Original Steam review made right after streaming the game
After I had finished off Cringetober 2022 I had decided to experiment in clearing my backlog of games through a list of games I had not actually played yet, but had been really wanting to! I was in the mood for something Sci-Fi related and this one had my interest, considering it being based on the old retro sci-fi from many movies made infamous by MST3K and such that often get referenced along with the meta humour in the narrative of this game. I was also reminded of those many times I watched some of those cheesy B-movies with my dad such as "The Earth Dies Screaming" or "This Island Earth" and more, many of which do get referenced in this game in many ways.
The story is the director of the movie has come into a studio to record lines for a director's cut of his movie, "The Deadly Tower of Monsters" about a typical hero character (flying in a ship held up by strings) crashing onto this tower to fight the evil overlord of this enormous tower, but soon ends up free-falling to the bottom and having to work his way up to the tower, getting companions along the way in the form of a robot and the daughter of the villainous overlord. Stopping you from your ascent are men in monkey suits weilding "Laserblast" arm blasters, kids in rubber octopus suits, claymation dinosaurs, giant ants and so much more!
The gameplay is of a twin-stick shooter in many ways and you can not only upgrade your weapons, but get a variety along with extra abilities specific characters that can help you progress up the tower and into hidden areas to collect items for upgrades and such. I also love the mechanic of being able to aim off the edge of the tower to shoot at any approaching monsters that are trying to scale their way up to get at you and many boss battles are based around this, making it feel like they a truly massive monsters. The whole time, the narrator is talking to the one hosting this director's cut, asking questions and getting answers he really did not expect to get such as if you die in the game, it's considered a cut scene and that the one who died was "Just an extra" or how the villain was a used-car salesman with an evil laugh that they hired on the spot after the producer had been scammed by him.
I really did love streaming every moment of this and reflected that love in going through the game to get all the achievements as possible because of how much I loved it. I even over-streamed, going over 5 hours because I was having such a good time with it!
I highly recommend it for any big fan of these B-movie settings out there and absurdist humour.
One line that'll always stick with me when collecting film reels:
"Ah, so that's where the cut sex scene went. I didn't think it was that awkward. Especially with the robot in the corner."
Stream/Gameplay
After I had finished off Cringetober 2022 I had decided to experiment in clearing my backlog of games through a list of games I had not actually played yet, but had been really wanting to! I was in the mood for something Sci-Fi related and this one had my interest, considering it being based on the old retro sci-fi from many movies made infamous by MST3K and such that often get referenced along with the meta humour in the narrative of this game. I was also reminded of those many times I watched some of those cheesy B-movies with my dad such as "The Earth Dies Screaming" or "This Island Earth" and more, many of which do get referenced in this game in many ways.
The story is the director of the movie has come into a studio to record lines for a director's cut of his movie, "The Deadly Tower of Monsters" about a typical hero character (flying in a ship held up by strings) crashing onto this tower to fight the evil overlord of this enormous tower, but soon ends up free-falling to the bottom and having to work his way up to the tower, getting companions along the way in the form of a robot and the daughter of the villainous overlord. Stopping you from your ascent are men in monkey suits weilding "Laserblast" arm blasters, kids in rubber octopus suits, claymation dinosaurs, giant ants and so much more!
The gameplay is of a twin-stick shooter in many ways and you can not only upgrade your weapons, but get a variety along with extra abilities specific characters that can help you progress up the tower and into hidden areas to collect items for upgrades and such. I also love the mechanic of being able to aim off the edge of the tower to shoot at any approaching monsters that are trying to scale their way up to get at you and many boss battles are based around this, making it feel like they a truly massive monsters. The whole time, the narrator is talking to the one hosting this director's cut, asking questions and getting answers he really did not expect to get such as if you die in the game, it's considered a cut scene and that the one who died was "Just an extra" or how the villain was a used-car salesman with an evil laugh that they hired on the spot after the producer had been scammed by him.
I really did love streaming every moment of this and reflected that love in going through the game to get all the achievements as possible because of how much I loved it. I even over-streamed, going over 5 hours because I was having such a good time with it!
I highly recommend it for any big fan of these B-movie settings out there and absurdist humour.
One line that'll always stick with me when collecting film reels:
"Ah, so that's where the cut sex scene went. I didn't think it was that awkward. Especially with the robot in the corner."
Stream/Gameplay
This game is right up my alley as a fan of old campy sci-fi, with an homage to Harryhausen's stop-motion monsters, executed with absolute perfection! The "movie poster" (title screen) had a different combination of two of the three main characters - one carrying the other, each time the title screen loaded, and a little commentary on why they chose that dynamic for the poster (the one in the thumbnail here caters to the Robot community).
The game acts as a DVD of an old movie, narrated by the director's commentary track. When you die, the director will say this is the wrong clip, rewind, and start the scene again. Because the villains you fight are also actors, whenever you stumble, they actually wait around for you to get up again, which I found an absolutely fantastic little detail. You can see the wire on almost all the floating/flying things. And I know I already mentioned the stop-motion, but that really was the highlight that sealed me in for the long haul on this game.
In the fourth chapter, which the director doesn't remember shooting, they start to slowly break the fourth wall until they completely shatter it. This is where I felt a bit blah about it. It didn't TOTALLY take me out of it, but the ending really felt like they pumped the brakes on the whole thing, which was intentional, but I felt a little bit robbed.
However, overall, it's a gorgeous game with good voice actors (many of which, this is their only project that I could find). I would definitely play this again for a nice chill game day.
The game acts as a DVD of an old movie, narrated by the director's commentary track. When you die, the director will say this is the wrong clip, rewind, and start the scene again. Because the villains you fight are also actors, whenever you stumble, they actually wait around for you to get up again, which I found an absolutely fantastic little detail. You can see the wire on almost all the floating/flying things. And I know I already mentioned the stop-motion, but that really was the highlight that sealed me in for the long haul on this game.
In the fourth chapter, which the director doesn't remember shooting, they start to slowly break the fourth wall until they completely shatter it. This is where I felt a bit blah about it. It didn't TOTALLY take me out of it, but the ending really felt like they pumped the brakes on the whole thing, which was intentional, but I felt a little bit robbed.
However, overall, it's a gorgeous game with good voice actors (many of which, this is their only project that I could find). I would definitely play this again for a nice chill game day.
Really fun and well designed game! I like a good short game that has lots of replay-ability.