One surprise subgenre that has gotten a fair amount of representation on the Switch has been tower defense, with a further surprise being games in that vein that offer you a more active role in things. While more recently Thronefall really set the standard, the classic Kingdom Rush series has always been a solid mix of action and strategy as well.

Now with Onion Force you have a lower-budget take on things, and if you’re looking for more of a challenge than usual it will actually throw one your way. For the most part you’ll be working with well-worn structures like an arrow tower, a bomb tower, and a barracks, but one that’s not so normal is the medical tent, which you’ll likely need to make use of with some regularity. 

The reason for this is that your hero generally does need to play a major part in the success of your defenses. It isn’t that solid strategy won’t help, you’ll still want and need to set up smart bottlenecks to pummel your foes, but on the whole you generally feel undermatched in your defenses and will need to really keep your warrior/archer/mage busy. The problem is that not only will you need the tent for healing up, you’ll also need it to replenish your stamina, so placing one at a spot a little behind the lines is pretty vital if you want to hold off the enemy hordes.

The problem is that among its peers in this space, overall this offering feels a bit bare bones. Aside from its hero-focused style it comes up short on new ideas, and for novices in the genre it’s probably a bit too hard. A bigger problem there is that in general it really feels like the developer assumes everyone coming to it already understands how things work, needing minimal introduction or guidance. If you’ve burned through the other better titles in the space, and are looking for something inexpensive that’s a little different it may not be a bad choice, but otherwise it’s not terribly noteworthy overall.