Hey guys – I’m Robin Yang from Candystand.com (yup, that site you used to covertly play games on during class). We’re still building our catalog of high-quality online games, but we’ve recently expanded into downloadable territory with a handful of iPhone apps. Our team members are gamers at heart, however, which is why we’re excited to bring you our first PSP game, Vector TD. It’s a minis title featuring eight maps (two Beginner, three Normal, three Extreme) as well as all eleven tower and seven enemy types of the original Flash version.
50 waves of increasingly resistant enemies (we call them Vectoids) will spawn for each map — you can choose whether or not the next wave automatically shows up once you’ve defeated each one. There are seven types of Vectoids, each with distinct strengths and weaknesses.
At your disposal are eleven flavors of towers, each of which can be upgraded to level 10 (increasing the tower’s damage and range). The Green Lasers, for example, lock onto one Vectoid and deal ongoing damage. The Red Spammer fires heat-seeking rockets at random targets in range. Blue Ray towers drain power and cause Vectoids to slow down. The in-game guide lists each tower in detail.
Every few waves you’ll also be rewarded with a Yellow Energy Cell, which you can use to purchase one of three Boosts. Damage and Range Booster towers can be placed on a grid to increase the stats of other towers around it. The third boost increases the interest gained on the money you have banked at the end of each level (you’ll need interest boosts if you want to purchase a lot of high-leveled, high-powered towers).
Exclusive to the minis version is a brand-new control interface — you’ll be able to select each ‘grid’ using the D-pad or analog stick and place/upgrade towers. Given that we’ve been playing this game primarily with a mouse for over two years, it was surprising how quickly we adapted to the PSP controls (in fact, some of us actually like the PSP controls better than the flash/iPhone ones).
Vector TD minis hits the EU PlayStation Store today available for both PSP and PS3 — US and Asia versions will follow in February!















25 CommentsAdd Yours
1
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 6:49 pm by omracer
I’ve brought the game already. but is there just the music from the original vector td or is there a way to unlock the music from the prequels (vector TDX and Vector TD2)
cheers
omracer (the guy who made the Vector TDX Megamix)
2
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 6:56 pm by Robin Yang
Hey omracer! Hope you’re enjoying the game
We were only able to include music from the original Vector TD, but if we ever develop versions of VTDX and VTD2 over to PSP Minis we’ll be sure to include their respective soundtracks (which is why you should encourage your friends to get the game!).
3
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 7:09 pm by rakwarrior
Hey Robin, how much is this going to cost?
4
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 7:16 pm by Robin Yang
The game costs 2.49/€2.99
5
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 7:18 pm by night64448
“Vector TD minis hits the EU PlayStation Store today”
Hits SOME of the EU PlayStation Stores today, you should have said.
See “Availability: Not available in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Switzerland” … hm. Europe = UK, as always.
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 7:32 pm by Robin Yang
You’re right. Unfortunately, localization takes time/resources and because of that, the game is currently only available in countries that support an English language store. We would love for more people to be able to play Vector TD, but it’s not something we’re able to do at this time.
6
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 7:46 pm by rakwarrior
I’m sorry to say that the game looks extremely boring.
Yu don’t deserve to be developing for Sony.
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 8:36 pm by Robin Yang
Hey rakwarrior — sorry the game doesn’t seem appealing to you. It probably would’ve helped if we had a trailer for it in the post.
That said, as mentioned in the post, Vector TD is based on a popular flash game we’ve had on Candystand.com for years. You can play it here for free, and who knows? Maybe you’ll change your mind.
http://www.candystand.com/play/vector-td
7
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 8:16 pm by Agamer2006
You cant judge a game by its looks. Its all about gameplay and by the look of this, it could be an addictive gem
8
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 8:28 pm by rakwarrior
Stop sucking up
I’m sick of seeing this with every single post.
9
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 9:14 pm by identity25
I Love tower defence, game looks good, I like the very simple and smart design of it. £2.50 is a great price too, I’m worried about losing interest though with only 8 maps. I could imagine those to be quite same-y too. Gonna wait for a series of reviews before I buy this to see whther they reckon it will hold my interest!!!
10
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 9:14 pm by devilmaker
Can’t be too keen on tower defence games I take it then rakwarrior? Or have you never tried them? They’re rather addictive. I know I’ll be picking it up especially at the price its at. A very compelling purchase.
11
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 9:38 pm by aVirulence
It looks extremely similar to the Android game Retro Defence (by Larva Labs Ltd). Scarily similar even.
