Tomb Towers

[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]Follow our curator page: [b]IndieGems[/b] if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/url][/quote] This is an Early Access review: Do you miss the good old days of having a brutally punishing game on the original Nintendo console? Do you reminisce about making that right pixel-perfect jump and training your hand-eye coordination to sync up perfectly with the little blob of pixels on the screen in a 2D puzzle platformer with a simple story and simple controls? Well, you can relive those fond memories, joys of successes, anguishes of failures, and the attempts to outdo yourself next time while progressing your way through Tomb Towers. Before breaking down the game a bit more, let me just tell you. This game is HARD. Might as well call it [i]Tomb Towers: Prepare For Game Over Edition[/i]. (Did not want to infringe on any trademarks or slogans there.) Fortunately, the kind folks at Mosaique Games has offered some relief after deaths, all of the doors that you opened stay open, and all of the collectibles remain in your tally after your deaths, and even when you continue after a Game Over. Nonetheless, prepare to see that Game Over screen an awful lot. You have infinite number of continues, and when you do restart, you only restart at the beginning the tower where you lost all of your lives. And when you finish the main game, you have infinite number of lives to tackle the Nightmare challenges, which I only managed to finish 2 up to this point. I believe there are 15 of them. The other really nice thing that offers different levels of difficulty for the players is the ability to alter the game speed, at any point within any one level, you can toggle between slow, medium, or fast. With so many parts of the game being time sensitive, the slower setting is certainly the easiest, and the faster the hardest. To take pity on our souls, the developers also put in the ability to reset the non-enemy and non-treasure objects back to the beginning of the level, so that you can try that level again without losing a life, if you screwed up in your problem solving, or whatever you were doing at the time. When you start, the background story is very short, pictures only, very much a simple tribute to the glory days of NES Console gaming. The images speak a lot and are enough to convey the story. This is done quite well. The puzzles range from easy to moderately difficult to figure out in the main game, only a couple of places I was stuck there thinking about each half block of movement, trying to draw diagrams in my head, before progressing to complete the puzzle itself. A lot of the puzzles, though simple in design, are still rather difficult due to the need for proper timing of jumps, walks, or gliding to avoid spikes, etc. The main story's 45 levels kept me on my toes for long enough from the challenges of the puzzles to the difficulty of the platforming to make this game worth the low asking price of $5. The music is simple midi style, but it gets really repetitive rather quickly, perhaps this is only me dying again and again in the same few rooms, toward the end of the main story. What is really odd about the music is that if you change the game speed, the music changes. Yes, this gives a heightened sense of urgency if you are on a faster speed mode, but I would rather not have the music speed up or slow down because I changed the game mode. This odd decision I cannot agree with, then again, perhaps the developers had a good reason for it. The controls are easy, there's left, right, and jump. I think the need to shift the MC's body in space is best done either on the keyboard or using the D-pad. The joystick is a bit slow on the uptake when trying to shift directions quickly. Oh, there's one more key, that's down, it merely moves the visor on the MC's face up and down. A rather nice touch to show that this game had plenty of attention to detail built in. Once you complete the main story, there is a pleasant and somewhat non-traditional ending, with a very nice message. There are also a few unlockable features to earn, mainly a few outfits for the MC. Once again, totally unnecessary, but a nice touch for the game. The nightmare levels I already mentioned above will hopefully not give me any nightmares tonight. Overall, this is a lovely game, with elements of puzzle and platforming heavily reminiscent of the traditional difficult NES games with little to no explanations. There are a few pity features built it so that I do not have to spend 10 hours trying to beat the main game. If you are at all into this kind of games, then it is likely worth your time and effort. The gameplay has a simple design, but requires difficult execution. While difficult, it is also within reason. There are more challenges awaiting you after the main story, giving those who really want the challenge something to work with, and likely spend quite a bit more time trying to figure out. As this game is still in Early Access, it will be interesting to see further progress and what shall happen from here on out. For the small asking fee of $5, this is worthwhile, for sure. And if you happen to catch it on sale, why not?

