Plants vs. Zombies is a gateway drug. I remember the first taste I got. I downloaded the trial on Xbox Live! After an excellent hour or so, I realized I wanted more. I needed to defend my home from the horde. So, PopCap received my hefty 1200 MS points, and I played to my heart’s content.

I found myself looking for more hordes to destroy. I hit rock bottom when watching Kirk Cameron FMV’s from “The Horde,” which wasn’t even a tower defense game. I needed hordes, and I didn’t care what I had to endure to get it.

Luckily, a little developer called FazeCat put out Paladog!  The exclamation’s part of the silly name, and not something that feel needs to be exclaimed.

The game’s premise is surprisingly decent. The world has ended, at least for humankind, and animals now rule the world in anthropomorphic ways. Through some sort of sorcery, humans are rising from their graves and pose a threat to the peace of Critterland. You are the animal kingdom’s last hope. You are a horse-riding paladin dog (Hence, the awfully cute portmanteau title.). You are Paladog!

Your job, as Paladog!, is to lead your troops into battle. You start small, with ill-equipped, meek mice. Along the way, your animals get stronger and cuter, until you have the fiercest animal of all: The Pink Dragon. Your resources are split between food and mana. They restore at a set rate, though this rate and the reserve cap on both resources can be increased through skill points and equipment. You may summon creatures using food and cast attack and support spells using magic. A majority of your time will be spent keeping your animals in Paladog’s aura, as they get statistical boosts, healing, hastened movement, and boosted attacks while in Paladog’s aura. You can also increase the aura’s size through skill points.

Most stages are your standard tower defense variety. Fight the incoming horde and do your best to destroy their castle using your magic and allied creatures. However, every third stage presents a gimmick. You will have battlefield missions (which most resemble Plants vs. Zombies if the Plants were mobile), escort missions (which consist of escorting a wagon to the end of the stage), and destiny missions (which you receive random critters and spells and must manage an incoming horde the best you can). With the exception of the escort missions, which are virtually identical to the regular stages, these provide a nice change-of-pace to break up the monotony. Every twelfth stage is a boss battle. As expected, these are the most challenging and chaotic.

Undead Soccer Players? More interesting than living soccer players.

Paladog! is a surprisingly fun title. It provides around 15 hours of action, though most of those hours will be spent grinding out levels and garnering gold to buy new units or increase the power of existing units. Most of these units will become obsolete rather quickly when you unlock the last two critters, though the turtle remains relevant throughout the game as a living wall.

This game is crafted for portability. With the exception of the boss battles, each stage takes around 3 minutes to complete. Currently at 120 missions, the game provides a great value with a few minor issues.

Paladog! does not support the retina display, meaning these cute sprites are just a bit on the blurry side. Also, since there are next-to-no instructions, I didn’t even realize I could sell items until I was 80 stages into the game. The tab to go to the store didn’t stick out and, thus, was ignored. I, perhaps, spent more time grinding than necessary due to poor instructions. Finally, there is a level cap of 100, which I wasn’t aware of while I was powering up my character. Had I known this, I may have leveled the character differently.

Those nitpicking qualms aside, Pets vs. Zombies Paladog! is a nice introduction to the genre that is cute enough to appeal to the masses. The value it provides is well worth the $1.99 price tag.

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Platform: iOS

Related posts:

1. Paladog! (iOS) update on the horizon.
2. Correction: Paladog! update already live, worth playing
3. Review: Army of Darkness: Defense (iOS)