The Deadly Tower of Monsters

 PlayStation 4
  • Publisher: Atlus
  • Release Date: Jan 19, 2016
  • Also On: PC
User Score
7.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 101 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 49 out of 101
  2. Mixed: 40 out of 101
  3. Negative: 12 out of 101

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  1. Kurty
    Jun 1, 2018
    6
    The Deadly Tower of Monsters is a "Top-down" action/platform game, with an original setting : The characters in the game are actually the actors of an old-school B-movie, and for its DVD re-release, you actually "play" through the movie, while the film director comments your actions and everything else for the "Audio commentary" bonus of the DVD.

    Unfortunately, the gameplay is nothing    The Deadly Tower of Monsters is a "Top-down" action/platform game, with an original setting : The characters in the game are actually the actors of an old-school B-movie, and for its DVD re-release, you actually "play" through the movie, while the film director comments your actions and everything else for the "Audio commentary" bonus of the DVD.

    Unfortunately, the gameplay is nothing to write home about : the fights aren't really exciting, and the platforming sequences can be frustrating as it's sometimes hard to evaluate the distance and height difference between platforms. However, the dialogues are really funny and it packs everything you can expect from a B-movie (dinosaurs, ape-men, etc).

    All in all, The Deadly Tower of Monsters is a short, decent game, but it's humor alone makes it worth playing, if you can get it at a fairly low price.    … Expand
  2. HaloFever
    Nov 3, 2016
    7
    The draw of The Deadly Tower of Monsters is the authentically B-movie level effects, including jerky claymation dinosaurs and bats flying on visible strings. The actual game play is standard top down shooter stuff with some minor platforming. Behind the entire games runs an audio track from the "director" of the B-movie. One can imagine a more engrossing experience but this is a budgetThe draw of The Deadly Tower of Monsters is the authentically B-movie level effects, including jerky claymation dinosaurs and bats flying on visible strings. The actual game play is standard top down shooter stuff with some minor platforming. Behind the entire games runs an audio track from the "director" of the B-movie. One can imagine a more engrossing experience but this is a budget title with budget expectations. Given that, it's pretty clever stuff, with each death being commented on as a deleted scene made to confuse the press, an obvious mistake, or the unfortunate death of the original lead actor. It reminds me a little of Call of Juarez: Gunglsinger, except that game was a budget title FPS. The addition of a weapon and ability upgrade system in Deadly Tower of Monsters seem entirely unnecessary given the game's length and scope. All in all, it is a brisk arcade experience with some humor and neat ideas. Seeing as it's the November freebie for PS Plus members, I recommend trying it.… Expand
  3. GreenMachineG
    Jan 19, 2016
    7
    The Deadly Tower of Monsters is a hack-and-slash puzzle game with the most unique setting I have ever had in a video game. The game takes place inside a DVD-release of a 1950's sci-fi/monster movie in which the original director of the film is recording a narration for the commentary on the DVD. They capture the general look of 50's films stereotypes perfectly, with scratchy film,The Deadly Tower of Monsters is a hack-and-slash puzzle game with the most unique setting I have ever had in a video game. The game takes place inside a DVD-release of a 1950's sci-fi/monster movie in which the original director of the film is recording a narration for the commentary on the DVD. They capture the general look of 50's films stereotypes perfectly, with scratchy film, stop-motion monsters, and the perfect 50's style "actors". The dialogue is extremely clever, and the director is so funny, and had me cracking up over and over again. They capture nearly every trope of 50's sci-fi: you fight dinosaurs, ape-men, and have a robot sidekick! The point of the game is to traverse the tower (Deadly Tower of Monsters) all the way to the top to defeat the "Emporer". You fight through tons of monsters and solve puzzles along the way. I really enjoyed this game, and would recommend it to any film-loving gamers, or people who just really enjoy comedy in video games.

    8.0/10    … Expand
  4. KarstonMarston
    Feb 16, 2016
    9
    Lots of Love and Originality in this little masterpiece. I had so much fun playing it, although the gameplay is not challenging, the ideas and feeling of progress (up) makes it a great start into Gaming year 2016.
  5. nerrstyBthirsty
    May 5, 2016
    8
    A game destined to be a cult smash if one ever existed, The Deadly Tower of Monsters is a game that feels truly unique. Even outside of its brilliant concept of having a director narrate the titular "film" through DVD commentary as you play, the gameplay in TDToM is nothing to scoff at.

