SNAFU Tower Defense (TD) is a military themed tower defense game. It contains a campaign composed of 9 missions or levels. As a tower defense game, SNAFU falls into the mazing sub genre. Other games in this sub genre include Desktop Tower Defense and Xeno Tactic.

SNAFU TD has built in achievements in the form of medals. Upon completion of each mission, the player can receive 1-3 medals of a quality of bronze, silver or gold. Star medals are achievements for killing a high percentage of the enemy. Heart medals are achievements for having a high percentage of life remaining. Eagle medals are achievements for the speed at which the mission was completed.

SNAFU TD has a built in tool tip system. This help system is on by default, but can be turned of by clicking the Help button in game. The tool tip system displays a tool tip when the player mouses over each piece of the interface.

SNAFU TD has keyboard shortcuts for each button in the interface. Each keyboard shortcut, or hot key, is listed in the tool tip for each button.

Prior to starting each mission, the player can sell towers at no penalty. After the mission has begun, each tower is sold for 75% of the construction and upgrade cost.

In addition to being able to upgrade each tower, the player can also select a tower, and set the targeting algorithm. The algorithms available are Closest to Goal, Strongest and Weakest.

Care was taken in SNAFU TD to encourage players to utilize all of the tower types available. The waves of creeps are balanced to force players to use most of the tower types.

SNAFU TD is the first mazing tower defense game to allow players to build Barricades. Barricades are essentially walls. They do no damage, and are cheaper than building a maze with level 1 towers.