The Adorasplosive Cannon Brawl

Sound the siren because we've found yet another adorable indie strategy game, but this one's pushing the boundaries of what our cute glands can handle. Cannon Brawl boasts airships, hilariously proportioned turrets and a father-daughter royalty tag team just on the surface, with a highly original 2D strategy concept and great music to boot. We've got a launch trailer and lightning fast first thoughts after the break.

Things have never been so twee (the dev team is called Turtle Sandbox, for goodness sake), but there's some curious, interesting game under all that fluffy exterior. Obvious thought has gone into different tower designs and how they interact with characters, evidenced above by bouncing a laser off an avatar-specific shield. Meanwhile, the drill cannon has mined a permanent home for itself in my heart just from these bare glimpses and development diaries promise powerful combinations for it.

Mere moments with the early-access build (available on Steam) revealed an easy to learn control scheme that flows smoothly but leaves infinite room for skilled play in the hands of a master, who's catered for with competitive online and local multiplayer and such post-mission stats as APM and speed. Art, story and interface have all been updated from the Alpha demo released in February (now understandably removed - Understanding Ed) and whimsically begin to spin a tale of brotherly war on a massive looking singleplayer map. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a delightfully quaint kingdom to defend.