Sponsored Feature: Happy hour with Bar Defender

We’ve seen people chaining themselves to trees in protest against deforestation. We’ve seen elderly people barricading themselves into their childhood homes as the diggers roll in, hell bent on clearing the way for a multi-storey car park.

But can there be anything nobler than a half-sozzled barfly defending his pub against ‘The Man’?

That’s the premise of Bar Defender, the new iPhone title from Extropia. It’s a castle defence game in which you, as said drunken bum, must pelt encroaching construction workers and members of the law with whatever comes to hand.

Being a pub, that means bottles of beer, spirits and booze-filled barrels (we assume our friend has set aside the pork scratchings for sustenance). In between levels, you get to upgrade your improvised arsenal to even more destructive levels.

It’s all controlled with a very intuitive drag-to-aim, release-to-fire system that allows for pinpoint accuracy. Distant targets must be accounted for by carefully arcing your shots in order to avoid coming up short.

Occasionally a vehicle will trundle along, such as a large digger or a squad car. These require an even sharper aim, as you attempt to lob your bottles through the windscreens and into the faces of the vulnerable drivers. It’s true what they say - alcohol can kill you.

The frantic gameplay is complemented by some excellent comic book presentation. Tubby cops drop their donuts and flee in terror, while construction workers crumple to the ground like they’ve just been hit in the groin by a half-full bottle of gin. Which they probably have.

All in all, Bar Defender looks to be a humorous and finely polished take on the castle defence genre. It’s just been released on the App Store, so click on the 'Buy It!' link below to check it out.