Bloons TD 6
Overview
Part of a long-running game series originating on Flash and expanding on what I wrote from 2021 review, Bloons TD 6 is not merely addictive, it actually does have some solid grounding; at the same time, it has a lot of issues that represent the worst of modern video games (especially involving the mobile side of things).
Review
For a few years (before I revamped the system again) I had an actual ratings system for the site, which used "GREAT" (basically 5/5), "GOOD" (4/5), "SOLID" (3/5), "MEH" (2/5), and "REJECTED" (1/5), as well as "NO RATING" and a special rating, "FLAWED", which was a unique rating that was a game that I wanted to like and had some solid foundations but was waylaid with bugs or being incomplete that prevented a higher rating. (This was assuming that I could see the real game underneath, not just "this game could've been better", Billy Frontier was never going to be a five-star title).
This was explicitly stated to be adapted from Ross's Big Game List (which still was an inspiration into building into the modern game review format). Obviously it was not a complete ripoff as there are different categories (Bloons TD6 violates two of the rules, listed six minutes in: microtransactions and casual games) and slightly different ratings (Ross uses "Fantastic" as the highest rating, a combined "Good/Great" rating, "Hazy" which would be roughly equivalent to "Solid", "Love & Hate" which was the roughly equivalent to "Flawed", "Doubt" which is roughly the equivalent to "Meh" but not really, and "Pass"...which was roughly the equivalent to "Rejected"). In case you're wondering, Bloons TD 6 was to get "No Rating" under the previous system.
It's okay because he has his tastes and mine. Video games are like food. Some aren't to your personal taste, some just taste bad all-around, and some are really bad for you, even if they taste good. Bloons TD 6 is junk food. It has an addicting enough facade, there's a bunch of maps, a motley assortment of monkey types (towers, plus a single overpowered "Hero" to speed you through) to help you pop the "bloons" as they pass by (specializing in different types), a way to build up tiers of powerful towers (it is a tower defense game, after all), and a bunch of other stuff. Unfortunately, in addition to being pretty surface-shallow and a lot of grinding to get some of the "heroes" and later courses.
The lack of a story mode make it more "junk food"-esque and the constant sponging of real life money to get ahead (with buttons sometimes placed in a way that you might accidentally click on them) makes me nostalgic for Plants vs. Zombies though. I think I finally started to fall off when they added a new tower (Animal Trainer), rebalanced my favorite hero, Sauda, and started getting diminishing returns on unlockables.
Also, you know what I hate? Limited-edition unlockables. It's now standard on zoomer fare like Fortnite and a bunch more I won't care to mention, yet it's somewhat common on BTD6 as well. There's a bunch of cosmetics that you'll just straight up miss if you played too late or missed the window on giveaways (though I think some of the earliest ones were patched in years later)...not that they're all worth something. They did a crossover with MrBeast in 2024 and added a limited-edition promotional pack with the MrBeast monkey profile picture. If you wanted it for whatever reason and missed the offer, it came and went (this was during the time when MrBeast was at the peak of his popularity, but a lot of stuff was coming out about MrBeast and his company, including how he ran it and his inner circle included both a pedophile and a registered sex offender was circulating). And of course, like any time-sucking game, has the "dailies", including a free item once a day and some daily challenges.
One of the reasons I soured so much on Bloons TD6 was the constant updates. If you have to constantly update your game and change things it ruins everything for everybody. Strategy videos become worthless, updates clog servers, achievements become meaningless, and it's a big mess. I admit Factorio changed significantly before Version 1.0 and then changed a lot of things for Version 2.0, but with Bloons TD 6 it became a much bigger deal because not only were the mechanics being constantly shifted and rebalanced to the point where some YouTube tutorial videos are now completely worthless, but the game constantly wants you to spend real money to get ahead. I started playing again after a while with some new courses and some towers to play with, including the "Mermonkey" and "Desperado", which was a good combination, but then another patch rolled around and nerfed Mermonkey, making strategy worthless again. Why not just use playtesting so you don't have to constantly change things?
Overall, it added up to be ultimately distasteful; that's the thing about junk food, sometimes it just doesn't play well in your stomach and you regret eating it.
Player Notes
There were several points where I played Bloons TD 6. Looking back on my achievement list, the most recent time spanned roughly from November 2025 to February 2026, previous times were sometime around 2021 to 2023. (It was purchased in July 2021).
Port & Rerelease Notes
Bloons TD 6 did originate as a phone app (for iOS and Android) in 2018 and was ported to Windows by the end of the year. (macOS followed in 2020, Xbox One in 2023, PS4 in 2024, and the Nintendo Switch just a few months ago as of this writing).
Screenshots
