Astro Defenders: Capt.Couch is an upcoming wave-based strategic shooter from Playhard Studios

• Astro Defender: Capt.Couch is a new mix of wave-based shooter and tower defence
• Coming from Playhard Studios, it lets you pick from a variety of heroes
• Place your units strategically and blast your way through enemies

As we head into Christmas, and more importantly, that awkward transitional period between Christmas and the New Year, we've got some upcoming releases to go over. Earlier, we had Com2us' new RPG Pepp Heroes, and now it's Playhard Studios (great name) getting the spotlight with their oddly titled Astro Defenders: Capt.Couch coming in 2026.

Astro Defenders is basically a strategic shoot 'em up where you fight off waves of enemies. At the start and between rounds, you place your heroes or summon more, and set up strategic chokepoints in the tower-defence fashion to take down your enemies before they can overwhelm you.

Now, I'm not exactly sure where the Couch in Capt.Couch comes from. Unless maybe it's just about you playing it while you're on your couch? But either way, it looks to have everything you'd want from a wave-based isometric shooter in the Vampire Survivors vein (hah, geddit?).

Couch potato

I was initially surprised to see the tower defence-style gameplay that defines Astro Defenders. But the more I look at it, the more intrigued I am. For one, it still follows a Survivors-like format in having distinctive heroes (something the aforementioned Pepp Heroes shares) while offering varied modes to dig into.

Astro Defenders: Capt.Couch also professes to be entirely free to play. A fact I'll believe when I see it (not to be too harsh), but which I can respect if they manage to make monetisation as unintrusive as possible. So if you've wanted to pencil in a new twist on tower defence, this might be one to consider.

Speaking of tower defence, though, you're spoilt for choice when it comes to mobile. And due to that, it can be pretty difficult to figure out where you want to start. So take the legwork out and simply take a gander at our list of the best tower defence games on mobile!