I played this game because, as a fan of cheesy sci-fi B-movies, it boasted an aesthetic that I've never seen a game explore before. Visually, the game does a wonderful job of recreating the feel of an Ed Wood-style production because it's full of enemies in terrible costumes, enemies who fly onto the screen aided by some easy-to-spot string and enemies who move in stop motion. Some of the visuals really hit the spot.
Beyond all of that window dressing though, there's not much more to it. It's a basic Diablo clone with extremely repetitive combat and no other game mechanics to speak of. It's pretty boring, which is a shame because the style alone screams potential.
Beyond all of that window dressing though, there's not much more to it. It's a basic Diablo clone with extremely repetitive combat and no other game mechanics to speak of. It's pretty boring, which is a shame because the style alone screams potential.
This is a cool game that is targets film enthusiasts. Gameplay wise nothing special. Interesting comments during the game.
A game that makes for a better experience than an actual game. The gameplay is kinda bad. There's two attack buttons, one for gun and one for melee. All combat is the same. Either spam the gun or spam the melee. The camera works against you in places and the platforming can be wonky. But the actually concept for the game is brilliant. The game plays out like an old school monster / b-movie and the director is providing commentary throughout the game. Almost everything you do he has something snarky to say about it, even just spinning in circles. I honestly wish the game felt better to play. I would recommend this to everyone if it did. But as it stands I can only recommend it to people who find the premise interesting.
The premise of playing through a 60’s B movie is amazing but sadly the gameplay has the same quality of the filmmaking of a B movie with non of the charm
Si eres cinéfilo de clásicos de culto y películas tipo B como el planeta de los simios, king kong, barbarella y demas... este juego es para ti.
- el arte es hermoso, cada escenario, cada monstruo, y cada melodía... 10/10)
- el gameplay es sencillo y bastante pulido, como un hack n slash a la diablo 3... claro mas feito
-tiene bastantes armas en tu arsenal las cuales desbloqueas... desde rayos laser hasta lanzacohetes... o bien una rasuradora... el juego esta bastante variado en este apartado.
-mejora de armas y tu personaje tipo rpg (subes de nivel y stats)
-la historia: es una comedia... si buscas jugar algo serio no contemples este juego.
-el narrador de la historia te acompaña siempre con un toque muy bueno.
-la variedad de enemigos... el mismo juego lo dice, es de lo que mas brilla a pesar de estar todos tontos... tiene gran variedad de ellos. (mas en el capitulo final)
-Las secciones de plataformas a pesar de ser pocas son épicas y hermosas de ver.
- el arte es hermoso, cada escenario, cada monstruo, y cada melodía... 10/10)
- el gameplay es sencillo y bastante pulido, como un hack n slash a la diablo 3... claro mas feito
-tiene bastantes armas en tu arsenal las cuales desbloqueas... desde rayos laser hasta lanzacohetes... o bien una rasuradora... el juego esta bastante variado en este apartado.
-mejora de armas y tu personaje tipo rpg (subes de nivel y stats)
-la historia: es una comedia... si buscas jugar algo serio no contemples este juego.
-el narrador de la historia te acompaña siempre con un toque muy bueno.
-la variedad de enemigos... el mismo juego lo dice, es de lo que mas brilla a pesar de estar todos tontos... tiene gran variedad de ellos. (mas en el capitulo final)
-Las secciones de plataformas a pesar de ser pocas son épicas y hermosas de ver.
They can't all be Zenoclash
deadly because i almost died of boredom playing it
One of the best ideas for a game. Love the commentary and concept.
Gets an extra star for the fake stop-motion as well
Gets an extra star for the fake stop-motion as well
Played the demo. The witty meta narration is reminiscent of the one in Ratchet and Clank, which makes more sense here but doesn't make it any more good. The combat seems like it could have some potential with more gadgets to use, but as the demo shows it, it's very boring and unengaging.
campy unique era to be inspired by for a game but not particularly inspired gameplay
a funny and unique little game that is let down uninspiring combat, but it’s short and sweet!