(EARLY ACCESS review warning and all that) Well I played through floor 37 or so but have to take a break. I think you have a pretty good game here and can definitely make it better through EA. I'll try to be pretty fair so try to take my criticisms as constructive ːsteamhappyː [h1]Good[/h1] Visuals are great! This really does seem like an early-era NES game, and for me that's a good thing. Though this is extremely similar to Castlequest I don't think too many people on Steam will know what that even is lol. The breaker is awesome. I love these things, and it's pretty original. You should for sure strive to think of other creative objects like these, to separate it from Castlequest (more on this below). You have a good variety or objects going for you, though they are kind of too spaced out between the different towers. I know you're probably going for themes (ex. Sand tower = fire spouts, the next one is teleporters and etc) though lots of kids today might not have the attention span to make it through some of these places when most of the rooms have only skeletons and crates. I know it gets much better later on, but remember many people on Steam might only give your game a play for 0.2 hours and quit to go try something else. I love how you have secret rooms at all. Good addition! I somehow got the skull face costume. I BELIEVE it was when I got killed by a ghost but I'm not sure. Anyhow, kudos to you for going through the trouble of different costumes at all. Do they do anything aside from cosmetics? [i]Should[/i] they do anything special? The ending has a great nod to OG NES Metroid with the Hero. I loved it! [h1]Bad[/h1] The game is a LOT like Castlequest, only without the extra strategy of collecting the different colored keys or a Metroidvania layout. The elevators are the same and even move the same way. There's conveyor belts and even rooms that start you off where you have to rush and move crates on said belts before you do anything else or you won't be able to clear the room. The knight jumps in a floaty fashion that's almost Castlequest's Prince Raphael to a tee. I once made a game that was an homage to my favorite NES game (Legscy of the Wizard) however you have to pepper it with lots of your own ideas as well, to help separate it from the source inspiration. The breakers are a great start. Improving or expanding on the music would be another: The music, while nice in a vacuum, is very repetitive after a while. I know Castlequest also had that long song that kept going forever but your tunes are kind of on the short side so they get old kind of fast. The game is a bit short. I was able to win the 3 main towers in a bit over an hour altogether (which included a LOT of dying). Luckily the dev has added some challenges to help extend the game, but I think the third tower should get some sort of.. Well, have it "gussied up" a bit to make it look more like a final thing. I didn't know it'd end that soon to be honest (There's 45 rooms total). I love how you have secret rooms BUT my god man they are super friggin' hard to clear with the diamond. That first one in particular was brutal- I had 13 lives when I went in and when I finally left with the diamond I had lost all 13 and gotten revived twice (!!) What's the incentive for grabbing diamonds anyhow? There's no points in the game and it's not really made clear to the player just what they are used for (to exit the tower, perhaps?) To be fair, that second secret room was very fun to figure out how to get into and still challenging without being borderline impossible like the first one. Speaking of lives, I find that there's no incentive to grab the little life bottles for two reasons: 1) Achievemnents aside, you are given infinite revives and 2) Almost all of them are put someplace where you can very easily be killed just trying to get them at all. I see that you can clear a room and then go back to the previous room, but when you can reset the current room by pressing the Select button why is this necessary? I have an idea for this (see below on shops) I never once used the Speed x 3 option. Are there places where it's necessary? I think the game's kind of too hard as it is so I don't see too many people wanting to attempt these spike-filled rooms at triple the speed. [h1]Suggestions[/h1] A little popup at the start of the first tower that explains what getting the red jewels and diamonds do would be very helpful. If you need them in order to clear the tower it should be made known to the player right away. There's no tutorial for conveyor belts. Now I know what they do, and most players probably will too, but you want to go for uniformity and as such every time there's something new in a room there's a little tutorial about it and there wasn't for conveyor belts. I know you need to kill things with crates and etc- and that's cool- but man, I hate not having a weapon at all. One thought I had would be to have consumable throwing knives in some of the rooms. Maybe limit them to be thrown left and right only, I don't know. You could carry them over from room to room and the player would still have to be smart and choose when to use them (or when NOT to). This also gives the player more options while playing, and that's always a good thing. How about having some rooms that are dark and you'd have to grab a little torch or lantern to put the darkness out? Might make things too hard but it's an idea. Currency could be added. Little gold coins or something similar. Not only would it help spruce stuff up and make the rooms have more variety, you could use them... ..At shops! This game could benefit greatly with the addition of little shops. Even if there was one per tower (and maybe even in secret places like the diamond rooms) that'd be great. You could then have a shop that you could backtrack to, and make leaving the current rooms to go backwards have a purpose. What could they sell? Life bottles, red jewels possibly, throwing knives, maybe a torch? It's a wizard's tower, right? How about having some potion jars that act like crates too? [h1]Conclusion[/h1] In the end, for the small price and high ceiling for improvements as development goes along, I'd recommend this game as it stands. But be wary it's pretty friggin' hard! P.S: I actually bought this game, that's gotta' count for something!

