Every so often, game developers get a hit on their hands and cash in with follow-ups. Occasionally, they look back and launch a prequel.

As often as not, these come across as tortuous and slightly contrived affairs. Their sole purpose is to milk the franchise even further.

However, that is quite definitely not the case with Kingdom Rush Origins. For once, the backstory of this tower defense game hits the mark. And it's every bit as pleasing as the original effort and sequel.

Kudos to Ironhide Games for making Kingdom Rush Origins, the third installment of the award-winning Kingdom Rush series.

Features

● New towers and troops

● 8 new tower upgrades with more than 18 abilities

● New elf characters

● 9 legendary heroes to train and upgrade

● Epic battle gameplay

● 30 new enemies

More

If you haven't been into tower defense strategy games before, Kingdom Rush is the one to turn you on to the genre. Indeed, Kingdom Rush Origins is a fine starting place to introduce yourself.

And it holds strong appeal, too, for those who are veterans of the saga. While there is much new for hardcore fans, there is enough for the game to seem reassuringly familiar.

The setup is that you are going back in time to when Vez'nan even considered threatening the kingdom by unleashing the gem of power. Much of what happens goes some way to explaining things that come later. And, for KR enthusiasts, there are plenty of nods to the future they will appreciate.

The big difference is that you are in command of an elven army tasked with defending the mystical lands from various sea serpents, hordes of gnoll tribesmen, and evil sorcerers.

It doesn't disappoint. There's a wealth of new content and features to keep you engaged while retaining the familiar Kingdom Rush look and feel.

PROS

● Over 70 achievements to fight for

● Three difficulty modes

● In-game encyclopedia

● Addictive and easily one of the best tower defense games out there

● Multi-language support

CONS

● In-app purchases are expensive compared to the initial buying cost

Price - From $0.99 to $2.99 depending on which device you are buying it for

How to use

Kingdom Rush Origins is downloadable from Google Play and Apple's App Store. It is also available from the Steam, Amazon, and Nintendo Switch app stores.

The game is highly rated on Google Play and the App Store. It has been ranked as a 4.8 and 4.9 out of five, respectively. So high praise indeed.

Android requirements vary by device, while iOS users need to supply only 308.4 MB of storage space and run iOS 8.0 or later.

If you have played any other Kingdom Rush iterations, you will have no problem getting into KR Origins. Newbies should pick things up pretty quickly too.

However, no matter your previous exposure, it's well worthwhile stopping by the in-game encyclopedia. Here you can find all sorts of tasty tips for:

● defeating foes

● making faster progress

● and generally removing a lot of the trial and error