Lair-Y Defense (defense shooter)

Another day at work.

Lair-Y Defense by Nerd Corps Entertainment is a defense shooter. It is a 2D static shooter with the player controlling a non-moving turret. The player shoots attackers for money, which is spent on upgrades in between waves of attackers. The strong point of this game is the presentation. It comes with great graphics and animation. It even has an intro cutscene.

(Incidentally, the title is pronounced as 'Larry', not 'Lar-why'. Don't feel bad if you didn't realize that - I didn't.)

The story in the game is that a few 'evil guys' developed a sentient house AI, Lair-Y, who then proceeds to kick its masters out of the house. The former masters and the military then attempted to subjugate the rebellious house. Lair-Y defends itself with a variety of weapons.

Yes, the toilet bowl is part of Lair-Y's arsenal.

In between waves, Lair-Y can buy new weapons or upgrade existing ones. Unavailable upgrades in the screenshot can be unlocked by maxing out the upgrades on the left of the respective upgrades. The unlocked upgrades tend to be powerful and fun to use. Thus it is better to concentrate on a branch of upgrades rather than spreading money over everything.

Armed with new weapons and abilities, Lair-Y would then face the next wave of enemies. Enemies will try to destroy Lair-Y with melee weapons, guns and bombs. It is up to Lair-Y to defend itself to prevent damage. The animation of the opposition being bullied by a house is cartoony and entertaining. It does not really feel bad, just funny.

One of the most annoying enemies is in the next screenshot.

Behold the Susie Scout - that little girl in front.

There is some complain that if a wave is lost, the game ends. Money and upgrades are not kept - the player has to start from scratch again. I have found that it is easily possible to complete the game without carrying over money and upgrades from lost games. And the complete game itself is not long. So not being able to keep the money and upgrades is not that big a deal.

Plus, the player carries over knowledge and experience. Real-life game-playing experience, not in-game XP. If you've thought the latter, you've played too much RPGs.

No bullets on screen.

There are no bullets on most of the screenshots because either I have not fired or the bullets have hit. It is difficult to take a screenshot while aiming and shooting without use of special software or extra personnel (i.e. someone else to push the PrtScr key for me).

The best feature of Lair-Y Defense is the presentation. The little guys marching up to Lair-Y is so cute it feels good to squash them with the garage door. Oh, and the ending animation for completing the game is also worth a good laugh.

Bug zapping.