in it's very early stages. I'd never even heard of Apple Arcade until the release of Legends of Kingdom Rush. I just read that as "Coming to PC soon". Guess I can treat Junkworld the same way.
Damn, the tower balance is even off.
Kingdom Rush is fun because even though you *probably* shouldn't if you want to keep your sanity, you can basically just use one tower type and get away with a win on the campaign, even on the hardest difficult. But not just a tower type, any of them, and even just restricted to one of their variants at that.
It's a testament to the design of the game that you can do this. It doesn't make the game easier (the opposite in fact; it's very demanding). But it basically means "You can do anything you want...but you also have to know what you're doing with it." Which is very, very fun.
My take on the progression of the game is that they should stick to their tried and proven campaign path and so you can unlock the extra paths after defeating the boss, also having more bosses for the different paths like how the old games used to do it made it more fun and made people more motivated to play them
If they want to keep extra paths, without forcing you to fight the boss first they should have very interesting traits, like some levels in the KR games, like poison rain, or an unusual path or strict type of enemies
Agreed with everything you said, am worried for the future of Ironhide. Hopefully they can change their ways and not become like EA.
Well they are really far from EA
👉👉
They actually listen to player criticisms and change stuff, so I feel like they can be trusted to do the right thing - compared to the money grubbing shitebags that produce most mobile games Ironhide are still gods who deserve to get a little bit of a slice of the money for all the free content they have given, just as long as they don't get too greedy.
@@josephstewart2821 idk how much they really listen, there's a difference between making an apology letter and actually using player feedback to improve, I hate the constantly pessimistic cynical video essayists but Ironhide really does seem like they're on a downfall, consistently fumbling new releases what feels like more and more starting with Origins (still a good game but probably the first where the community has expressed some distaste)
also I think the artstyle has gone up from kr to kro, and downhill since
Absolutely!
Every single characters neck is stoop.
It seems that IH doesn’t know how to make a good wave composition anymore. In JW they remedy the problem of singular enemies coming out in a long procession, but they’ve simply changed it to predictable groups of enemies coming out in a long procession rather than waves strategically designed to test the player. Granted, this is likely due to new devs but it’s still unfortunate (at least this is my hope, and not that they’ve simply become lazy, which would be truly unfortunate).
It feels like on the later levels the waves are extremely tough now, with too much HP to kill in a realistic timeframe before they have forced their way though the defences and virtually forcing players to either spend months grinding their tower damage up or pay the iron price for upgrades
God, the phase system is awful. Now you simply cannot adapt your defence to the current circumstances. The playstyle loses its plasticity, but that's the thing that makes KR games really stand out from the crowd. Without upgrades you now cannot change your strategy depending on a situation. No control over the game, basically.
It's so heartbreaking to see Ironhide following in the PopCap's footsteps. This path leads to downfall...
1:10 this is peak editing. you wont see finer and funnier editing anywhere else on youtube
wait, there's an energy system??? it took me 40 tries to beat some iron challenges in the KR games
You even need to use energy to restart a stage its ridiculous
It took me 30 tries to beat the hardest JW level, so yes, the energy system might be slightly problematic there.
Please just make this ‘kingdom rush 5’ but with this theme. Why change what’s perfect?
Wow. I was mad I couldn't play this game but now I'm less mad. I mean like I still wanna play it cause I'm a hardcore ironhide fan
I hope they get rid of the energy and card system.go back to something similar to vengeance or origins
game is literally fieldrunners 2.0 😭😭
Thanks for the great review.
Card upgrade and energy mechanics were telltale signs of the direction of the game, but I wasn't expecting core gameplay to be so weak.
I don't like the evolution of ironhide's tower defense games. The original KR game ends up having the deepest core gameplay of the whole series and holds the best for me.
It feels like the following games each suffered from gameplay gimmicks, and disruptive monetization-focused features that all made them shallower and less replayable in the end.
Okay so before I say anything I just want to disclose that due to limited release I haven't played the game yet and I base my opinion heavily on the description of the game provided in the vid.
So while the critique seems valid both the vid and the comments seem to agree that the game should go more in the direction of KR. Don't get me wrong I love KR but I also really want this game to become its own thing as I believe was the authors intention.