6,8/10
The gameplay is very poor, there are 2 buttons for the whole game, hit and shoot, the whole map is 1 big location with a tower. But the announcer's comments are not bad, but not enough funny.
The gameplay is very poor, there are 2 buttons for the whole game, hit and shoot, the whole map is 1 big location with a tower. But the announcer's comments are not bad, but not enough funny.
A B movie satire, sadly with B movie quality.
The Deadly Tower of Monsters is a fantastic idea on paper. A game pretending to be a studio doing a directors commentary recording to an old Sci-fi B movie as you play. Sadly though the premise is great, and it sometimes gets aspects of it right, it doesn't always land all it's punches where it should leaving a fairly flat experience by the end.
You play the role of one of three characters, Dick Starspeed, Scarlet Nova and Dick's co-pilot, the unnamed Robot. Dick crash-lands on a planet to find out it's emperor is mistreating the apes that live there, teaming up with the emperors daughter they decided to scale the tower and overthrow him. That's pretty much the extent of the story.
As they travel the game uses a ton of tributes to retro sci-fi media visible everywhere from Flash Gordon, Planet of the Apes, King Kong, Buck Rogers etc. One of it's strongest aspects is it's retro aesthetic and designs with old glass dome helmets, strings visible from enemies like puppets, the color filter etc. It also makes really good use of the director's meta commentary about things happening as you progress and while not every line is a winner some of them are genuinely quite funny. It's just a shame the final act and ending are so unneeded and generally poor letting the rest of the game's theme and characters down.
What really hurts the game though and leaves it such a mediocre experience is the gameplay itself. To be blunt, it's clunky and boring. The game is essentially a twinstick shooter but it just feels awful to play. You can either attack in melee or with a variety of guns expanding your arsenal as you travel. When attacking up close and personal enemies will often hit you first and rag doll you onto the floor so you end up just flailing attacks towards them to stop it. The ranged attacks aren't hugely better with aiming being a bit dodgy at best. I found a lot of the guns pretty meh to use as well which considering the theme was a let down really. What compounds all of this is that the camera is mostly fixed and it feels like it shouldn't be due to the tower climbing nature of the game I kept trying to move it around , I just found the whole thing uncomfortable in a way I don't with most twin stick shooters.
It did have one stand out mechanic I felt was under baked of pressing R1 to look over the edge and fire at enemies coming up the tower to attack you. I found that it didn't always work though unless you were in the exact right spot to do it and a lot of times enemies came up so fast that you had to break out of it to attack them normally. This could have been a much cooler feature than it was, but that applies to the whole game, it just feels like wasted potential.
For example you can play as 3 characters. Each character has maybe 2-3 abilities that are really different and one each needed to make progress against certain tower obstacles. It's just pointless, it's very rare this happens forcing you to find a change point to change characters to do it. Everything else is the same, they share weapons and the very basic upgrade system and don't feel unique at all so why bother? Speaking of upgrades, I forgot half way through to do them at the stations because they were annoying to use and the game was so easy you simply didn't need more health, energy or cooldowns really.
The entire game is full of good ideas just poorly implemented. Overall getting the platinum and seeing everything took 6 hours. I got it free on PS+ 5 years ago and only just got around to it so can't complain, I just feel frustrated because this had a lot more potential to be a funny and clever experience but sadly just ends up something I'll totally forget about in a month or so.
+ Idea is great.
+ 50's sci-fi aesthetic and references add character.
+ Director can be genuinely entertaining to listen to.
- Ending is nonsense. Part 4 feels redundant.
- Gameplay is clunky feeling.
- Camera angles and no free movement didn't really work for me.
- Multiple characters and ability obstacles seem pointless.
The Deadly Tower of Monsters is a fantastic idea on paper. A game pretending to be a studio doing a directors commentary recording to an old Sci-fi B movie as you play. Sadly though the premise is great, and it sometimes gets aspects of it right, it doesn't always land all it's punches where it should leaving a fairly flat experience by the end.
