Cactus Canyon

Cactus Canyon is a cartoon tower defence set in the red-rock country. A stage road comes out of the desert, winds past mine shafts, saloons and a trestle bridge, and ends at the gate of your frontier town. Twelve marked plots sit along it, and what you build on them decides how far the bandit gangs get.

Five towers, three levels each. Sheriff posts fire a steady rifle and reach further than anything else on the board. Cannon wagons lob an arcing shell that splashes over a whole cluster. Cactus patches cost almost nothing and simply hurt to ride past, slowing everything caught in the spines. Water towers keep a small storm in the tank and throw chain lightning that jumps between five riders. From wave six you can raise a Gatling rig that spins up the longer it keeps firing. Drop the lasso marshal once a wave and he plants himself on the road, ropes one bandit at a time and shoots the rest.

Outlaws come first, then horse riders that sprint, dynamite mules that blow a tower clean off its plot, armoured stagecoaches that soak up everything you own, and a bandit chief who rallies the pack. Every tenth wave the Iron Horse rolls in: an armoured locomotive that drops outlaws out of the back as it comes. Gold comes from kills, from clearing a wave and from shooting the tumbleweeds that blow across the canyon. Three hand-laid maps, twenty waves each, twenty lives, three stars for a flawless defence, and an endless run once the gate still stands.