BTW. About localisation. Do you realize that most people in The Netherlands do not care at all whether a game has been localized? I mean, some games like Buzz, are much more fun in our own language, but games like these can (and are most of the time) be in english. It’s just kind of irritating that you don’t give us the choice to buy the game. It’s still possible to update the game afterwards right? That way, you can sell to us now, and to people that really need localization (which are not very many here) later on…
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 10:04 pm by Robin Yang
If I’m not mistaken, I believe that SCEE won’t actually let us release the game in stores that the game isn’t localized for. You should petition Sony, not us
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 10:08 pm by Robin Yang
Also, re: Retro Defence — thanks for bringing that to our attention. It’s extremely similar to our game, which is rather concerning because we released the original flash version of Vector TD back in June 2007.
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 2:26 pm by Robin Yang
Lucky for you guys, I was under the wrong impression about localization. We’re going to get Vector TD Minis up in as many stores as possible as soon as possible (just need to localize the PSN store text!) — look for it soon
12
Posted on 21 January, 2010 at 9:44 pm by aVirulence
Well, of course I mean localization. Heh, kind of defeating my own point here.. Nah, still not really…
13
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 12:14 am by Talvin
I too am guilty of spending a fair few hours playing this game when I should have been working on my dissertation while working on my degree. Needless to say, I’d already bought the game before this blog post. Great fun :p
Now I just need to buy a PSP to play it on the move!
14
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 9:08 am by StefNighthawk
Why doesn’t SCEE give us the option to buy “English”-only games on our localised store? Or if it really needs to be localised, hold back the release until it can be released for everyone. It’s the “delay”station anyway.
The article would’ve enticed me to buy the game, but by the time it gets on the Belgium store I will have forgotten all about this article.
15
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 9:11 am by imajinetion
I played the flash version some years ago, it’s pure crack. So this was a sure buy.
16
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 9:40 am by iapetus
@8: Why don’t *you* stop posting critical comments about things you haven’t tried based on a single screenshot?
It’s nothing to do with sucking up – I’ve played the Flash version of this game many times, and bought the PSP minis version day one. Because it’s a good game, and the developers of it deserve support. Simple as that. Now, maybe if you could put aside your preconceptions and give the game a go you’d realise how good it is. Or at the very least have some actual experience to base your criticism on rather than just doing it from a position of ignorance.
17
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 9:51 am by pb-live
Bought it yesterday and it’s brilliant. Admittedly I’m a bit Tower Defence fan anyway, but the fact that this is simplified down to the purest form is great for quick games on the move.
I also tried it out on the PS3 and, believe it or not, it actually looks and plays pretty good on that (probably down to the type of graphics used). In fact, I was up till 2am getting to level 50 on the first map on PS3 (wife wasn’t impressed!)
18
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 10:08 am by nofi
Just about to buy it now to make up for @rakwarrior’s comment. Balance is restored.
19
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 12:45 pm by Scourgewood
I used to love playing this game. Didn’t pay any attention to the post until I actually looked at the screenshots. To cut a long story short, I’ve been playing it flat-out on the PSP since last night.
Hey, maybe you could revive a few old classics on the PSP now.
20
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 1:09 pm by nofi
Yeah, seriously, this is a brilliant game, and an absolute steal at £2.50. Better than Fieldrunners? Maybe…
21
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 2:27 pm by Robin Yang
We’re so happy you guys are enjoying VTD! In case you missed my correction above: we will indeed be bringing Vector TD to other countries as soon as we can localize the PSN store text. Thanks for being patient with us!
22
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 3:20 pm by PandaPanic
Yup your comment sure is right, always used to visit CandyStand every morning to play some games and it is awesome a fairly well known site is starting to develop PS3 Minis especially with the first game being one of the best ones xD
Is there any chance of any other games coming to minis such as Pool Shark or Final Ninja?
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 3:42 pm by Robin Yang
Thanks PandaPanic
In regards to other Candystand games coming to minis — frankly it depends on how well Vector TD does. We would love to bring as many games as we can to PSN but I’m sure you understand that it would need to make sense financially to do so. We’re really hoping VTD takes off, and if/when it does, we’ll definitely consider developing more Minis titles.
23
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 3:47 pm by MaxiM_82
“I’m capitalizing on a trend that currently rising” – Jim Carrey impersonating Vanila Ice.
You do the thinking and figure out where it fits in the subject of TD games. But I know I know, not everyone and not in every situation can afford bold moves and prefers to stick to the safe zone. That’s business.
24
Posted on 22 January, 2010 at 8:11 pm by SithlordDK
Warning, this game is highly addictive! ^^
25
Posted on 7 February, 2010 at 8:39 am by towerbooks3192
just got this game,i love it,but what if i mastered all the levels?isnt there an endless mode?and how could you save the game if you want to continue it later?,..
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