1. Desktop Tower Defense
I found it absolutely amazing that WC3 Autumn TD wasn’t a major hit. It kind of floated around for a few years with a small but loyal following. People were much more interested in playing DOTA, Tower Wars, WMW and other WC3 TDs. Then the concept explodes as soon as it is delivered onto the Flash platform. I think a significant factor in this was how well the game played right out of the gates. Extremely well done, very few bugs and now it is nearly a household name.

2. Gem Tower Defense
Gem TD is another flash based game inspired by a WC3 custom map. (Poker TD) In this case it seemed to me that the original Poker TD was actually fairly popular for a brief period. Still, the Flash version came out with an absolutely solid design and I do expect it to become much more popular than the PC counterpart in the coming months. I believe this game actually has the ability to overtake DTD if it is developed properly. [Way Points] + [Build Inside the Path] = Deeply strategic game.

3. Onslaught Tower Defense
I think a lot of people have Onslaught #1 on their radar and for good reason. The laser chain concept will undoubtedly by copied several times in 2008. I also really like the concept of building combo towers. I would also love to put this one at the top purely based on the out-of-the-box design…but I simply can’t bring myself to rank a [Build Outside the Path] game any higher than 3.

4. Vector TD
I have to put a David Scott TD on the chart. He contributed 3 solid games in 2007. He was also major contributor in the popularization of the tower defence genre. Never the less, I wouldn’t put this game in the list if it didn’t deserve to be there. The balancing is brilliant, nice tower mix and you have several maps to choose from. If you are looking for a challenge you wont go wrong playing Vector.

5. Keep the Keep
This game doesn’t seem to be nearly as popular as others on the list but it should be. KTK is based on a very non-traditional concept. You build a castle to start things off. From there you are in charge of beefing up the fortifications. It is amazing how much strategy is involved in so few options. I would love to see more games developed on this concept in the coming years.