Slugs fighting against one another isn't something that I usually encounter in my daily activities, although I will admit waging the occasional war against the little buggers in my younger days.  But these days I prefer my slug battles to be a bit more sophisticated, and that's exactly what developer Republic of Fun delivers with Slug Wars for the iPhone/iPod Touch.  While it seems that the most obvious comparison would be to fellow slime-combat series Worms, the game is actually more a slug-themed take on the popular tower defense genre.  Only with slugs, naturally.

The goal is to get three of your gastropod warriors to the other side of the screen, battling the opposition and collecting flowers to help power up your posse and unlock even more powerful slug units.  The slugs move slow (surprise), which gives ample time to plot strategy and micro-manage units.  The different classes of slugs make for a cost-versus-versatility game of combat.  The battlefield is divided up into three parallel rows, with standard units unable to cross into the other rows.  Special units like the Spy Slug can lob attacks towards enemy slugs on the row he's on, or those adjacent to him, with a devastating one-hit kill attack.  The only counter is using a Suicide Slug, but just be careful not to use them in haste.

The game doesn't start getting difficult until the other classes start oozing their way onto the scene. Once missiles and spies began rearing their ugly head, things can start to get mildly frustrating. While the computer plays by the same rules of economic constraint, they don’t lag in their decisions whatsoever. Beating the later levels is more than spamming like a mad man, putting all available resources into one row can be a good way to win, if a bit unsatisfying. I employed basic war strategy in most of the levels, choosing a single row and putting everything important on that front and decimating an entire line of troops and winning. As before, once the Aerial Slug cropped up that strategy was shot down, no pun intended.

The game is constructed well enough, though a bit more balancing would have been nice, since a line of missile attacks and spies can regularly crush an offense before anything gets going. Usually the strategy can go from using and spamming grunts in all three rows to buy time and money to large scale armies of missiles and you’re pretty much set. There is Carrier Slug (much like in Star Craft) that will win every time. Nuclear Slugs (yes, there are Nuclear Slugs) should NEVER be used, unless you’re back (or mantle) is firmly set against the wall.

Overall, Slug Wars for the iPhone/iPod Touch offers a decent time sink for a relatively low asking price. While it may lack the long-term playability and variety of that other game of invertebrate combat, its unique take on the tower defense genre and fun visual style helps it stand out. Some may find the relentless slug-on-slug action repetitive after awhile, and there are certainly some balancing issues that need worked out, but those are all issues that can be addressed in future patches and fixes. Save the salt and take your slug frustrations into the 21st Century with this otherwise surprisingly fun indie game.