"Jump into the wasteland and prepare for mayhem!"
Junkworld (2023) is a new Tower Defense game developed by Ironhide Game Studio, creators of Kingdom Rush series. Taking a detour from fantasy setting, it is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that resulted from nuclear annihilation. Taking on the role of a combat strategist of the organization of survivors known as Scavengers, you must repel the attacks of other hostile survivors, mutants and evil creations. The main gameplay of placing towers along set paths is still present, but inhabits a few differences, such as the freedom of placing towers wherever you like, a different system of resource earning and management and a limit of how much units of one tower can be present at once. There are four types of towers: Striker, Defenders, Artillery, and Support. Each tower has their own unique use, as well as strengths and weaknesses. The tower level-up system is also different, with towers costing Scrap to place and Fuel Cells to gain various abilities. Both can only be done between waves of enemies. Each tower comes with two passive abilities and one active that is unlocked regardless of a level.- Strikers are the main source of the player's single-target damage dealing. They are capable of attacking ground and flying forces. They include Machine Gunner, Sniper Nest, Lumberjack, Drone Hive and Mad Scientist.
- Defenders are tough combatants used to slow foes down while other towers pick them off by fighting them in hand-to-hand combat. A player may control where the soldiers spawn by changing their rally point. Generally attack ground units only, but there may be exceptions. These include Waste Disposer, Underground Workers, Plague Ambulance and Raff Rats.
- Support are oddballs among the towers in how diverse their effects are. From simply slowing down the foes to giving buffs to their allies, these towers are focused less on direct combat and more on assisting more oriented towers. These include Command Center, Automated Barn, Ice Cooler and Wifi Babies.
- Artillery is the main Area of Effect tower. It deals high amounts of damage to high amounts of enemies using Splash Damage. Artillery have a slow rate of fire, thus they are also best used in conjunction with Defenders troops. They are capable of attacking ground and (depending on what your tower is) flying forces. These are Fire Trucker, Blastin' Bullriders, Tremor Drill, Mortal Mortar, Magnetron and Sumo Onsen.
Tropes In Junkworld Include:
- Action Bomb: Bloating Frogs in the Swamp explode when killed, leaving behind a toxic pool that deals heavy constant damage to your forces standing in it.
- Action Girl: Many Scavengers are female and are more than capable of utilising various weaponry and combat skills, killing mutants and other foes. Justified, since life in post-apocalyptic wasteland is tough and requires much effort.
- After the End: The game is set in a world affected by the nuclear war repercussions, with Nuclear Mutant, wastelands and rivaling survivor factions.
- Airborne Mook: Each faction has one. Those fly above the ground and often compensate their relatively low health by not being targeted by Artillery and possessing some ability to make them even more dangerous.
- Animate Inanimate Object: Most, if not all enemies in Psychopolis are everyday city objects, vehicles and utilities brought to life as hostile constructs thanks to the local Arc Villain powers.
- Animalistic Abomination: Pretty much every mutant found in Swamps is this thanks to the effects of radiation. From gaining humanoid traits, multiple heads and bright red eyes, to gaining an almost endless supply of offsprings that pop out of the parent's body like a tumor.
- Anti-Structure: Quite a few of foes and bosses possess an ability to stop your towers from functioning:
- Backbreaker can clap his fists to encase towers in rock.
- Brutalizer directs all attacks on himself to stop your towers from attacking more fragile foes.
- Flying Sentinel sacrifices himself to wrap the tower in electrifying tentacles.
- Hadron strikes your towers with electricity, which can prevent them from functioning if not tapped.
- Apocalypse How: A Planetary variety. A nuclear war took place before the events of the game, damaging the whole world and leaving bands of survivors to struggle.
- Arc Villain: Each world has its own villainous faction lead by a figure of great authority.
- Wasteland has Rollerdozer Junker, a towering brute driving a cross between bulldozer and steamroller that seeks to dominate the land and destroy all Scavengers. He has even ordered the abduction of Scavengers all over the Wasteland for the Order.
- Swamps has forces of the Order who set up multiple labs throughout the swamps and conducted strange experiments. Failed Experiment, a powerful frog-like mutant made out of sludge, acts as the de-facto leader of local mutants.
