Ancillary

Ancillary was one of those games you'd find buried in a Flash portal around 2009 or so. It didn't have a big studio name attached, just a solid, straightforward tower defense experience that felt typical of the era. You loaded it up in your browser, and it just worked, no fuss.

You control a cursor, placing and upgrading gun turrets along a winding path to stop creeping enemies from reaching your base. The main goal is simple: survive all forty waves. You earn cash from each kill, which you spend on upgrades for damage, firing speed, and range. The waves introduce different enemy types, some armored, some fast, which forces you to adjust your strategy. The pacing is steady, with a quiet tension building as the later waves arrive. It feels like a careful, methodical puzzle where a single misplaced turret can unravel your entire defense.