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Babel Rising

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Babel Rising
App icon on iTunes
Developer(s)Mando Productions
Publisher(s)Ubisoft
Platform(s)iPhone, iPod, iPad, PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, Android, Windows Phone 7, Windows Phone 8, Microsoft Windows, macOS, WiiWare
ReleaseiOS
December 21, 2009
PSN/XBLA
June 13, 2012
Windows, macOS
August 7, 2012[1]
Wiiware
  • EU: January 24, 2013
Genre(s)Tower defense
Mode(s)Single-player

Babel Rising is a video game developed by Mando Productions and produced by Michel Bams and Olivier Fontenay. An arcade game with short levels, the 2D version of the game was first published in 2009 and in 3D in 2012. Babel Rising 3D was published with Xbox achievements for Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 in October 2013.

The storyline is based on the legend of the Tower of Babel, where God unleashes his wrath and powers against pagans who endeavor to build a tower to reach him. The goal is to stop them from ever reaching the skies. The player impersonates God and uses their powers to destroy the workers or the tower they are trying to build.

Plot

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The game is a fanciful adaptation of a biblical context.[2] At the time of the construction of the city of Babylon, the humans erect a tower meant to reach the skies and they show such arrogance as to supposedly irritate God-the player.

The action takes place in an imaginary Babylon and uses various monuments and places associated to this civilization. The game does not take itself seriously and, as such, disregards historical facts. Workers can thus build the Tower of Babel, the Ishtar Gate, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, but also more fanciful buildings such as a giant statue.

The characters in the game are the workers that the player must incessantly destroy whilst they carry on with the construction of the tower.

Depending on the version, the player may also face protector priests who will fend off her/his powers, or siege towers that the workers will have placed next to the tower.

The only named character in the series is King Nabu, and is a reference to Nebuchadnezzar II, famous for his building of Babylon. Nabu is portrayed as a secret tyrant, the most arrogant of all human beings, the man who issues the construction orders that anger the player. He is mentioned but never actually represented during the game, and the player never has the opportunity to eradicate him in person.

Gameplay

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The gameplay of Babel Rising mixes action and management of resources: the divine powers. The player has an array of powers that they may send at a chosen location, the only limitation being the recharging time for each power. The more the powers recharge, the more powerful they become; this generates tactical choices and forces players to take risks for maximum earnings.

If at first, it seems easy to destroy all the workers as they come closer, as the player progresses in the game, choosing the right moment to send each power becomes increasingly difficult. Sooner or later, the player will quite often be overwhelmed and the tower will rise slowly to game over.

Babel Rising uses a combo system to accrue higher scores. This allows for a longer game lifespan, by creating competition for first place. All the versions have online rankings, so as to compare scores with other players throughout the world.

The concept of Babel Rising is to stop the construction of the tower. Hence the goal is to survive as long as possible. The game also offers various missions with required conditions for victory, such as to eliminate a given amount of adversaries.

Development

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Babel Rising was originally a co-production of White Birds Productions studio and Exequo. White Birds Productions ceased to exist in December 2010 and Exequo carried through with the development of the game and of its sequels, in partnership with Mando Productions, who was in charge of creating and producing all the new versions of the game.

The initial version of Babel Rising iPhone was developed using tools internal to the development team at White Birds, some of which were specifically designed for the game itself. The ensuing versions were progressively centralized in a unique middleware, Shiva, developed by the firm Stonetrip. All developments were carried out by internal teams at Mando Productions and a few collaborators from the outside, using Shiva as the main engine.

Babel Rising 3D was also developed with Shiva, and produced in eight versions in parallel: XBLA, PSN, PC, Mac, IOS (iPhone and iPad), Android, Windows Phone 7 and Blackberry.[3] The 2D version is available for 4 platforms: iPhone, Android, PC and WiiWare.

The original soundtrack was composed by Philippe Saisse.

Reception

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The iOS, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions received "mixed" reviews, while the PC version received "unfavorable" reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[21][22][23][24] It was criticized on several counts. The main reproach was the repetitive aspect of the game, but criticism also pointed at technical inaccuracies in the console version of Babel Rising 3D (Kinect and PS Move).[citation needed]

Sales

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In July 2012, the Babel Rising license reached 2.5 million downloads, for all the versions of the game. In the following month, in the space of two weeks, Babel Rising 3D reaped an additional million downloads, thanks to the game's transition to Free-to-play on Google Play, bringing the total to over 3.5 million downloads.[citation needed]

The game Babel Rising was number one (free or paying version) in over 25 countries.

References

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  1. ^ "Babel Rising". Steam. Valve. Archived from the original on February 23, 2019. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  2. ^ Genesis, chapter 11
  3. ^ "Babel Rising 3D Released for BlackBerry 10!". BerryReview. January 29, 2013. Archived from the original on December 3, 2021. Retrieved January 8, 2019.
  4. ^ Carter, Chris (June 14, 2012). "Review: Babel Rising (X360)". Destructoid. Enthusiast Gaming. Archived from the original on December 21, 2018. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  5. ^ Edge staff (June 21, 2012). "Babel Rising review (X360)". Edge. Future plc. Archived from the original on June 23, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  6. ^ Noble, McKinley (June 15, 2012). "EGM Review: Babel Rising (X360)". EGMNow. EGM Media LLC. Archived from the original on June 26, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  7. ^ Donlan, Christian (January 13, 2010). "iPhone Roundup (Page 2)". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on February 23, 2019. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  8. ^ Whitehead, Dan (June 13, 2012). "Babel Rising Review (PlayStation 3)". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on February 23, 2019. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  9. ^ Venter, Jason (June 13, 2012). "Babel Rising Review (X360)". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on February 23, 2019. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  10. ^ Pikover, James (August 28, 2010). "Babel Rising review (iOS)". GameZone. Archived from the original on April 20, 2011. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  11. ^ Donato, Joe (June 14, 2012). "Babel Rising review (X360)". GameZone. Archived from the original on June 26, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  12. ^ a b Ingenito, Vince (June 22, 2012). "Babel Rising (PS3, X360)". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on February 23, 2019. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  13. ^ Mason, Mike (January 31, 2013). "Babel Rising Review". Nintendo Life. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on February 21, 2019. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  14. ^ Hayward, Andrew (June 13, 2012). "Review: Babel Rising review". Official Xbox Magazine. Future US. Archived from the original on June 17, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  15. ^ "Review: Babel Rising". PlayStation: The Official Magazine. No. 62. Future plc. August 2012. p. 87.
  16. ^ Webber, Jordan Erica (June 13, 2012). "Babel Rising Review (X360)". The Digital Fix. Poisonous Monkey. Archived from the original on June 16, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  17. ^ "BABEL Rising for iOS (iPhone/iPad)". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on February 23, 2019. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  18. ^ "Babel Rising for PlayStation 3". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on February 23, 2019. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  19. ^ "Babel Rising for Wii". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on February 23, 2019. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  20. ^ "Babel Rising for Xbox 360". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on February 23, 2019. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  21. ^ a b "BABEL Rising for iPhone/iPad Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on January 29, 2019. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  22. ^ a b "Babel Rising for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on December 28, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  23. ^ a b "Babel Rising for PlayStation 3 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on March 2, 2019. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  24. ^ a b "Babel Rising for Xbox 360 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on February 23, 2019. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
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