- Psychopolis has Mad Esper, a powerful big-headed psychic who is behind the creation of every hostile construct that roams the city. He seeks to use his powers to take control of Order forces and then the whole world as revenge against Order for experimenting on him. He ends up being a Big Bad Wannabe due to failing to kill Scavengers despite his psychic powers and actual Big Bad generally being a more dangerous threat.
- Order's Base has Hadron, the true Big Bad of the game, who seeks to spread his totalitaristic regime over the whole world.
- Underground has Monarchs Of The Night, a couple of Dreadfur, King of Kritts, and Brella, Queen of Nychts, who seek to conquer the surface world with their army.
- Attack Drone: Aptly named Drone Hive allows you to create these and send them anywhere on the path.
- Big Bad: Hadron, a mysterious leader of the oppressive Order.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Monarchs of the Night, a villainous couple responsible for conquest of Kritts and Nychts.
- Blob Monster: Waste Disposer creates these out of radioactive waste to fight foes. They're even called Blobs.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: A huge part of Connor's character. He calls Junker's The Goomba "weak tutorial enemies", knows about waves and armour mechanics and at one point even quips how his cone-covered face is one of developers' greatest mysteries.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: It's revealed that almost every one The Order's human forces are actually abducted scavengers brainwashed to fight for The Order.
- Brutal Bonus Level: Just like in Kingdom Rush series, beating the main campaign unlocks an additional set of levels harder than the main game ones. In this case, we have Underground, a set of caves and paths carved inside a mountain that are populated by Rat Men. There are also unnumbered side levels in each world that have nothing to do with main plot and offer additional harder level experiences.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Even though the game doesn't exactly start light, being set in a nuclear wasteland ravaged by nuclear war, thing slowly get dark as the game progresses, with reveals of many inhuman experiments, genuinely scary foes, greater prominence of Nazis By Any Other Name and dark reveal about their nature.
- Chicken Walker: Order has Mek Patrol, a mechanical walking mini-tank with laser cannons.
- Cool vs. Awesome: What do you get when you pit Rambo, mad scientists with electricity and zombies, gas station attendant with a flamethrower, gamer girl with drones, metro workers, psychic babies and other warriors against desert marauders, nuclear mutants, psychic constructs and First-Order like organization of futuristic fanatic totalitarians? This game.
- Darker and Edgier: While funny moments, ton of Shout-Out, hand-drawn inky artstyle and other whimsical elements are still present, the universe of Junkworld is still darker than that of Kingdom Rush. A nuclear war obliterated the world, forcing humans to adapt to survive, Scavengers are constantly attacked by Junkers who want to wipe them out, the swamps are infested with genuinely creepy mutants and main villains are an organization of oppressive militaristic totalitarians that are essentially Nazis By Any Other Name.
- Death from Above: Many Tactics involve dropping various explosive objects from the sky on your enemy's heads.
- The Dragon: Each Arc Villain has one, appearing as a Mini-Boss three times throughout each world, every time stronger than the last.
- Wastelands: Backbreaker is a powerful brute who can create shockwaves and rock columns thanks to his Super-Strength.
- Swamps: Arachnox, a toxic Giant Spider with poisonous attacks and powerful brethren.
- Psychopolis: Esper's Golem, a giant fridge psychic construct.
- Order's Base: Tyrant, a towering armored fanatic humanoid with a giant powered hammer.
- Underground: Titanycht, a monstrous mix between a bat and a rat with cybernetic fists.
- The Dreaded: Order is absolutely feared by Scavengers and everybody else, and for a good reason. They are an oppressive, militaristic, good-equipped organization that possesses technology unlike anything Scavengers have, from teleporters to walkers and robots, and never back down from their attempts to spread their rule. It's a telling when everybody is freaked out when a squad of Order Grunts swoops in to abduct the Scavengers earlier kidnapped by the Sand Junkers at the end of Wasteland.
- Eldritch Location: Psychopolis. A huge amount of objects are levitating above the ground, many buildings are fractured but are still kept intact, space anomalies are abundant and it's denizens are an army of psi constructs made from everyday objects imbued by psychic essence.
- Excuse Plot: Junkers attack and stole your people, defend against them. Eventually becomes an Averted Trope when more conspiracies and plot turns appear.
- Gatling Good: Chain Gunner, the very first tower, can be upgraded so that the Scavenger controlling it shoots using a golden minigun instead of double uzis.
