Tower Defense or TD type games have come a long way from beginning as an off-shoot game of WarCraft which was created for the World Wide Web using Flash. The phenomenal RTS game WarCraft included an aspect of base defense using towers armed with different kinds of weaponry. From arrows to canons and magical attacks, the idea was to prevent the enemy (orcs, scourge, humans, you name it…) from getting through.

In 2007-2008, game designer-programmer David Scott created a Flash based game that utilized this aspect of RTS gaming. Created for the Web, he called it Flash Element Tower Defense and it practically used identical towers to those found in WarCraft. This did not end here as other developers started creating tower defense type games with far better and innovative game designs. Any structure, device or character which was employed in defense was considered a tower though it may not look like one. Some, where even created in such a way that the game looked more like tower offense than defense and some, though still using the basic core principles didn’t look anything like TD at all.

Upon the advent of mobile gaming, many of this flash based games where ported over and re-designed to handle touch screen interaction, social media and the Facebook platform.

Now that we’ve all got a better understanding of how far the tower defense genre has come, let’s take a look at our handpicked list of the Top 5 Tower Defense Games one can find on Facebook.

1. Bloons Tower Defense 5

Bloons Tower Defense 5 has been one of the earliest entries in the TD game scenes appearing shortly after Flash Element TD. Its latest version Bloons TD5 still follows the basic premise of popping those ever floating balloons instead of running enemies. Instead of structural towers however, you’ve got a bunch of monkeys sporting different weapons that keep upgrading as the levels go by. The balloons aren’t helpless themselves. They too have upgrades like metal shells and invisibility which wouldn’t really be a problem if you have the upgraded special monkey for them.

A monkey in an airplane with bombs is an added bonus that adds fun to the games madness and just at the boundary of all this mayhem you can even place a monkey that farms and minds its own business. Just keep in mind that having enough gold is the key as you progress through the game for without the gold, there would be no monkeys, or is it the other way around? However, you can make life easier for yourself if you have the money to spend on the extra features offered with the game like upgrades, weapons and even extra monkeys.

2. Heroes of the Banner

Based on the Nordic legends, Heroes of the Banner would be the closest thing to WarCraft from among the five in the sense that it employs heroes. The graphics doesn’t stray far either.

You have to first recruit heroes using the basic Tavern style premise or use a summon scroll to call forth random heroes with random stats and abilities. Ones you have several heroes who have joined your team, you can assign them to the battlefield. Each hero can build their own specific type of defense tower on specified locations scattered throughout the map.

Aside from this, the player has access to several magical abilities that can be used in the heat of a heavy battle. Be reminded however that using a certain magical blast or ability will eat up you Mana points or MP. Not all the enemies have the same characteristics as some of them are invulnerable to certain types of towers while others may damage them greatly. A spread of different tower types would be necessary.

Be careful however in doing so as you cannot change your tower locations or upgrade any of them once the battle begins. Again, players can spend their own currency for upgrades and the like but beating bosses in the higher levels will earn you some heavy combat gear to equip your heroes giving them the extra power to use within the game.

3. Pockie Defense

With characters from the world of fairy tales, Pockie Defense requires you to assign your recruited team of fairy tale heroes to strategic locations along a road to take the place of towers and blast any enemies that pass through. You will have to go to a bar to recruit your team of characters which are classed into Warrior, Gunner, Mage or Sage. Each one having their own specific capability and can deal more damage to certain enemy monster types. Each assigned character will have PvP skills and spells to use against their opponents.

You earn silver as you complete wave after wave of enemy attacks and collect items and experience points that you use in upgrading your characters. The game has several game modes that you can choose to play but you will have to complete certain requirements in order to win.

Overall, Pockie Defense is a very addictive TD type game with unique features that will keep you glued to the screen for hours provided you like the idea of seeing Little Red Riding Hood kick some major butt.

4. Prime World: Defenders

Originally released in 2013, Prime World: Defenders is a 3D tower defense game with an out-of-this-world twist. It is an RPG tower defense card game of sorts where you have to collect tower cards that you need, to build defense towers at specific slots that look like grids placed strategically along a long and winding path which the enemy uses to travel through.

You can create different kinds of defense towers or structures by messing around with the cards by combining them in two different ways - Using the same kind of card (Evolution) and with a different kind (Fusion). Evolution unlocks advanced card levels with strength and upgrade paths. Fusion combines different card types to create new ones. You earn new cards and in-game currency whenever you complete a mission.

The game also has a good storyline shown through cut-scenes that keep you playing in order to reach the end. The graphics is awesome and the music adds depth to the already out-of-this-world atmosphere. The levels are well made to give you enough challenge to keep upgrading your strategy and gameplay.

Overall, Prime World: Defenders is one well rounded TD game and though it may not be that very original in concept, the game is sure to get you involved for long periods of time.

5. Cower Defense

The word cower is mostly associated with fear. However, in Cower Defense, it’s simply that, Cows. Yes, bovine... the stuff you associate with “beef”, “corned beef” and “hamburgers”. That said, Cower Defense is a tower defense game where you’ve got cows for towers defending against an alien horde hungry for planetary invasion. Yep, you’ll never seen a game like it before... that’s for sure!

Each level has a corresponding storyline and almost everything, I mean everything in this game is an entire ridiculous mayhem designed to keep you giggling if not laughing as you play. You use milk instead of gold or silver to deploy your cow defenders at various strategic positions within the map to hinder the advance of the alien onslaught. You start with 4 basic types of Cows armed with Milk Gun, Slingshot, Bottle Gun or Glue Gun. Milk is good against unprotected aliens, Slingshot is better as it hurls horseshoes at them. Bottle Gun throws bottles of milk and glue slows the high speed aliens down.

The aliens are varied and devious. They have to get to their objective no matter what. Then, we’ve got the Sheriff and his police car. There’s no way those alien scums are going to go through his Cownty. He’s got his car, his spike strips and his plunger to save the day or hay, whatever. He earns points every time an alien gets socked by him or one of the cow-fenders. You can unlock other special weapons cows or heroes if you’ve got real money to spend.

The graphics are hilariously awesome as well as the environmental sounds and those tongue-in-cheek remarks and insults regularly thrown around by both cows and aliens. There’s a lot to say about this game but let’s just summarize it into one word - “Fun”. So, don’t think about it, just play the game. Cow-wa-bungga!