In Castle Clout: Return of the King, you are tasked with operating a trebuchet during the siege of some pretty rickety castles. Unfortunately for the king(s?), the castle designers failed pretty miserably at their jobs most of the time, lending their lackluster talents to the construction of very unstable castle ramparts that the king and his guard are forced to seek shelter within.

As you progress through the levels (22 of 'em!) -- which is achieved by scoring high on points like general damage caused and decapitations, among other things -- the construction budgets appear to be increasing. To combat the new castle designs, you'll gain access to better ammunition and heavier weights to make your trebuchet more deadly.

Castle Clout is a simple game to play but pretty difficult to master. As with many of the "physics-based games" out there, you're often relying on sheer luck to get really high scores. I got a little obsessed with getting a high score for a while there and I finally gave up, since I was playing against myself. Now that the scoring system works and players can log into our site, I hope to get some real competition in here! I'll come back and trounce all-comers once someone beats my 20,000+ point score that stands as our all-time winner. Come on, peasants! Take down the king!!

I finally just got around to messing with the level editor and I'll say this game just earned another point of happiness from me. The editor is pretty simple (even crude-ish) but totally fine for the game. Best thing is that you can copy your designs and import designs from others! Very, very cool. I might have to start up a collection of levels for people to share & try... very nice.