Инди-игра в стиле тех древних игровых автоматов, о которых помнит только лысеющее сорокалетнее поколение и их родители. Всё, стиль, управление, пиксельная графика, ужасающая долбящая механическая музыка и эффекты, всё оттуда. Всё воспроизведено в подробностях. Вопрос только: "Зачем?" Зачем это сейчас? Для впавших в ностальгию сорокалетних толстячков, внезапно утративших интерес к пиву? Подобных реконструкций уже не одна тысяча, зачем им именно эта? Вопрос осмысленности усилий явно не приходил в голову разработчику. Это всё равно что в туристическом магазине продавать палки для розжига костра вместо спичек и зажигалок, продавать банку сажи и свекольный сок в косметическом магазине или предлагать закалывать галстук рыбьей костью в модном бутике. Кроме как покрутить пальцем у виска больше сделать нечего. Вся суть игры видна в ролике в магазине Стима, добавить больше нечего. Я даже не вижу смысла в проставлении оценок. [i]Игра была получена по программе взаимодействия с кураторами. Больше обзоров в [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/28776273/] кураторской группе[/url].[/i]

I played through the first three towers. While I normally do not enjoy old-school graphics, I did very much enjoy the aesthetics of this game. Being able to pull your visor up and down was a big plus to me. Everything was super cute. I even enjoyed the little tidbits of story added in. Puzzles were just the right amount of challenge + the game is forgiving in terms of lives/deaths, so there never was any huge anxiety about losing. I like that in a game. However, levels started to heavily rely on timing and precision, leaving little room for error, which leave me feeling frustrated and upset. Some people can handle games like that. I am not one of them. Constantly restarting a level either due to dying for being ever so slightly in the wrong spot, or to pushing a block just ever so slightly in the wrong direction, took me out of the game. If you have a great deal of patience, I do highly recommend this game. It's fun. If you lack patience like myself, then you may struggle.

Авторы этой игры решили, что вернуться во времена компьютеров MSX — хорошая идея. Хорошая ли? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo00wneOTog

Great true retro platformer. Not just ugly big pixels but the controlls the music and the whole feeling.

Mosaique Games développeur et éditeur de Tomb Towers à voulu faire revivre les vieux puzzle game plateformer de nos vieilles années MSX. Nous contrôlons un jeune héro qui devient chevalier le temps d'un instant pour sauver son royaume du vilain nécromancien qui à envahit le monde d'une horde de squelettes et autres monstres. Notre héro part donc à la traque de ce nécromancien dans différentes tours parsemé de pièges et d’énigmes en tout genre. Coté graphisme, on a droit à un monde pixelisé des années 80, dans différentes tours toutes aussi pixelisé, mais on ne va pas s'attarder sur l'aspect graphique du jeu, car ce n'est pas ce qui fait un bon ou un mauvais jeu de nos jours. Tomb Towers propose de parcourir plusieurs style de tours, avec de nouveaux éléments ajouté aux gameplay pour corser la traversé de ces dernières. Du simple parcours d'obstacle aux énigmes casse tête qui vous demandera un peu de concentration pour trouver la solution, le jeu va vous faire vivre un enfer. Nous restons sur une prise en main basique, avancer, sauter, pousser des objets, ou encore utiliser des teleporteurs, vous n'aurez pas grand chose a utiliser à part votre cerveau dans ce jeu qui est vraiment concentré sur des énigmes et du reflex. Votre héro ne connais pas vraiment la gravité, et une fois que vous sautez, vous restez en l'air un certain temps, est ce une volonté du développeur ? très bonne question mais parfois cela vous est bénéfique, ou bien le contraire tout dépendra de la situation. Toutes les tours ont leurs ambiances, et vous proposent des chiptunes assez agaçante quand on essaye de se concentrer un temps soit peu, pareil pour les bruitages qui ne sont pas du tout une partie de plaisir pour nos oreilles, malgré que nous aimons les styles rétro pixelisé, les chiptunes 8bits mal réalisées sont un calvaire pour nos oreilles. Pour le reste, Tomb Towers propose une courte durée de vie, seulement 3 tours proposées, mais un mode cauchemar permet de revivre l'aventure en plus difficile pour ceux qui aiment les défis, mais tout reste assez similaire et simple. Pour conclure, Tomb Towers nous fait revivre pour les plus anciens nos bons vieux jeux MSX et pour les nouveaux, vous fera découvrir un puzzle game Plateformer de l’époque 8bits. De courte durée, le jeu vous occupera un petit temps malheureusement, mais vous mettra au defi si vous souhaitez débloquer tous les succès. Les chiptunes sont désagréables et gâchent vraiment l’expérience de jeu. Mais Mosaique Games a voulu faire au plus proche de l’époque, et pour un premier jeu, il y a de l'idée, et on espère que pour le prochain jeu un travail sur les musiques sera réalisé. Note de la rédaction: 5/10 - Trop Basique, Chiptunes agaçante et trop court.