To tell the truth I was hoping for a more RPG like experience where u choose how to level up your towers and abilities and perhaps even have a global amount of currency so that if you manage to safe on some missions you will have a little bit more in the next one. A big selling point would also be if you would have to choose appropriate towers for appropriate missions and not just steam roll with one setup (as in vengeance).
From what I saw the game has the potential to become something like that. It just requires some (possibly a lot of) work.
Btw. Great video and thank you for opening this discussion. I hope it helps to make this into a great game.
I like how ISAB represents Canada.
I love how you showed ISAB for Canada
I like how Google considers ISAB to be a musical artist and credits him for the BTD OST.
that is incredible, LMAO
Google is a totally reliable source of information
I totally agree with everything you said.This is a great video which shows all the problems the game in it's current state has!
2:40 No way, I never realized that being able to build towers on only dedicated spots was a big part of the game, but now that you mension it, idd adds quite a lot of strategy that would be gone, had you been able to build towers anywhere
sooo basically, i like ironhide and the way they develop games, but this game just feels like a money mine that probably wont work without advertisment towards small children as the more serious players prob wont buy this one
I'm not even sure that it can be a money mine, cause content is finite and runs out quickly. It doesn't have a structure that allows infinite play like typical F2P mobile games. It's sad to see really.
@@opseeker they really chose the wrong way (energy system), and they did it in the wrong way (energy system in finite game)
Yeah, they seem to be struggling to find their way between premium and F2P models. It's also concerning that they seem to be dedicated to a losing path, since player base seems to be shrinking with every new game. I can only imagine the internal political struggle at the company. In the end, it also sucks because all we want is good games, and they showed that they can deliver...
Ive got a very simple question. In KR:Vengeance the slot limit is 5...and since Junkworld doesnt have the tower fork where it splits in to two specializations like in the og KR and frontiers and origins....then why the hell is the slot limit not 5 for Towers and Tactics in Junkworld?
Thanks for the deep analysis, Voduke. Hope they put the fun back in!
hopefully, pc version won't have energy eventually. Strategic points is what actually drew me to Kingdom Rush. Free placing is boring. I guess I might pick it up on steam eventually, but there was no reason to change the winning formula of old kingdom rush games. It's not like they have a serious competitor.
Yeah this is their worst game yet. I guess you can say it's a piece of junk!😉
Get it? Junk! Cz it's the name of the game!
Wow, this review is brutal. I was hoping to play this, but no longer. Looks like a poor money grab without the content to drive purchases.
Oh god they did the freemium model, lol. Plants vs Zombies also got absolutely wrecked by the same result. Ironhide does really good games, but the fact is, that mobile games are *not* what you want to follow in making good, quality games. Even though KR has mobile versions, it always did feel like it was a *version* of the game and not *the version* of the game.
Between the trailer showing the upgrade system and the "energy" system, this was *tailor made* for the mobile bullshit. I've played *a lot* of mobile games; I can find ones that were good, underneath the nonsense, and some that were special and didn't engage in the nonsense at all. (As you can guess...these are very rare).
And I have recognized every dirty trick in the book that they throw at you to incentivize throwing cash at the thing which, ultimately, doesn't make the difference that it should. 15 dollars on Kingdom Rush, you get a good game. 15 dollars on gems or whatever in a mobile game, and you'll get like 1% further into it. It's nonsensical.
Maybe they'll release a steam version that...doesn't have that stuff (unlikely; once it's baked in, there isn't really an easy way to get rid of it). But alas, it's been almost a year now. And it doesn't even have a steam page...
Loot chests and energy bars. I won't even touch this game with a 10 foot pole. I bought all three Kingdom rush games on steam and I am very disappointed in Ironhide Games
I’m sad that I can’t play this game because of where I live
This review makes me nervous to buy Junkworld. Really enjoyed all 4 kingdom rush. Didn’t feel like paying monthly for one game on Apple Arcade. Iron Marines kinda flopped a bit for me too.
It doesn’t cost snything
It's still in soft launch. No global release. Why aren't they doing a global release?
