Recent reviews by Touhou Project

Just an opening remark: alot of the negative reviews you will see for this game seem to be from 2016 when 8-Bit Armies only had one to two factions and very limited content. Very recently, a multiplayer stand-alone for this game was released called 8-Bit Armies: Arena, which costs $5 and gets you all 6 factions that have been released as of the writing of this review, though multiplayer-only, so I suggest you check that out:

I already wrote a review for 8-Bit Armies and 8-Bit Hordes but I'm gonna repeat what I said at the start for 8-Bit Invaders as it applies to this game as well:

8-Bit Invaders is the latest throwback to the "golden-age of Real-Time Strategy" in the 90's and early 00's, back before Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas like League of Legends were a thing. The gameplay is fairly simple: you build a base, gather resources, mass up units, and throw them at the enemy until one of you are dead. The graphics are designed to be fairly simple to reduce the strain of the game on your PC, particularly with the army sizes the game can reach. Since its initial launch, two other standalone games have been released, 8-Bit Armies and 8-Bit Hordes, which are cross-compatible (meaning you can play the factions against each other), so if you care about single player you might as well get those two as well.

The main thing that makes the gameplay unique is that building additional buildings provide a multiplier bonus that stacks infinitely, so while one Barracks will train an infantry unit 100% fast, five Barracks train infantry 500% quickly, ten train 1000% quickly, and so on, allowing you to grow armies to ludicrous sizes quickly. As a consequence, though, even larger games tend to last no more than 10-15 minutes, especially as you get lots of harvesters and resources on the map run out. In addition, random crates spawn when you destroy neutral buildings and objects, giving you effects that range from free units to healing to damaging the unit that collect it, adding a factor of randomness to your games.

Like 8-Bit Hordes, 8-Bit Invaders has a single-player campaign of 12 missions in one campaign and 12 missions in another. They are pretty similar in terms of quality, so what I said for 8-Bit Hordes holds true for Invaders. The missions have more variety to them compared to 8-Bit Armies, but I still wouldn't expect much out of the campaign: the missions still take place on skirmish maps though, there are no cutscenes, and the only story is pre-quest dialogue. The side objectives that reward you with new starting units have become more varied, however, and are easier to obtain as they don't require you to win in a short amount of time.

The skirmish mode is pretty good with a decent selection of maps (and much more if you decide to get the expansions). 8-Bit supports up to eight player gameplay, and the AI is pretty good too. Finally, with the launch of 8-Bit Armies: Arena, multiplayer is much more livelier and it's fairly easy to find someone to play with. Replays and observer mode have also been implemented for more competitive players.



8-Bit Invaders has two factions: the Marines and the Cranoids, based on sci-fi RTS like Starcraft or Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War. The Marines use the power system: buildings cost power to maintain, insufficient power reduces their functionality. The Cranoids use the food system: units cost one food, hitting your food cap stops all unit production until you build more food-producing buildings. Both factions use harvesters that collect automatically at a resource site without need to return to base, but gathers slowly. Both factions have two special powers unlocked through their tech structures, and an epic unit automatically spawned at a special building.

-The Marines are an expensive, powerful faction (kinda like a hybrid of Terrans and Protoss from Starcraft). They are unique as their buildings and units are wrapped up in a shield on top of their normal HP that quickly regenerate outside of combat, making them well suited for hit-and-run tactics. Their epic unit is the Titan, a powerful mech (inspirated by the Terran Thor from Starcraft II) with rocket launchers, a plasma gun, and a heavy cannon that can all fire at the same time. A great faction for players that like controlling a few, powerful units.

-The Cranoids are a more tactical, aircraft-oriented faction (kinda like the Zerg from Starcraft). Their units tend to be cheaper and more disposable, and tend to lean on their infantry and aircraft. Their epic unit is the Destroyer, a powerful melee unit that can recover health by eating enemy infantry, fire a burning beam at aircraft, and turn enemies into Xenodogs. A good faction for players that care about mobility and aggression.

The 8-Bit Invaders factions tend to be more expensive and slower, but more powerful than the other two races. They have the most racial differences between the two sides, so if you just want to buy one 8-Bit game out of the three released with singleplayer, I recommend Invaders as it's the best standalone.



