Of all the mobile publishers, Game Insight is pretty much the king of city builders. We’ve covered their futuristic entry 2020: My Country in the past, but Game Insight’s history with the genre goes back farther than that. One of their early hits was 2012’s The Tribez, in which players built a city for a tribe of primitive inhabitants.
Today Game Insight follows up with a sequel, The Tribez and Castlez! This one takes the game into medieval fantasy setting – as well as throwing in some tower defense gameplay for good measure. You can grab The Tribez & Castlez for free on Android. Update: It's really available!
From prehistory to the age of magic
Tribez & Castlez begins with the Professor and Princess Aurora (two characters from the first game) getting sucked into a portal after one of the Professor’s experiments goes haywire. They emerge in a magical fantasy land in which the inhabitants are beset by monsters. The two protagonists team up with a heroic prince on his quest to stop the evil monsters from spreading.
Being a city building game, the first thing players will do is set up a village from which to gather resources and stave off the advance of the enemy hordes. This time you’ll be building a medieval fantasy village, complete with castles, sawmills, bakeries, vineyards, and other essential buildings and services. By returning throughout the day, you can pick up precious resources with which to continue expanding your town.
Dangerous times
Building up the town is all well and good, but you’ll also need to install defenses against monsters. Sometimes the bad guys will attack your village on their own, while other times you can just choose to engage them in battle. If you’ve erected the suitable towers, you can watch as your buildings and citizens fight off the invaders.
During my short time with The Tribez & Castlez, I was impressed with its cute and distinctive art style. Watching the citizens of your village go about their duties is a pleasure. And the tower defense portions add a welcome element of danger to the game. There are even missions in which players go behind enemy lines and steal resources from enemy settlements. Those segments don’t appear to be all that challenging, but they really brings the scenario to life.
The Tribez & Castlez is free to play, with in-app purchases allowing players to buy currency and speed the game along. Grab it now and keep the beasties from invading your kingdom.
Update
If you had trouble downloading the game before, try again. The certification issues have been resolved.
More to come
We'll return with an exclusive look at Game Insight's next big Android game very soon. Hint: it's not a city builder. Stay tuned!
