Thursday, June 11, 2009

From The Doctor's Office: Tower of Greed

It's been a while, hasn't it? Tussling with real life is something that afflicts all writers at some point in time. I've been busy with work, and chasing money and all that. Which is exactly why I tried this game. While I may feel somewhat impoverished, I can always find joy in getting rich in games, especially when it's as simple as looting a huge tower. The Tower of Greed (By EpicShadow with King.com) is a game you'd expect to see in an old arcade. With simplistic controls and 16-Bit Technicolor graphics, Tower of Greed looks like an easy play. Don't let the cuteness fool you; Tower of Greed is as hard as you want to make it. As you progress up the tower, you'll find more traps, enemies, and hazards, but you'll find more money and opportunities to earn trophies. The game is also surprisingly in-depth as well, so let's check each aspect of this neo-arcade classic.

Gamplay: 4/5 Simplistic in nature, the basic goal of this game is not to "Fall" off screen. Just climb and get to the door. But what fun is that? You'll need money for once you exit, right? Give in to the greed and grab many gems as you can on each floor, avoiding the impending doom closing in on you. Be cautious though, because spikes and enemies (Though they can't directly kill you) will send you flying off in a random direction. This can ultimately knock you down into the pit and end your game. There are some items along the way to assist you too. Stop time, kill all the enemies, and even go invincible. This gives the game some great replay points. Diamonds that were once in hard to reach spots, can be easy to get with the right item.

Visual: 3.5/5 I'm sure I've said it before, but I'm a sucker for retro graphics. The menus look like they're straight from the stand up arcade games. The only thing missing is the "Insert 2 Credits" flashing in the corner. Unfortunately, 16-bit graphics have their drawbacks. The background is the same stale castle brick layout floor after floor. Speaking of which, there's no clear identifier of when you move up a floor. Sure, there's the number in the corner, but you won't be spending a lot of time looking at it. Games that require extreme focus like this, don't necessarily need layouts with numbers you have to glance at. It could mean certain death in a split second.

Audio: 3.5/5 When I first played this game, I was in a coffee shop with my mute button on. Meaning I had no idea what the game sounded like. Then, I suddenly bumped the button on my keyboard to put the sound back on, and I was amazed to hear the 8-bit music loop. The beeping every time I collected a gem, however, was really annoying, so I turned the sound off to enjoy the music. This means that, yes, there is a mute feature. So put on your own tunes if you're not a fan of the classic loop.

Difficulty: 4/5 As with most games, the difficulty gets harder as time goes by. But maybe you've earned a difficult trophy. In order to keep it, you have to exit the tower, meaning that the game has a more interesting meta-game to it: Trophy Collecting. If you fail, you'll lose the trophies you've earned this round, meaning you'll have to start over again. However, if you're just in it for an endurance, and not collecting trophies, you'll love Tower of Greed too.

Overall: 4/5 This game is worthwhile and a decent challenge to boot. However, it has its flaws. Irritating sounds can be over looked, but I'd have loved to have seen changing backgrounds or maybe more hazards.

I apologize for my lack in posts. It seems that I get more and more busy as time goes by, but I have no intentions of quitting my writing here. This post seems rather lacking to me, but I made do with what little time I had. Maybe I'll come back and beef it up later.

~DoctorAutopsy

Kong Score: 3.85


2 comments:

blugo said...

You had a lot of spelling errors and typos. I went and fixed what I noticed- but I might have missed some. :/

Cole Freakin' Thomas said...

>.< It really shows when I'm stressed, eh? I'll edit this and bring it up to snuff.