[b][i]Pleasant little game with old-school feeling![/i][/b] [list] [*]In each level you have to solve a puzzle, so you can obtain the key and proceed to the next one. [*]There are a total of 3 different towers, all of them belonging to the main story. After you finish the marble tower you automatically proceed to the sand tower, then to the clay tower. [*]There are about 50 levels or so. [*]After the main levels you unlock 3 extra adventures called nightmares. One of the nightmares unlocks only if you found the single hidden diamond in each of the 3 towers. [b][i]Let me warn you it's ridiculously hard to do so, I couldn't even obtain the first !![/i][/b] [*]While the game has a fair amount of difficulty and requires thinking (as some levels are really tricky) it doesn't gets annoying in general. Exception to this is the diamond hunt that I already talked about. [*]Bonus Points for the option to resize the window as I please, I can even make it tiny! [/list] [b][i]All in all it was a fun and cheap game![/i][/b]

[b]Grupo na Steam: [/b] [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/mariopertile] Clique aqui [/url] [quote][b]Pra quem não gosta de ler:[/b] [h1]Primeira 1 hora Gravada ao vivo na Twitch[/h1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UtiTtBw1AY OBS.: No meio da stream tive problemas com o provedor e em algumas partes a imagem está travada/picotada. [/Quote] [quote][b]Para quem gosta de ler:[/b] [h1] MSX de volta[/h1] Para os saudosos do MSX, fãs dos clássicos com jogabilidade pesadona no melhor sentido da palavra, gráficos pixelizados e trilha sonora persistente de chiptunes, apresento-lhes Tomb Towers, o melhor exemplar da nossa época para uma época que não volta mais. Recheado de puzzles, Tomb Towers pode agradar tanto os mais velhos, quanto os gamers atuais. Mas, um recado para os atuais desavisados: antes de escrever reviews negativos a respeito do gráfico ou do áudio do game, digite MSX na Wikipedia. [h1]Gráficos:[/h1] Me senti na casa do vizinho da minha vó que liberava o PC dele recheado de jogos para eu me deleitar sozinho naquelas pérolas. Os gráficos são nostálgicos e nos trazem a sensação de estar realmente jogando em um MSX, com uma pixelart curta e grossa, gráficos serrilhados e poucos objetos. As vezes se tornam um pouco repetitivos, mas não fui até o final do game ainda para ver as variações todas. Porém o pouco que eu joguei me agradou bastante. [h1]Som:[/h1] Chiptunes pegado, leva o ritmo do game e parece estar saindo da placa e não da caixa de som. Exatamente como era antes. A trilha e os sons não variam muito, como era de se esperar, o que para os que buscam um game retrô desta plataforma em que Tomb Towers é inspirado, será um delírio, porém, pode ser um martírio para os gamers atuais, [h1] Jogabilidade:[/h1] Basicamente andamos para os lados e pulamos. Devemos interagir com caixas para resolver puzzles com o intuito de pegar uma chave em cada dungeon, abrir a porta e ir para a próxima. O boneco é pesado de controlar propositalmente e existem 3 velocidades de jogo. A movimentação é bastante quadro a quadro para manter o clima. [h1]Diversão:[/h1] A quantidade imensa de puzzles diferentes e itens para pegar e fechar 100% do jogo garantem horas de diversão e rage. Nos sentimos muito burros quando erramos coisas básicas mas muito inteligentes quando resolvemos os mínimos puzzles. Serve tanto para uma jogatina casual, quanto para uma jogatina mais hardcore. [h1] Conclusão: [/h1] Recomendado para todos os gamers velhos, principalmente fãs da era MSX. Pode não agradar muito gamers atuais que não tiveram contato ou não conhecem nada desta época. É um game que vale a pena comprar e ter na sua biblioteca para aqueles momentos de ócio que não sabemos o que jogar, ou para uma noite inteira de desafios. [/quote] [quote] [h1][b]Prós: [/b][/h1] [list] [*]MSX no talo; [*]Muitos puzzles; [*]alto fator de replay; [*]Dificuldade gradativa; [*]Controles simples. [/list] [h1][b]Contras:[/b][/h1] [list] [*]A trilha repetitiva pode enjoar para gamers não acostumados com o gênero; [/list] [h1][b]Recomendado para quem gosta de:[/b][/h1] [list] [*]Pixel; [*]Replay; [*]Chiptunes; [*]Zerar 100%; [*]Jogos das antigas; [*]Puzzle; [*]Desafio. [/list] [/quote] [quote] [h1]Gostou do review? Avalie como útil para apoiar![/h1] [b]Grupo na Steam: [/b] [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/mariopertile] Clique aqui [/url] [b]Página de Curador:[/b] [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/12036628/] Clique aqui [/url] [b]Lives diárias c/ reviews, games indie e competitivos:[/b] [url=www.twitch.tv/mariopertile] Siga na Twitch! [/url] [/quote]