    When I say this game feels unique, I mean it. While it's fairly easy to trace its Metroid-like style    A game destined to be a cult smash if one ever existed, The Deadly Tower of Monsters is a game that feels truly unique. Even outside of its brilliant concept of having a director narrate the titular "film" through DVD commentary as you play, the gameplay in TDToM is nothing to scoff at.

    When I say this game feels unique, I mean it. While it's fairly easy to trace its Metroid-like style of progression design, or twin stick shooter / Gauntlet inspired combat mechanics, the real star of this game is the tower it gets its namesake from. The level design here is outright incredible. The verticality of this game's design is fully realized, and after 20+ years of playing video games, I've yet to see anything else like it. As you inch your way to the top of this tower, jumping off and freefalling while shooting enemies and collectible targets, flying through rings, or trying to spot your landing on a secret area that you've found, you'll know you're playing something special. The sense of progression and the refreshing take on level design here are absolutely spectacular. Progression is always made interesting, thanks to being able to switch between 3 different characters with specific powers and usages, and the tower itself remains just dense enough to explore while never feeling too daunting. In terms of level design, I don't think TDToM could have done much better than it did. It's that good.

    The technical aspects of the game are truly a mixed bag. While the character models here come off as something that could have been accomplished well before last gen, the environments, animations, and draw distance (despite some stuttering and pop-in during long freefall sections) are all very impressive. This is to mention nothing of the way the game really tries (and succeeds) to sell itself as a B-movie. Larger monsters and dinosaurs will stutter as if they're convincingly stop-animated. You can see the seams in certain enemy costumes, what with giant squids with human feet sticking out of their costumes, or Gorn-like lizard enemies with masks that don't exactly match the color of their costumes. The game is committed in presenting itself as a B-movie, and it really works.

    Then there's the variety of enemies, taken and recreated from decades of B-movie history. You'll face off against, Flea Men, Nukular Ants, Invisible Men, dog monsters made up of vacuum costumes covered in Christmas lights, walking brains, alien creatures, ape men, a number of different dinosaurs, etc. The enemy list here is extensive, to be sure, and even though most don't require wildly different tactics to take down, they still fit into the game's progression perfectly, on top of being as lovingly designed as they are.

    The weapons you unlock are just as fun as the enemy designs. From electrified whips, to lightsabers, to even something as distinctly goofy and B-movie as a variety of different ray guns, the loadout here is a blast to play around with. While not quite the size of the loadout in something like the Ratchet & Clank games, and while you're likely to find two or three weapons from both the melee and ranged categories to focus on for most of the game, the rest of the weapons you discover throughout are always worth trying out, and are fun enough to not make it feel like a chore to do so.

    While the narrative here is definitely wholly unique and remains pretty interesting throughout, even if just to see what the director character has to say about what's going on (and make no mistake, this is an incredibly entertaining narrator), the ending of the game feels weak. Not to spoil anything, but during the last chapter, the game starts to kind of lose its aim. While the ending section is just as weird and intriguing as the rest of the game, it ends on a note that isn't exactly satisfying.

    When all is said and done, The Deadly Tower of Monsters is a short game (clocking in at around 7 hours for completionists) that manages to do a lot of unique, fun, and interesting things. I believe "unique" is the key word in its equation though. Thanks to the stunning sense of verticality, its intricate and compelling level design, and lovingly designed world and monsters, I still haven't played anything quite like this. This is the best homage to schlocky B-movies since Zombies Ate My Neighbors or Destroy All Humans!. It really is that good, and is only brought down by very minor technical aspects and an ending that doesn't exactly feel as realized as it should. That said, everything beforehand absolutely did feel fully realized, and I'd have no problem recommending this to anyone that is remotely interested in this concept. While certainly not a perfect game, it's by all means a great one.    … Expand
  6. drlowdon
    Nov 24, 2016
    4
    The B-Movie VHS style presentation helps make The Deadly Tower of Monsters more interesting than it may otherwise have been but it is still not enough to make up for the rather mediocre, and repetitive, gameplay.
  7. K5000i
    Nov 2, 2016
    8
    pretty cool game ,., almost like the tomb raider top down games but has a few twists on how the game uses height ,., not the longest game bt at 5 or so hours it was a nice distraction,.,
  8. Nel
    Jun 29, 2017
    7
    A diamond in the dust to say. It has some nice mechanics to it, and it feels very fun to play, it's kinda like an rpg shooter where you climb a tower and pick up upgrades for your weapons along the way. The game doesn't take itself in a serious way, which makes for some hilarious moments on the way to the top
  9. seriimac
    Aug 5, 2016
    6
    Although it was a love at the first glance (demo is genial), I was disappointed after I bought the game and platinumed it. Boring, boring, boring. And I didnt care about the cheap gameplay. All the good jokes were in the Demo. Then came the bad ones. Ending is a disaster.
  10. stamito
    May 8, 2017
    7
    This is a little top down action game. I won’t lie there is a few things in this game that could be better, but overall this is quite a nice funny game.

