Bloons TD5 by Ninjakiwi

One thing I noticed immediately was the subtle music in the background. It was a nice way to introduce the game. The initial scene that set up the beginning of the game was the blowing up of the ground beneath where the monkey was standing. The animations were great and the monkey was sitting on top of the name of the game eating a banana and you could hear him biting it. The home page had a bunch of features which I’m sure would make more sense to someone who played this often, but it was honestly a little overwhelming for my first time and was complete different style from the original Bloons TD that I remember from as a child. There were many options for the tracks I could choose from. Once you chose a track you could decide what level of difficulty you wanted the game to be like, with an increased amount of monetary reward for the higher levels of difficulty. I chose easy. The animation were pretty good, adding a sense of 3-D elements with the underground tunnels and the windmill shadows. The sound effects of the balloons popping were a nice addition to the overall vibe of the game. It was a little confusing to start at first, maybe because I didn’t read the directions, but I felt a bit stressed when all the balloons started coming out and I didn’t put the monkey down yet. After the successful completion of each level, you got some type of upgrade, whether it be a level up of an original shooter guy or a new shooter guy. It costs “money” to buy the shooter guys, but with every balloon you successfully pop, you get more “money”. Also, I thought the fact that there were upgrades to the shooter guys which was a nice persuader to keep you playing/finishing the 50 rounds if you didn’t unlock another shooter guy. I think these upgrades and additional shooter guys are an effective way of making the user want to continue playing this game. It brings an element of mystery because there are a bunch of question marks that become uncovered when you unlock a new shooter guy. I also thought it was smart how they added a fast forward function that you could select to make the balloons go faster. And there were different color balloons that travel at different speeds which adds and extra element of excitement! Overall, I think the game is pretty well designed with its animations and sound effects. It is a bit repetitive, but the designers did a pretty good job with what they could work with to make the game have variety.