- Genre Shift: While Tower Defense aspect remains, the setting itself has changed from a fantasy world full of magical creatures and places to a harsh post-apocalyptic world full of wasteland deserts, swamps, city ruins and mountains.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: A common sign among the more dangerous factions of the game. Psi Constructs have blue glowing eyes from being imbued by psychic energy of their master, while Order troopers have glowing red eyes. Both are powerful villainous armies and are the strongest there are.
- The Goomba: The very first enemy in the game, Junker, has only a small hp pool and a simple melee attack. They're not seen outside of their debut world and are replaced my more dangerous Mooks.
- Hero Unit: There are eleven heroes in the game, strong units that fight foes on the path and possess unique abilities that put them above Tactics and Defender units.
- Hostile Weather: Wastelands are ravaged by tornadoes that can move and damage every unit. Swamps have acid rains as common occurrences, creating deadly puddles of damaging acid.
- Humongous Mecha: As his forces are slowly defeated in the final battle, Hadron has enough of the rebels and unleashes his Trump card: a gigantic flying mecha with laser cannons, teleportation powers and Mook Maker capabilities. It doesn't save him when his overconfidence and the mecha being an Armored Coffin result in it being destroyed and blown up with him inside, ending his reign for good.
- Instant Militia: Another common Tactic is summoning a special unit on the battlefield. It's function depends on the Tactic, from long range fighter to Combat Medic.
- Killer Robot: The Order has multiple killer machines, from robotic spiders to inquisitors, all set to kill anyone on their path.
- Light Is Not Good: In contrast to Order's Dark Is Evil, Psi Constructs and their overlord Mad Esper have blue glow to them to accentuate their psychic nature. They're definitely against Scavengers and don't have any good intentions for the world either.
- Mad Scientist: A couple of examples are present on your and enemy side. Yours has Mad Scientist and Plague Clinic towers, former a madman with a shocking device while other is a Mad Doctor who can resurrect fallen foes as black zombies. Enemy side has Order Scientists that can heal their allies and are implied to be behind many experiments and labs found in the Swamps that brought forth many mutants found in the area.
- Mook Maker: Order Scouts call in the backup in form of Order Juggernauts the second they spot any Scavenger.
- Ninja Zombie Pirate Robot: Many Order units introduced at the Order Base are cyborg versions of previous enemies. One of them is Cyborg Man Pig, making him a cyborg mutant Pig Man.
- Nuclear Mutant: A plenty of them is encountered at the swamps, from deers and boars to spiders and frogs.
- Order Is Not Good: The Order is the main antagonistic faction who are absolutely fanatical totalitarians that want to spread their rule. Being an Order member also involves being stripped off of free will and turned into the similar fanatical killer ready to die for the sake of their leader.
- Order Versus Chaos: The main protagonists are Scavengers, Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits with great versatility in personalities and jobs who want nothing more than survival and freedom. The main antagonistic faction, meanwhile, is mysterious Order, a militaristic oppressive regime filled to the brim with similar looking soldiers that seeks to spread its dystopian control over the whole world.
- Physical, Mystical, Technological: All main game factions fit into this:
- Sand Junkers and Swamp Dwellers are Physical, using brute strength, vehicles and makeshift weaponry, and in case of Swamp Dwellers whatever mutations the apocalypse has granted them.
- Psychopolis denizens are Mystical, being inanimate objects brought to life by a villain with Psychic Powers, from cars and bulldozers to simple animated junk.
- The Order is Technological, possessing advancements unlike anything seen, from laser guns and robots to the teleportation technology and walking tanks.
- Kritts, a post-game faction, are a blend of all three, possessing great physical attributes, a degree of magic and many contraptions and cannons. The final boss against them pits you off against King Dreadfur, a burly bruiser with technological enhancements, and his wife Queen Brella, a Necromancer with powerful mystical abilities. Their mini boss Titanycht also happens to be all three, being a bruiser with cybernetic arm cannons in his first appearance, gains the ability to summon a Mini-Mecha ally in his second, and adds the power to turn into a devouring cloud of darkness in his third.
- Pig Man: The Swamps have the Man Pig enemy, which is a humanoid mutated boar. They have the ability to charge towards troops in front, becoming invulnerable to attacks while doing so.