    So you’re basically a hero that is climbing a massive tower to “save the day” doing a bit a platforming and killing a lot of monsters with your weapons. Gameplay wise, this game is nothing new, it is just a top down action game, with a    This is a little top down action game. I won’t lie there is a few things in this game that could be better, but overall this is quite a nice funny game.

    So you’re basically a hero that is climbing a massive tower to “save the day” doing a bit a platforming and killing a lot of monsters with your weapons. Gameplay wise, this game is nothing new, it is just a top down action game, with a kind of slow paced action if you compare it to for example dead nation or alienation. There is a decent selection of weapons both melee and ranged, and they feel different enough. Graphically speaking, it is not anything out of the ordinary but it is good enough. Although I must say I was quite amazed by the fact that you can look down anytime while climbing the tower and it is amazing how you can still see stuff that are a long way down. Just climbing the tower and just stop to take a look down almost made the game worth playing by itself. In terms of story, you’ll find a very basic one, hero want to save the day by defeating the evil guy with an unexpected curious twist towards the end. I must say tough that the story is structured in a very original way. So the game is supposed to be an actual movie and the director is recording the comments of the DVD, so as you move forward in the game you’ll hear the director and an audio technician speaking a lot, plus what’s happening inside the movie itself. This is an awesome and innovative idea for the narrative, but I felt the dialogue between the director and the technician, which is meant to be funny, was sometimes is a bit tedious. At least that’s what I thought for the first 1-2 hours, then I got used and I thought it was all right, so be ready to maybe get annoyed a bit if you’re not prepared for some cheap humour. Also worth mentioning is that there is a huge variety of different enemies, which helps each level of the tower feel less repetitive, they actually made a decent job at avoiding the repetitive feel.

    Summarising, you want a top down action game that feels a bit different with a funny setting, give this one a try you’ll probably enjoy it, otherwise put your money somewhere else.    … Expand
  11. NihiRagnarK
    Dec 22, 2016
    7
    This game is pretty cool. The 'commentary track' and the design of tower is the most attractive part.
    Although I am not a fan of old fashion sci-fi, the gameplay is still full of fun and sometimes amazing.
    On the other hand, the combat design is poor and the melee weapons don't show much of difference.
  12. AJC3317
    Nov 9, 2016
    8
    Cheesy B-grade sci-fi movies were a staple of the 50s. So low budget you'd think they were made by a high school AV club, with actors who over-emote every line of dialogue. They have an undeniable charm about them. The Deadly Tower of Monsters is an isometric platformer that faithfully recreates the look and feel of a cheesy sci-fi monster flick from that era, and pulls it off with aCheesy B-grade sci-fi movies were a staple of the 50s. So low budget you'd think they were made by a high school AV club, with actors who over-emote every line of dialogue. They have an undeniable charm about them. The Deadly Tower of Monsters is an isometric platformer that faithfully recreates the look and feel of a cheesy sci-fi monster flick from that era, and pulls it off with a unique presentation and really nice attention to detail.

    The game is presented as a DVD movie, with the director of the film doing a running commentary as the stars progress through the story. The commentary is easily the highlight of the game, as some of his lines are laugh out loud funny. The stars of the film/game are Dick Starspeed, Scarlet Nova, and Dick's robot, Robot. They each have some funny dialogue as well, the best coming when Dick finds his broken down Robot friend. Together they must stop Scarlet's father, the Emperor, from killing all the apes of the planet they are on. Not a lot to go on, but it's a B-grade sci-fi movie parody so it's to be expected. This all takes place behind a noticeable film grain covering the screen, really selling the low budget look they're going for.

    The gameplay is a twin-stick style shooter with some melee combat mixed in. There are an amazing amount of enemy types. It would be impressive for a AAA game, but for a game like this is simply staggering the amount of time and effort designing these monsters must have taken. Enemy design is where the attention to detail truly shines. Flying enemies have a visible string attached to them. The director mentions that they used dogs in costumes for some of the monsters, and you can easily tell that some of the monsters are definitely dogs wearing costumes. Weapon variety is also big in The Deadly Tower of Monsters, but this doesn't work as well. You are given a new weapon almost every other checkpoint, and in a game this short you quickly begin to feel bogged down by them.

