Really awesome
I can't believe there are people whining about not being able to beat the first level. I beat it with gold rank and on x3 speed without losing any lives. You just have to think strategically, and you need very few towers to beat the game... it's all about where you place them and what types you use.
I love the combinations, the animations, etc. You did a really great job on this. The only thing is that after the first three levels or so you don't really want to finish the world map because everything is essentially the same and the same strategy will work on virtually every level. Perhaps just one level with more waves would have been better, but that's just me.
For those of you who need some help getting through, here is what I did, and it worked great:
1) Find the points where enemies will come by more than once. Like on the first level, the crossroads and the spot near the entrance. Don't forget that you can remove trees in order to place shrooms.
2) Build 5 shrooms at level 1. Begin by making each one a different element, then upgrade to level 2, and add the same element (you're making pure shrooms). Do this until all you have 5 pure shrooms of different elements all with all three jewels filled in. Keep upgrading until all 5 are at level 4.
3) Find another good spot, even though your choke points are used up. On the first level, that big curve over to the right will do. You're now going to build one tower at a time. Make a shroom where it can hit the largest amount of the curve, upgrade to level 4, and then open the combination list from the menu.
4) Using the combination list, start at the top and begin creating level 4 towers with the combination of jewels listed down the right side of the list. Don't waste your time building two-jewel shrooms. Keep doing this until you have one of each type of three-jewel combo shroom at level 4.
5) Make sure you take advantage of the tools you unlock during the game. Make sure you place them smartly. Something that extends the effect in seconds of a shroom that isn't poisoning or slowing anything is useless.
6) By the time you accomplish the first five steps, you'll probably be really close to beating the level. At this point, just see what weaknesses the next enemies coming up have and start building and upgrading accordingly. You can put a really powerful tower at the end of your course as a safeguard if you want.