Pillage the Village

In medieval caste terms I suppose, the pillaging of villages would come before the owning, and thus defending, of a castle. So this game being a prequel to Defend Your Castle makes sense. But in gaming terms, Pillage the Village is definitely a big, beautiful step forward.

After a quick and pretty-looking intro sequence you are faced with your first village to pillage. Using the same ragdoll physics as Stair Fall you 'grab' the little chaps before they reach the edge of the screen and then launch them into the air, hoping they will crunch into the ground and give up precious coins for you to buy more brutal ways to despatch them.

The game looks tip top - a bit like the classic Settlers games - and it flows beautifully as well. While the central concept of tossing little fellas into the air is limited, the constant new types of villager to pillage, and new ways to do that pillaging keep things interesting for literally hours! This is brilliant.

Use the mouse to grab and throw the villagers, to use the 'gesture recognition' shizzle, and to interact with the village. Then use the up and down arrows either bring what you are holding to the foreground or send it back, with a bit of simple, yet effective, perspective.

Get used to what each of the different villagers do so that you can prioritise which ones to kill first and which to make suffer. Also make good your kills to squeeze the most money out of them and buy the better kill skills.