Welcome Time Wasters!
First off, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! However, let’s not forget that New Year’s Eve is just around the corner. I don’t have any special type of game ready for the occasion, but I do have one that’s been keeping me entertained over the last few weeks. This game is Tower Fortress.
Tower Fortress is a rouge-like adventure game that puts players in the role of a hero in armor. This hero sets out on a quest to solve the mystery of the tower near his home. The tower showed up randomly and has been expelling toxic gas. If it isn’t taken care of, everyone will die.
Our hero has a few special abilities that will help him on his journey through the tower. The hero can jump and double jump. When double jumping, he will spin. While spinning the hero can damage enemies. There’s also a gun that the hero can use to fend off the creatures that live in the tower.
During his journey up the tower, the hero will find chests. These chests typically contain weapons that will make the hero more powerful. There are shotguns, machine guns and a wide array of other weapons. Most of these weapons are typical, but there are a few exceptions, such as the bubble gun.
There’s also another important item that the hero can collect on his way up the tower. These are orange crystals that act as currency in the game. The crystals can be used to purchase additional lives and new armors. The different armors offer a diverse amount of skills and there are loads of them. Players are sure to find some they enjoy more than others with their changing skill sets.
It isn’t just armor that offers different skills to the hero in Tower Fortress. Players can also find keys while defeating enemies in the tower. Once they reach the top of a section, they can use the key to unlock a special area. This area will contain three random upgrades for the player. The player can choose one of these upgrades before moving to the next area. Every level contains a key and players need to keep an eye out for them to make it up the tower easier.
Along the way up the tower, the hero will also run into boss monsters. These bosses offer extra challenge to players as they move upward in Tower Fortress. They also drop a huge amount of orange crystals, which makes them a great source of income.
Being that it is a rouge-like game, players of Tower Fortress need to get used to permadeath. This means that when they die, they will lose all progress and upgrades obtained on the way up the tower. However, players do get to keep their money and armors that they have unlocked. The levels are also somewhat randomly generated, which keeps them interesting despite having to frequently start over.
The controls in Tower Fortress are all on-screen buttons. This includes a jump button, shoot button, as well as left and right movement buttons. The vertical nature of the game means that these buttons are all very close together on the screen. I’ve had a few mistaps while playing and it can be annoying, but never too bad.
Tower Fortress also includes ads, but they only appear after each level of the tower. The levels last long enough that it doesn’t feel like I’m be bombarded by them. The game is free, but there is an in-game purchase to remove ads, which I recommend.
The visuals in Tower Fortress harken back to days of old. Specifically, the game looks like something from the NES era, but with a few extra enhancements. It fits well on mobile and is quite charming.
When it comes to audio, Tower Fortress is great. The chiptunes work well with the visuals. They also match up with the different areas that players will go through in the tower. The sound effects also fit in with the rest of the game.
Overall, Tower Fortress is a great way to kill some time. Like I said, it has been my source of entertainment for the last few weeks. This is much longer than most games last on my phone. Go check it out if it seems interesting to you.
Tower Fortress earns 4 GiN Gems out of 5!