Final impressions? 8-Bit Invaders is a great game if you're new to Real Time Strategy in general, as it's simple to learn but hard to master. I highly recommend it for both fans of older RTS games (particularly Command and Conquer) and newer gamers interested in getting into the genre.

Just an opening remark: alot of the negative reviews you will see for this game seem to be from 2016 when 8-Bit Armies only had one to two factions and very limited content. Very recently, a multiplayer stand-alone for this game was released called 8-Bit Armies: Arena, which costs $5 and gets you all 6 factions that have been released as of the writing of this review, though multiplayer-only, so I suggest you check that out:

I already wrote a review for 8-Bit Armies but I'm gonna repeat what I said at the start for 8-Bit Hordes as it applies to this game as well:

8-Bit Hordes is the latest throwback to the "golden-age of Real-Time Strategy" in the 90's and early 00's, back before Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas like League of Legends were a thing. The gameplay is fairly simple: you build a base, gather resources, mass up units, and throw them at the enemy until one of you are dead. The graphics are designed to be fairly simple to reduce the strain of the game on your PC, particularly with the army sizes the game can reach. Since its initial launch, two other standalone games have been released, 8-Bit Armies and 8-Bit Invaders, which are cross-compatible (meaning you can play the factions against each other), so if you care about single player you might as well get those two as well.

The main thing that makes the gameplay unique is that building additional buildings provide a multiplier bonus that stacks infinitely, so while one Barracks will train an infantry unit 100% fast, five Barracks train infantry 500% quickly, ten train 1000% quickly, and so on, allowing you to grow armies to ludicrous sizes quickly. As a consequence, though, even larger games tend to last no more than 10-15 minutes, especially as you get lots of harvesters and resources on the map run out. In addition, random crates spawn when you destroy neutral buildings and objects, giving you effects that range from free units to healing to damaging the unit that collect it, adding a factor of randomness to your games.

In contrast to 8-Bit Armies, 8-Bit Hordes has a single-player campaign of 12 missions in one campaign and 12 missions in another. The missions have more variety to them compared to 8-Bit Armies, but I still wouldn't expect much out of the campaign: the missions still take place on skirmish maps though, there are no cutscenes, and the only story is pre-quest dialogue. The side objectives that reward you with new starting units have become more varied, however, and are easier to obtain as they don't require you to win in a short amount of time.

The skirmish mode is pretty good with a decent selection of maps (and much more if you decide to get the expansions). 8-Bit supports up to eight player gameplay, and the AI is pretty good too. Finally, with the launch of 8-Bit Armies: Arena, multiplayer is much more livelier and it's fairly easy to find someone to play with. Replays and observer mode have also been implemented for more competitive players.



The factions you get when you buy 8-Bit Hordes are the "Deathsworn" and the "Lightbringer" (based on the Warcraft games). Both factions use the food system as a secondary resource: which is basically a population limit. Each unit costs one food, which is maintained with Farms. If you ever hit your food cap, all unit product halts until you build more Farms. In addition, both factions use cheap, weak harvesters that are trained and store resources at their HQ buildings rather than a dedicated refinery. Finally, both factions have two superweapons: one that reveals fog of war around a target and one that creates a major effect at a designated location.

-Deathsworn is a hard-hitting barbarian race akin to the Orcish Horde in Warcraft. Their units tend to be more aggressive and are great when massed. Their superweapon is the Blizzard, which freezes enemies in place: frozen units are immobile and are destroyed in one hit. They have strong early-game units and are great for offensive-minded player.

-Lightbringer is a diverse faction with strong unit abilities akin to the Human Alliance in Warcraft. Their units tend to be more gimmicky, but are very effective when used properly. Their superweapon is Holy Arrow, which damage enemies and heal allies in a target. Their early game is weaker, but their late-game units are very effective, making them ideal for a defensive-minded player.

Overall, 8-Bit Hordes' factions tend to be very gimmicky and have the most radically different tech tree of the three games. Their units tend to rely more on special abilities and synergy than other races, and combined with the obtrusive food system Hordes tends to be harder for new players than the other two games (though still very easy to pick up). If you like colorful abilities and a more controlled unit spam over blunt functionality, I recommend trying the factions in this game.




Final impressions? 8-Bit Hordes is a great game if you're new to Real Time Strategy in general, as it's simple to learn but hard to master. While the game is more complex than 8-Bit Armies, the units are more varied and are all very simple to use yet very fun. I highly recommend it for both fans of older RTS games (particularly Command and Conquer) and newer gamers interested in getting into the genre.