Hope they get rid of the energy system
YOUVE SEEN THE ROOM?! 😍😍
I have not played the game, but all your points make sense and I would have the same problems
vengence post game was boring
but this is the true meaning of taking my phone and smash it with the wall
Nice Video! As a big fan of the The Kingdom Rush games this is new game is a disappointment it reminds me of a bad tower defense game that i find in google play store. In my opinion kingdom rush was different from every tower defense game but this one is similar to the most td games on google play. Hope they will make the next game better
Just give junkworld kingdom rush gameplay and it will be fine.
I really like Ironhide games, they are amazing... but energy, come on and no spots for building towers come on... I am sorry Ironhide but i do not know if i am going to play this Junk(world).
I liked this video. Honest feedback is great, and I want to know everything about a game before I get it, not just the good stuff.
Kingdom Rush frontiers and Iron Marines was the gold standard for me. It seems Ironhide cares about more money and not quality from now on.
HEY IRONHIDE, just add more maps to the first 3/4 KRs, we will happily pay for them. Stop trying to reinvent tower defense games because your old developers have obviously moved on or they have just become drug addicts or I have no idea what.
This game was disapointing!
Such a shame its been one year and it still isnt released everywhere, I wish to play since kr is my favorite mobile game but literally cant..
limiting what you can chose at the start of levels,l ike what vengeance did, sucks in my mind.
IT means there will always be some optimal pick to have and anything less you're almost screwed.
If all towers were available right away, more style and strategy is available.
They said there is a reward for players who pre order the game ? What is it?
I think you get extra crates and resources.
I just recently downloaded and have been playing this game and I have to say I really enjoy it. The energy isn't an issue. I have personally never run out of energy. You can't just power through this game because you need cards and that can take some grinding and checking in a few times a day but I haven't felt like I am required to pay money to enjoy this game. I wonder how much of your feedback and other's feedback they have implemented. I'd be curious to hear an update on your opinion of the game as it currently exists. Certainly the game is nowhere near as frustrating for me today as it was for you when you made your critique.
Don't forget this is a soft launch so it very possible for a bunch of things to be changed in the hard launch
The REAL Ironhide watched this video 😮
Good review. So sad, kingdom rush is great, maybe they will release a "back to basics" in the future.
The gaameplay feels like bloons td where you just pile up everything
Well, got there again after the two literal years it took IH to make Junkworld viable
mans watches isab, i can tell he is a man of culture
Sauda for ISAB is the LKR Knight for me
Resumindo: Esse jogo é uma bosta. Uma vergonha para a IronHide
Are you planning on making a new review, now that the game is fully out?
I asked him on his discord sever and he said he can’t
Great review. I'm subscribing 🙂👍
I completely agree, but I still think that the game looks fun. (Except, of course, the energy system. Nobody likes that.)
Why would they opt for BloonTD's tower placement approach tho? It makes no sense
Does anybody know how to get the game? I tried using a VPN to connect to the countries it soft launched in but I couldn't play it. I know it's not great but I at least want to try it so if anyone knows how to get it that would be useful.
I always wonder how game developers destroy their franchise because of a few dollars when they could make millions more off consecutive games that are similar but different. I mean, just look at CoD or Fifa. Im really angry because i knew that would be happening the scond i saw how KR Vengeance was like... Sadly, Kingdom Rush is dead...
Hahahahahah it's not anavaible in my country
Same here, It's been 3 months this game still haven't showed up in play store
Same
LOL what a turd of a game. A real pity, Kingdom Rush games are awesome (well, Vengeance being quite weaker than the rest of course).
Hey voduke , I have a question could. you please make a tier list ranking all ironhide games?
1. Kingdom rush origins 2. Kingdom rush 3. Kingdom rush frontiers 4. Iron marines 5. Legends of kingdom rush 6. Kingdom rush vengeance 7. Junkworld 8. Rise of the olympians my list 👍
@@raskult Origins is way bad than original or frontiers in my opinion.I would put frontiers at first.
Honestly I'm very disappointed but again I didn't play the game so I'm not gonna be too harsh on em but I do miss the great storyline and the fantasy world of the kingdomrush games I get that not everyone cares about fantasy and that fantasy doesn't equal good but idk I just miss the old games
Vengeance was waay to easy so they made junkworld insanely tough.
I mean they didn't bother to listen to other criticisms of vengeance.
They made them worse and added an energy system on top.
RIP
I wish that this game also had a full steam version, would get it immediately
sooooo basically, the energy system detracts from all the other game systems. sounds about right.