You play the role of one of three characters, Dick Starspeed, Scarlet Nova and Dick's co-pilot, the unnamed Robot. Dick crash-lands on a planet to find out it's emperor is mistreating the apes that live there, teaming up with the emperors daughter they decided to scale the tower and overthrow him. That's pretty much the extent of the story.
As they travel the game uses a ton of tributes to retro sci-fi media visible everywhere from Flash Gordon, Planet of the Apes, King Kong, Buck Rogers etc. One of it's strongest aspects is it's retro aesthetic and designs with old glass dome helmets, strings visible from enemies like puppets, the color filter etc. It also makes really good use of the director's meta commentary about things happening as you progress and while not every line is a winner some of them are genuinely quite funny. It's just a shame the final act and ending are so unneeded and generally poor letting the rest of the game's theme and characters down.
What really hurts the game though and leaves it such a mediocre experience is the gameplay itself. To be blunt, it's clunky and boring. The game is essentially a twinstick shooter but it just feels awful to play. You can either attack in melee or with a variety of guns expanding your arsenal as you travel. When attacking up close and personal enemies will often hit you first and rag doll you onto the floor so you end up just flailing attacks towards them to stop it. The ranged attacks aren't hugely better with aiming being a bit dodgy at best. I found a lot of the guns pretty meh to use as well which considering the theme was a let down really. What compounds all of this is that the camera is mostly fixed and it feels like it shouldn't be due to the tower climbing nature of the game I kept trying to move it around , I just found the whole thing uncomfortable in a way I don't with most twin stick shooters.
It did have one stand out mechanic I felt was under baked of pressing R1 to look over the edge and fire at enemies coming up the tower to attack you. I found that it didn't always work though unless you were in the exact right spot to do it and a lot of times enemies came up so fast that you had to break out of it to attack them normally. This could have been a much cooler feature than it was, but that applies to the whole game, it just feels like wasted potential.
For example you can play as 3 characters. Each character has maybe 2-3 abilities that are really different and one each needed to make progress against certain tower obstacles. It's just pointless, it's very rare this happens forcing you to find a change point to change characters to do it. Everything else is the same, they share weapons and the very basic upgrade system and don't feel unique at all so why bother? Speaking of upgrades, I forgot half way through to do them at the stations because they were annoying to use and the game was so easy you simply didn't need more health, energy or cooldowns really.
The entire game is full of good ideas just poorly implemented. Overall getting the platinum and seeing everything took 6 hours. I got it free on PS+ 5 years ago and only just got around to it so can't complain, I just feel frustrated because this had a lot more potential to be a funny and clever experience but sadly just ends up something I'll totally forget about in a month or so.
+ Idea is great.
+ 50's sci-fi aesthetic and references add character.
+ Director can be genuinely entertaining to listen to.
- Ending is nonsense. Part 4 feels redundant.
- Gameplay is clunky feeling.
- Camera angles and no free movement didn't really work for me.
- Multiple characters and ability obstacles seem pointless.
this thing is a tragedy because they get the Ed Wood shit so right and the everything else so bland
This game on paper reeks mediocraty. The "top-down" gameplay is repetitive and uninspiring, some mechanics are just straight up bizarre (the "shooting down on a edge" mechanic is ???) and it looks quite rough for a 2016 game.
Despite all of that, I always look rather fondly back to this game. The setting - A 1950s sci-fi movie set inside a directors commentary - and characters ooze soo much charm and personality that it basically carries the game. The ending though is quite confusing and weird.
If you have nothing else to do, maybe check this game out.
Despite all of that, I always look rather fondly back to this game. The setting - A 1950s sci-fi movie set inside a directors commentary - and characters ooze soo much charm and personality that it basically carries the game. The ending though is quite confusing and weird.
If you have nothing else to do, maybe check this game out.
charming and pays tribute to old sci-fi schlock. doesn't do much else.