Just an opening remark: alot of the negative reviews you will see for this game seem to be from 2016 when 8-Bit Armies only had one to two factions and very limited content. Very recently, a multiplayer stand-alone for this game was released called 8-Bit Armies: Arena, which costs $5 and gets you all 6 factions that have been released as of the writing of this review, though multiplayer-only, so I suggest you check that out: http://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/586040

8-Bit Armies is the latest throwback to the "golden-age of Real-Time Strategy" in the 90's and early 00's, back before Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas like League of Legends were a thing. The gameplay is fairly simple: you build a base, gather resources, mass up units, and throw them at the enemy until one of you are dead. The graphics are designed to be fairly simple to reduce the strain of the game on your PC, particularly with the army sizes the game can reach. Since its initial launch, two other standalone games have been released, 8-Bit Hordes and 8-Bit Invaders, which are cross-compatible (meaning you can play the factions against each other), so if you care about single player you might as well get those two as well.

The main thing that makes the gameplay unique is that building additional buildings provide a multiplier bonus that stacks infinitely, so while one Barracks will train an infantry unit 100% fast, five Barracks train infantry 500% quickly, ten train 1000% quickly, and so on, allowing you to grow armies to ludicrous sizes quickly. As a consequence, though, even larger games tend to last no more than 10-15 minutes, especially as you get lots of harvesters and resources on the map run out. In addition, random crates spawn when you destroy neutral buildings and objects, giving you effects that range from free units to healing to damaging the unit that collect it, adding a factor of randomness to your games.

8-Bit Armies has a single-player campaign of 25 missions in one campaign and 15 missions in another. The missions take place on skirmish maps though, and are essentially just skirmish battles with restricted tech trees or extra starting units/buildings. There are a couple of stealth missions, but the majority of the campaign consists of "destroy all enemy buildings". The campaigns are not scripted and there are no cutscenes, in fact the only shred of story comes from the mission briefing. There are side objectives which provide bonus starting units as a reward, and help to spice up the otherwise monotonous campaign, but I do not recommend you get this solely for the campaign.

The skirmish mode is pretty good with a decent selection of maps (and much more if you decide to get the expansions). 8-Bit supports up to eight player gameplay, and the AI is pretty good too. Finally, with the launch of 8-Bit Armies: Arena, multiplayer is much more livelier and it's fairly easy to find someone to play with. Replays and observer mode have also been implemented for more competitive players.



The two factions you get with 8-Bit Armies are the "Renegades" and "Guardians", based loosely on the Global Defense Initiative and Brotherhood of Nod from Command and Conquer respectively (and I'll explaining the benefits of the two later). Both factions use the power system from Command and Conquer: buildings cost power which require Power Plants to maintain: if your power requirements exceed output some buildings like defenses will stop working and others will work less efficiently. In addition, both factions have heavy harvesters that crush enemy infantry, a radar which reveals enemies around a large radius and an offensive, powerful superweapon.

-Renegades are a very direct faction (akin to GDI) that uses heavy tanks, attack helicopters, and other fairly straightforward units to steamroll the enemy. Their units are easy to use and they have a powerful superweapon: the Tactical Nuke which destroys enemy units in a large area. Overall, a very balanced faction that is well suited for new players.

-Guardians are a sneaky, mobile faction (akin to NOD) with more specialized units such as flame tanks, stealth tanks, and suicide drones. Their units deal area damage and are effective against clumps of units, but are weak against individual units. Their superweapon is the Orbital Cannon, a superweapon that targets a pinpoint location and can be moved around like the USA Particle Cannon in Command and Conquer Generals. A hard to use, but very fun faction that tends to win with a mix of finesse and swarming.

In general 8-Bit Armies factions are well-suited for swarming, as their units are weaker but cheaper and faster to build. They are also the simplest factions to learn out of the six launched (as of now).


Final impressions? 8-Bit Armies is a great game if you're new to Real Time Strategy in general, as it's simple to learn but hard to master. It's low price and quick games make it very accessible if you don't have a lot of time on your hands, and can only play a few games now and then. I highly recommend it for both fans of older RTS games (particularly Command and Conquer) and newer gamers interested in getting into the genre.