Recently I personally joined the ranks of those who own an Android, and I have been searching all my time in the Android Market for what I consider the best free app especially games which meet three specific criteria to be considered great:
- awesome visuals,
- decent sound,
- and easy controls.
Asteroid Defense, from Deonn Games, is a refreshing tower defense game with some new twists. It places you in command of a floating space station orbiting earth and your job is to defend the earth from incoming planet-busting asteroids and other things.

It offers the standard fare of tower defense games including various upgrades to the available weapons, varied speeds of play, and multiple kinds of enemies (asteroids) that require different approaches to defeat them. Where it differs from most of the other TD games I have played is that the different weapons have to be built in connection to each other, as is fitting for a space station concept. Each unit you place must be connected in one of four directions to another unit. This means that in the end result, your strategy will have to be focused on creating not just the right mix of weapons but the right placement of each weapon in order to most effectively reach the target.
The asteroids fall from the top of the screen and the space defense station is at the bottom. As you build higher and higher, the warning space, or area that you can see before the asteroids show up, becomes smaller and smaller. The challenge, of course, increases accordingly. Asteroid defense is totally free, and it even has a sequel. Asteroid Defense 2, however, is a premium game that costs money for the ‘full’ version. In the free version (also called Asteroid Defense 2 Lite), you can play survival mode forever and ever, but you do see ads constantly.
The ‘full’ version offers a campaign mode but it really isn’t necessary to enjoy all the game has to offer. Asteroid Defense or Asteroid Defense 2 Lite are both great tower defense games with no cost, sharp, gorgeous graphics and a sound scheme and music score that is enjoyable, rather than repetitive and annoying. Personally, it’s my absolute favorite free game on the Android at the time of this posting.