    Not everything in The Deadly Tower of Monsters works quite as well as planned. The camera is fixed, and what it feels is important to look at and what the player wants to look at are often two very different things. It also has a tendency to swing wildly and unpredictably around. I even felt slightly motion sick at some points. Each character is largely the same, with the only differences being a different special power they can use, and Dick gets a speed dash move that is not used once in the game. I guess they felt each character needed something unique, it's just strange to give the worthless power to the main character. If your character is knocked down in combat it takes them a good 4-5 seconds to stand back up and keep moving, which kills pacing. And while this is a minor quibble, the collectibles are completely inane. They either have nothing to do with the game (fall through a bunch of hoops floating in the sky... what?), or are in spots that are so far out of the way they'd be nearly impossible to find without a guide.

    Everyone loves a good B-grade sci-fi flick, and The Deadly Tower of Monsters parodies one very well. It not only pokes fun at the genre, but at movie making as a whole with some clever fourth wall breaking sequences. The attention to detail is spot on, and while the game itself doesn't quite reach the same level it's still very much worth your time. A little more polish could have made it something truly great, rather than just interesting and very good.    … Expand
  13. Zvezdochet
    Jan 26, 2018
    8
    О, вот это круть! Жалко русского перевода нет, ничего не понятно. А так, для любителей кинематографа это шедевр, да и проходится интересно. Тут даже геймплей не однообразен! Клацая на крестик не пройдёшь, иногда нужно покумекать ( может английский надо было учить...).О, вот это круть! Жалко русского перевода нет, ничего не понятно. А так, для любителей кинематографа это шедевр, да и проходится интересно. Тут даже геймплей не однообразен! Клацая на крестик не пройдёшь, иногда нужно покумекать ( может английский надо было учить...).
  14. Coramcrash
    Mar 13, 2017
    7
    The Deadly Tower of monster è un capolavoro dei giochi satirici.
    Dal punto di vista della comicità e della satira è eccelso.
    Dal punto di vista del gameplay ha invece parecchie pecche.
    nel complesso un tutto sommato discreto 73/100.
  15. boca77
    Jan 4, 2018
    10
    I play videogames to have fun, and oh boy, I had it here.
    Great gameplay, story, commentaries, graphics.
    Something different from the repetitive AAA game experiences, and way better. Easy to platinum if you put the effort, and if the game grab your attention on the first 15 minutes, you probably will. Great cost value, and you can get it at a discount price as it goes on sale from time    I play videogames to have fun, and oh boy, I had it here.
    Great gameplay, story, commentaries, graphics.
    Something different from the repetitive AAA game experiences, and way better.
    Easy to platinum if you put the effort, and if the game grab your attention on the first 15 minutes, you probably will.
    Great cost value, and you can get it at a discount price as it goes on sale from time to time,    … Expand
  16. AbaddonAscidhiz
    Mar 9, 2018
    10
    First I had purchased this game on Steam. Sometime after, I got it for free on PSN. I must say, it was a positive surprise.
    It´s really funny game, with nice gameplay and cool graphics. I could not put it away until reaching the ending, and even after I kept playing for the platinum.
    Oh, and the director comments are priceless!
  17. mikemormai
    May 7, 2019
    7
    Jogo ate aque legal, veio na psn plus , ate fiz platina ,mais assite umas gameplays antes de compra
  18. Muzzy86
    Mar 19, 2022
    10
    What a surprise this was, bought on sale never expected it to get me hooked, more like this please.
  19. HuevoAlce
    Jun 27, 2022
    6
    The Deadly Tower of Monsters is a short and fun game to mess around with. Easy platinum trophy as well.

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
72

Mixed or average reviews - based on 17 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 17
  3. Negative: 0 out of 17
  1. Multiplayer.it
    Nov 21, 2016
    73
    The Deadly Tower of Monsters delivers a nice experience, packed with tons of funny dialogues and interesting levels.
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  2. Impulsegamer
    Feb 29, 2016
    60
    The real star of this one is the director with his running commentary, and the film just supports his wit. If you’re looking to kill a good handful of hours with a solid smile on your face, check this game out!
    Read full review
  3. Digitally Downloaded
    Feb 24, 2016
    90
    It’s not a very long game at all; I’d clocked it in about seven hours, but those are the best, most entertaining seven hours I’ve had with the PlayStation 4 controller in my hands for a very long time.
    Read full review
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