I’m purchasing an Xbox Live Indie Game (XBLIG) every day, seeking out the quality titles that got lost in the shuffle and are not well represented in the top 50 lists on the Xbox Dashboard. Today is day #267, and today’s game is “The Tower: A Bomb’s Climb”.
“The Tower: A Bomb’s Climb” is an XBLIG from Smudged Cat Games that is a successor to “A Bomb’s Way”, a puzzle game that features the same title character. Whereas the first game focused on the puzzle solving, the sequel focuses on the platforming but with an interest twist: you cannot control the character’s left and right movement, only its jumping. The Bomb turns around whenever it hits the sides of the playfield, and you must plan out your path and time your jumps to keep your character out of danger. Local and online multiplayer both feature here, making it a unique and worthwhile purchase for only 80 Microsoft Points.
First, from the developer (SmudgedCat):
“Ascend the tower quicker than your friends and leave them in the fire. Using a single button to power your jump find a route up the platforms of the tower to stay ahead of the competition.”
Each time you play the game is different, with platforms being of both random size and location each time. You can hold down the jump button longer for bigger jumps, but overcharge it too much and you’ll actually jump less high. This is a game of timing something along the lines of The Impossible Game, but much more forgiving, and with much better replay thanks to the random levels.
Gameplay is therefore somewhat reminiscent of forced climbers such as Machiavelli’s Ascent, the princess mini game in “Garden Gnome Carnage”, “Avatar Rockets”, and “Niji”, but with an important difference: the lack of control over your horizontal movement surprisingly actually adds to the game, making strategising your route and your twitch reactions all the more important.
The multiplayer is appreciated as you try to gain height as you (hopefully) watch your opponent’s misery in the climbing fire above, and the game’s Bomberman-esque power-ups are perfect for it.. There’re enough features and enough personality in this game to justify the 80 point purchase and then some.
Click here to download “The Tower: A Bomb’s Climb”, and then please come back after playing to rate the game.
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