TouchArcade Rating:

One of the defining tower defense games on iOS has been Kingdom Rush (Free), whose mixture of hero-based gameplay and standard tower defense elements has helped make the game a success across three separate entries so far. While it’s hard to imagine many TouchArcade readers who haven’t checked out at least one entry in the series – particularly as they’ve gone on sale or free at various points – if you haven’t, and want to see what the fuss is all about, Ironhide Games has announced that the first Kingdom Rush is now free-to-play forever.

The first #KingdomRush is now free on all the mobile versions and will stay free! Read here: http://t.co/kLifIqW1jg pic.twitter.com/lUnQOWiFmX — Ironhide Game Studio (@ironhidegames) September 8, 2015

The game is still supported by in-app purchases, primarily for additional heroes that you can buy instead of unlock, so it’s not difficult to see where this could still make Ironhide some money, possibly even more than before. The previous games have all been apparent hits, so this could be an experiment from Ironhide to see if they can go full free-to-play for a future title. Or hey, maybe they’re just trying to coax a bit more of a long tail out of a game that’s several years old now.