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Here’s a quick look at gameplay in BigTree Defense, which just launched today. The battle we focus on in this clip is Battle 2 from Act 1, and shows you how to upgrade and equip weapons before the battle and how to construct multiple branching limbs on the main tree in order to build up your defenses.
In anticipation of tomorrow’s new game release, BigTree Defense, here’s a sneak peek at the weapons you’ll have at your disposal to prevent insect invaders from destroying your tree.
What’s BigTree Defense? Check out our preview of the game, which will launch on Candystand.com on Tuesday March 2, 2010.
How weapons in BigTree Defense work
When you first start up the game, a short tutorial will guide you through the steps of buying and equipping weapons. If you’re like us though, you’re probably going to skip it to just get into the game as soon as possible.
First you’ll need to unlock weapons with Points. You’ll earn points when you kill enemies during each battle, and they add up even when you lose the battle. This is done on the Upgrade & Equip screen before every battle.
You can upgrade each weapon to Level 5 using points, which unlocks the ability to level up your weapons during the actual battle. For example, if you unlock Shine Flower’s Level 3 in Upgrade/Equip, you’ll be able to level Shine Flower up to Level 3 during the battle using Water points.
Weapon Guide for BigTree Defense
Fruit Cannon: Basic cannon, average damage, fire rate and range.
Candystand says: Solid basic cannon that’s cheap to purchase and upgrade, but you’ll probably only use this for your first battle.
Nut Cannon: Fast cannon, low damage but high fire rate and range.
Candystand says: The high rate of fire makes this a staple when we equip our weapons for each level. It upgrades nicely even though it has relatively low damage.
Torpedo Fruit: Heavy splash damage, but low fire rate and range.
Candystand says: Good if you want a nice, in-between weapon that does more than direct damage, but ultimately you’ll want something more powerful.
Gem Fruit: Slows enemies down, low fire rate and average range.
Candystand says: Slowing enemies down is great, especially if you want to prevent insects from returning back to their portals and multiplying!
Continue Reading…
We’re kicking off your Tuesday afternoon with a one-two punch of games, starting off with Mechanical Commando 2. MC2 is an action game where you’ll need to blast your way through waves of invaders in order to complete missions and defend the federation from enemy attacks. You control a mechanical commando (really, it’s just a dude in a mech suit) with arrow keys or WASD, shooting lasers by holding down your mouse button.
Since we rarely feature games on Candystand that involve much shooting, you should know that by default we’ve turned off the gore in the game — when you hit an enemy, they’ll just fall over, no blood. This could make the game a bit more palatable for those who are squeamish or unsure if it’s suitable for younger teens.
Like most of our new games, Mechanical Commando 2 features trophies! The scores are set at 10 points for Bronze, 20 for silver, and 30 for gold. The game awards one point for each completed mission, as well as for each medal you earn for the levels. Example: if you complete the first mission and earn a silver medal for your performance in it, you’ll get three medals (one for the mission, one for bronze, one for silver).
What about the second game? Glad you asked! The second title we launched today is actually a minigame tied into Mechanical Commmando. The MC2 minigame is a spot-the-difference puzzle where you’ll have to inspect two pieces of Mechanical Commando 2 art for variations. Like with all good spot-the-difference games, you’ll find a few new changes the second or third time you play as well.
The best part about the minigame is that if you complete the puzzle (which shouldn’t take you more than a few tries), you’ll unlock a special upgraded weapon to use in the main Mechanical Commando 2 game. This is done through the GamerSafe login system (different from your Candystand login).
Play Mechanical Commando 2 >
Play Mechanial Commando 2 Minigame (unlocks new weapon) >
Let us know what you think of the games! Did you try logging in with GamerSafe? Do you want to see more games that are tied together like this?
Today, along with our new Tickets system, we launched a brand-new homepage, making it easier for you to get to the games you want to play and earn prizes for doing so. Head over to the site to check it out in action!
The biggest change you’ll notice is that all player profile-related stuff will be relocated to a black bar on the very top of the page. This is where you’ll log in, see how many tickets you can redeem, and gives you easy access to your profile page, your favorite games and your trophies. This bar will appear on every page of the site so you won’t have to quit your game or open a new window to access your important profile information.
If your Candystand account is connected to Facebook, you’ll also see updates about what your friends are doing in the profile bar, too (which means you’ll see right away which friends have beaten your scores — you won’t let them get away with that, will you?).
The right sidebar of the homepage got an update too — now there’s an interactive widget that lets you redeem tickets for prize entries without leaving the page. This is accompanied by a new Prize Wheel on the prizes page, which makes it easier to browse and enter drawings.
There are a few things we took away from the homepage. Since the Game Search bar is moving to the top right corner, we’re getting rid of the ‘Find a Game’ drop-down menu, as well as the short category listing underneath. If you ever want to find those genres again, hit the ‘More’ button in the navigation to see them.
We’re also replacing Game of the Day with Download of the Day, which highlights the best of our newly-launched downloadable games store.
In a nutshell, the sweetest games online are now the best-looking games online. 
Tell us what you think in the comments!
In celebration of our super-cute robot puzzler RIFT’s viral version debut (now available on Kongregate and Newgrounds!), we’ve added three extra levels to the Candystand-hosted version of the game.
To play the new levels, go to the RIFT game page and click ‘Bonus Content’ — or in the level selection screen, click the last tab labeled ‘Candystand Bonus Pack’ (it’s not a Mochicoin-required pack, it’s totally free).
If you’ve played RIFT before, you might need to clear your cache to see the new version (if you see the ‘Bonus Content’ link in the menu of the game, you’re good to go!).
Our hit puzzle-painting game, Copy Cat, has gone viral, and we’re finding tons of user-created levels making the rounds. We’ve collected ten submissions from the awesome users at Kongregate into Copy Cat Level Pack Vol. 1. Copy/paste the URL for each level into your browser’s address bar — and good luck! These are some of the most challenging creations we’ve seen.
Have your own levels you’d like to share? Leave a comment on this post and we might feature your creation in a future pack!
Puzzle by TuFatSnaka
A sweet floral design!
Puzzle by DASC
A festive puzzle, just in time for the holiday season!
Hit the jump for eight more user-created levels to solve.
Continue Reading…
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the guys at Valve should be blushing red right about now. We mentioned our new game, R.I.F.T., and its similarity to 2007’s hit puzzle-physics game Portal before, but it wasn’t until today that we discovered another homage: an Easter Egg cheat that generates heart-stamped boxes identical to the one players took care of (and then well, if you played the game… you know what happens) during a level of Portal. Check out the video below to see it in action, then hit the jump to see how we did it
