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 styleA 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
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