- Psychic Powers: Mad Esper, the Arc Villain of Psychopolis, utilizes them to no end, from employing Mind over Matter to form and hurl balls of junk to animating objects found in the city and turning them into his loyal and dangerous minions.
- Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: Scavengers, very diverse both in personalities and occupation, utilizing whatever talents they have to cooperate and survive.
- Rat Men: The Underground Campaign has rat people known as the Skritts as the antagonistic faction of the arc. One of them, Ratchet, defected from them and even fights against them, acting as a Hero Unit.
- Recurring Boss: Every right-hand man of the Arc Villain is fought three times, each time learning new tricks and becoming more dangerous.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: The soldiers of the Order generally wear black armour with glowing red eyes and are the most dangerous and evil force in the game. Their scientists avert this by wearing bright yellow hazmat suits, but this is a case of Light Is Not Good.
- Reviving Enemy: Rubble Things are psionically animated rubble constructs that turn into a floating pile of Rubble when beaten. If the Rubble isn't destroyed, it regenerates back to a Rubble Thing after a few seconds. There is another enemy in the levels that will specifically try to absorb and destroy Rubble, but it's not much help when it turns into a much stronger enemy if manages to do so.
- Rock Beats Laser: The game pits a rag-tag colony of scavengers with cobbled-together machines and weaponry against the high-tech forces of The Order, and the scavengers eventually come out on top.
- Rule of Cool: This game practically runs on this trope, arguably even more so than its sister series. A lot of things you see shouldn't be possible. But when has it not been cool fighting nuclear monsters and animated junk with post-apocalyptuc mortars, electric devices, plague zombies and robochickens?
- Scavenger World: The world of Junkworld is this to a T, with survivors trying to make do with the remnants they can find. Surprisingly, a lot of things were preserved very well, enough for Scavengers not only to survive, but also create a lot of defense constructions.
- Scenery Gorn: In contrast to Kingdom Rush, which was more of Scenery Porn, the universe of Kingdom Rush is bleaker, with wastelands, ravaged cities, harsh mountains, swamps and caves. But it's still and Ironhide game, so the environments are varied, with tons of details and easter eggs, and thanks to the iconic style of the studio, are spectacular to look at.
- Schizo Tech: When you have to defend yourself with stuff you can cobble up, expect this to happen. Scavenger defenses vary from a flamethrower made from gas pump to cyborg chickens and sawblade launchers.
- Shout-Out:
- Backbreaker, The Dragon of the Junkers is Bane in appearance and strength, with his name referencing Bane's iconic moment where he broke Batman's back.
- The Order is basically The Enclave from the Fallout series, an antagonistic, high-tech military group seeking to take over a post-apocalyptic wasteland, with their Tyrant being this game's version of Fallout 2's Frank Horrigan. Their name, symbol and futuristic technology, as well as having their base set up in permawinter environment sends off to another militaristic organization that has ''Order'' in its name.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Order Base is housed in the snow-covered mountains and hills.
- Starter Villain: Sand Junkers, who are survivors just like Scavengers, but want to rule the wasteland unopposed, using whatever resources they scavenged to create dangerous vehicles, wield simple firearms such as shotguns and many more tricks. They go as far as to abduct a great number of Scavengers all over the Wastelands in order to give them over to the Order and make the remaining ones join them. They quickly get overshadowed by a threat of mutants, psychic constructs and especially futuristic Order.
- Swamps Are Evil: Swamp is a dangerous terrain worsened by radiation. It's damp, toxic and filled with mutants that threaten to feast on the Scavengers.
- Teleporters and Transporters: Two kinds exist in the game. First is anomalies in Psychopolis that appear on every level and can teleport both allies and foes forwards and backwards on the path. Second is actual teleporters that appear in Order Base. These allow teleportation exclusively for Order units as an extra vector of attack.
- Underground Level: More like the entire Underground Episode, but post-game world... Underground is this. It's a vast system of caves and tunnels inhabited by Kritts, Rat Men and Nychts, Bat People, who seek to kill Scavengers for intruding and eventually take over the surface world.
- Wasteland Warlord: The leader of Junkers, who seeks to rule the Wasteland unopposed, even abducting some Scavengers. At the end of the episode, he offers Scavengers to surrender and join him. When they refuse, he confronts them personally, driving a gigantic Rollerdozer.
- Zerg Rush: A staple of all Tower Defense games returns, with enemies swarming your weak points in great numbers.
