These mobile death-dealers are powerful, but they can easily distract you from base protection to disastrous effect. As the game rolls forward, bi-planes and tanks come under your control as well. With your finger on the trigger, any unit inevitably jumps in efficacy, so the game becomes a constant interplay of defense building and then switching to control the unit at the heart of the action that can turn the tide. Many tower defense games stop there, but Toy Soldiers ratchets up the interaction by giving players command of battlefield units at any time.

Careful unit selection and resource management is essential. As you place machine gun turrets and chlorine gas emplacements on the field, the enemy flings himself onto the meat grinder again and again. The game needs these childlike qualities, as the battles being reenacted are some of the most gruesome and bloody in human history. Era-appropriate music fills the menus and pause screen, and ads for the vintage toy company pop up in the background. Detailed tin soldiers come alive and charge into battle, and every unit carries little reminders of its true nature, like the tiny wind-up keys on the side of every tank.

Battles play out between opposing toy armies of World War I combatants the edges of the battlefield reveal desk lamps and table edges, and your base is the toy box on your end of the diorama board. Toy Soldiers has an intriguing aesthetic style behind it. The result is a game that is constantly engaging and challenging, whether playing alone or against a friend.

By giving control of individual units to the player, the game adds a layer of action to the tried-and-true tower defense formula. You’re never standing still in Toy Soldiers, which is saying a lot about a game that’s about setting up static gun emplacements.

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