At this point, everybody knows what a Tower Defense game is. They seem to have been around since the birth of Flash gaming. Most rely on the same old formula, with only the odd exception...

+ Rewards tactical thinking; + Fluid controls

Terrible voice acting; Not a lot of variety across modes

I think it is fair to say that the Need For Speed franchise has been through a tough time trying to re-identify itself after losing the ideals of what the original titles brought to the table.

Anomaly Warzone: Earth is a self-described 'tower offense' game from 11 Bit Studios and most recently released on XBLA. In it, you play a military platoon that's been tasked with exploring and dealing with several anomalies, or in other words, big freaking alien domes that can cover most of a city.

Engaging gameplay; pretty cool soundtrack; very easy to learn controls

Noticeably sharp difficulty spike; main game on the short side

11 Bit Studios sent us over the code to check out the Xbox Live Arcade version of this interesting game. Anomaly: Warzone Earth is a bit of a twist on tower defense gaming. Rather than being the one defending against incoming forces, the player is the one defending their column of military vehicles...

Anomaly: Warzone Earth offers an interesting twist on the tower offense genre by giving players an on-the-ground presence. As the commander, players will be able to walk alongside their convoy as it makes its way through a gauntlet of alien towers, calling down smoke, decoys, repair fields, and air...

Anomaly: Warzone Earth, at its core, is an arcade approach to the real-time-strategy genre. You have the heat of an RTS battle raging around you, as you find yourself in the middle it all, supporting your squad, issuing orders, changing tactics when the situation forces you to do so.

If you've played " Anomaly: Warzone Earth " before, then this is not the game for you. It looks and sounds a bit nicer, but you're paying a lot more money for that, whilst the new content is not brilliantly compelling, nor does it last forever.

Near the beginning of the year, I did what any responsible gamer should do and supported the Humble Bundle game collection in recognition of all those late nights and caffeine binges endured by independent game developers.

Anomaly: Warzone Earth is the unique PC hit that brought its own set of rules to the tower defence genre with some additional twists that you wouldn't expect in this game. Now it's being released on Xbox Live Arcade but will a controller be able to give you the same experience as the PC version?

The Live Arcade has a good amount of tower defense games, but Anomaly: Warzone Earth more than earns a place at the top of the genre. An alien menace has been unleashed on our blue planet, but the armed forces plan to turn back the invaders and restore peace.