Castle Panic

Today's review is of the 2009 release, Castle Panic.  For 1-6 players, it takes 60 minutes.

Overview
In Castle Panic, you and your friends (this is a cooperative game) are desperate to defend your tower from the hordes of monsters approaching from all directions.  A monster will approach from one of three different arcs (initial placement determined by a die roll) and advance steadily through rings, each of which can be covered by different defenders (like archers, knights, etc.).  On your turn, all monsters advance one ring.  Then you can draw, play, and trade cards to do as much damage as possible to the beasts (or slow them down).  Then, as your turn concludes, you must draw and place two more monsters on the outer ring, meaning the onslaught is unceasing.  Survive until the end to win!

the game board; image from here

Review
This is a decent game.  I'm not a huge fan of 'tower defense' games in general, but this was pretty fun.  The cooperative nature was good but felt lacking- most of the time, the next move (or best card trade) appeared obvious (not just for the active player but for all), directing choice and so minimizing the strategic element and tension (we didn't have to fret over hard choices- there were none).  It's not bad, and may be quite good for the genre, but I don't plan to play it often.

Rating: B