Review #013: Tricky Towers (Nintendo Switch)
Reviewed By: Chad M.
Developed By: WeirdBeard Games
Published By: WeirdBeard Games
Category: Puzzle, Party, Multiplayer
Release Date: 10.11.18
Download Tricky Towers from the Nintendo eShop here.
Things are stacking up
In gaming, a celebrated classic is none other than the puzzle game genre. A good puzzle game can do a multitude of things. It can keep a single player sucked in for hours trying to master the game and work through hard to beat levels. It also can create a fun atmosphere that groups of friends can lose track of time as they attempt to be the best, or just have fun trying to knock a friend out of the competition. Yet, there are so many timeless classic puzzle games and more coming to an ever growing eShop. The team over at Weirdbeard bring us Tricky Towers, a game that does so much of what we’ve already seen before, but in a fresh new way.
Tricks are afoot (Gameplay)
Tricky Towers is a physics based tower building game. At first glance, Tricky Towers looks very familiar as the tiles began to come down. The shapes coming down look identical to Tetris, but with a cosmetic upgrade. So as the shapes came sliding down, I thought it would be just another Tetris clone, but I quickly found out the visual comparison was the only similarity. If you play this game like Tetris, you’ll most assuredly lose. As the gameplay comes into effect, it will remind you of another classic game; the tower stacking party game Jenga. The object is to build and stack on top of a tower rather than just build up rows. Before this begins, you have to choose an avatar wizard as the person that controls the blocks that are falling from the sky above. As your avatar is a wizard, you will battle against another wizard or wizards depending on the mode and number of players.
As an extra challenge, the game blocks may become extra large, slippery or even start falling at an accelerated pace. The level environment will come into play also with the wind blowing blocks over. If a block is knocked from the tower it’s usually okay as they’ll just fall off screen, but there are certain modes that won’t allow the blocks to fall. As mentioned before, you choose a wizard avatar and as a wizard you can perform magic. The magic comes in the form of light and dark magic. The light magic helps you when you build by fortifying your tower. While the dark magic revolves around interfering with your opponent, be it CPU, local, or multiplayer. You are able to damage or weaken their tower or mess with the opponents wizard as they try to build in devious ways.
In the single player mode you have the choice of endless mode or trails. Endless mode is pretty set explanatory but trails is kind of like the games story mode. In the trails you have 3 different level types: (1) you battle head to head with another wizard in a timed match to see if you can out stack him, (2) you have to reach a certain height without losing your three hearts by dropping pieces and (3) is where you try to stack under a beam of light. There are five sets of trails and to unlock each set you have to obtain a certain amount of medals that are only obtained through beating the levels. The single player is fun, but it isn’t where the game shines.
The local and multiplayer is by far the games strongest modes. I can see this being an excellent party game, eating hours of time as friends huddle around playing and laughing together. As well as the online, I had issues finding players as it was an early review copy, but when I did get a match it was easily the most fun to be had next to the local matches I played with the family.
Audio & Visuals
The music in Tricky Towers is so bubbly and fun that I’d find myself tapping my foot and smiling while playing. The lighthearted and almost cartoon-y music is ideal for the game and the sounds made when the blocks slapped together was pitch perfect.
The visuals are super cute and adorable in the best way possible. The characters look as if they were plucked straight out of a cartoon with their hilarious mannerisms and gestures. The visuals and colors pop and look fantastic in both docked and handheld mode.
Final thoughts
Tricky Towers does a lot of interesting things with many classic elements, whether it is the nostalgic feel of those old school titles or the physics of real life puzzle games. Weirdbeard was able to mash all these components together to make a great looking game that is addictive and must be experienced with a group of family and friends. I truly enjoyed my time spent with Tricky Towers and will continue to do so. I highly recommend this title for puzzle lovers and anyone seeking a great party game.
Final Score: 9/10
Download Tricky Towers from the Nintendo eShop here.
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