I love a good strategy game. What I lack in coordination and reflexes, I feel I make up for in my ability to work out a solid plan of attack, and so, I'm naturally drawn to tower defense games like 300 Dwarves. Because, well, let's face it... who wants to play a game they suck at?

I wasn't sure what to expect from 300 Dwarves when I first launched the game.

The illustration seemed a bit weird to me at first, a strange combination of cartoony and realism, with thick exaggerated lines and splashes of vivid colors. Although I do admit, these sheep are awfully cute...look at their little feet drawn up and their alarmed eyes! I'll save you little sheep!

A small area of the kingdom that looks very similar to the Shire has been attacked by green skinned goblin creatures and the only way to defend against them is to enlist the help of the dwarves (and I appreciate, by the way, that they use the Tolkien spelling of dwarves, which is much prettier than the alternative Dwarfs...).

The dwarves strongly reminded me of characters from an old Nintendo game that some of you may remember, The Lost Vikings, and they sounded like Drunk Uncle from SNL with some kind of brogue accent thrown in there. The voices were deep and masculine and extremely well done, especially when you listened to what they were saying.

Because... this is where the hilarity begins... listening to the dialog. Our friends the dwarves decide to "help the old man out" because well "they were free" and had nothing better to do. How's that for gallant?

And it doesn't end there... when you set up your defenses on each board, the dwarves will say something every time you build or upgrade one of the stations. I swear I heard the dwarves in the rifle men's station say "Chicks dig long barrels." OMG... I thought I was going to pee my pants I laughed so hard!

Also, pay attention to the stations and what they are doing. At one point, my Ranger station was chucking full steins of beers at the goblins. Hysterical... but what a waste of beer.

All these little details, and a game that can make me laugh like that, add up to a winner in my book. But how does the game play you ask? Well... it's extremely challenging... but that could be due mostly to the fact that I had no idea what I was doing.

And, I'm not a stranger to tower defense games in the least! I understand that I need to place my stations, and then hit play and the bad guys will come out... but I felt like there was no hand holding in the beginning to help me understand what each station did or how to use my boosts. There was a little bit of a tutorial, but it didn't help me at all as it barely went over the basics.

After a few failed attempts, I discovered a help section in the game, but even then it didn't really explain what the boosts did, how each station should be used, what the stats meant... you know... the basics. I could have avoided this little misstep... this was an epic fail... I didn't know the arrows meant the bad guys were going to come from both doors...

I eventually figured it all out, but I would have enjoyed 300 Dwarves so much more if I knew from the beginning what I was doing... I could have avoided all those boards where I only got 2 gold bars instead of 3... 2 isn't a victory! I need a perfect score!

Overall, 300 Dwarves was a great addition to one of my favorite genres, but next time guys... spend a little more time on the tutorial.