FORTIX 2

Turns tower defense on its head

You, Sir Fortix, the lone knight of the kingdom, are called upon to save the land of Artalom from the clutches of the evil mage Xitrof—alone. Without any help whatsoever. That's the gist of Fortix 2, an unexpectedly nifty puzzle title—think of it as a "reverse tower defense" game. You have to control all the units on the map (gates, keys, towers, power-ups, catapults, and so on) by boxing off terrain, which captures anything within it. What's more, you have to box off the units without disrupting the lines you're creating—any interruptions will immediately kill your character.

All this is presented in a cool top-down, animated sprite style. It may not push the edge of your Mac's graphical capabilities, but it still creates an energetic vibe that goes well with bouncy, medieval, heroic music and almost arcade-esque sound effects.

Where Fortix 2 succeeds is in its approach. After finishing the tutorial and sample levels, the game places you in a relatively daunting position at the beginning of each level. Walls will block you; sand, mud, and watery terrain will slow you down; and a combination of turrets, dragons, and ogres all working together to kill you doesn't help much either.

What the game teaches you to do is to focus on carving up a larger puzzle into several smaller ones. Say you you're tackling a large chunk of the map, but you're under steady fire from a nearby turret. Instead, work on capturing a nearby catapult to return fire and destroy the turret, boxing off small chunks of the map to make capturing the catapult easier. Tactics like these make the game both fun and slightly infuriating. There's an unmistakable satisfaction when you enter a level, die a few times, figure out the best way to work the level, and make it through by the skin of your teeth.

While Fortix 2 does have a few kinks to work out, they're not deal-breakers. The controls alternate between being satisfyingly responsive and a bit sluggish on occasion—this could stand some finessing in a future version. And strangely, once you've launched the application, it's impossible to Command-Tab to any other applications open in Mac OS X.

The bottom line. In spite of a few bugs to sort out, Fortix 2 remains fun and energetic. You're probably not going to devote endless hours to it, but for its $9.99 asking price, Fortix 2 hits the sweet spot between casual and head-scratchingly tricky. Bonus points for the unique graphical style and light system requirements.

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