Knightmare Tower

 
Developer: Juicy Beast Studio
Steam Release: Jun 2014
Hours Played: 4.2
Similar To: Downwell
Rating: 3/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY
Knightmare Tower is a nifty little mobile to PC port that works either as a quick casual game to be played in short bursts or a game you might want to romp through in a sitting or two. You begin by rocket launching your knight up a very long tower with the aim of getting as high up as possible. As he ascends he'll need momentum to carry him upward. To achieve this, you move your knight left and right while making sharp stabbing movements with your sword at the milling monsters that float and fly below you. Land a good dash-attack and you'll take hit-points off your foes or satisfyingly slice them in two while adding more speed to your ascent. Miss a sword thrust and you'll be thrown back into the action but with a speed penalty. To add to the challenge you get a number of lives which you'll lose if you hit spikes and missiles of various kinds.
 

BALANCE & PACE
The game is an RPG of sorts that helps you ascend ever higher after each run by awarding you upgrades that you buy from the shop with collected gold. This might include a damage bonus to your sword, extra lives or rocket power. Additionally you're charged with rescuing ten princesses who, when rescued, confer perks upon you to make that ascent even easier. Potions and accessories are also available so, rest assured, you'll find plenty of carrots at the end of a lot of sticks to keep the experience moving forward. Finally, once you hit 25000 metres (which you'll do regularly once you max everything out after a couple of hours of play), you'll meet the final boss whose face you have to crack in a three stage fight. This involves waiting for his head to appear at a portal-hole in some kind of ship and spamming the dash-attack button to crush his head.  
  
 

PRESENTATION & DESIGN
Knightmare Tower has a 2D cartoon-like art-style with the main strength lying in the variety of monsters and the way their deaths are animated as they get slashed, hacked and eventually succumb to their doom. Ripping through a floating head just after his deadly spikes have retracted and tearing through a dragon or two - and watching their bodies split in half - after landing two or three well-timed jabs never really gets old. The bouncy feel that results after each attack is also comfortable and adds to the satisfaction. The menus are also well-designed, intuitive and solid with that satisfying clunk accompanying each click as you transition between them. Starting a game always starts with a rocket launch straight into the tower but I think I would have liked to start by perusing the shop and other things first but this is just a minor quibble. 

PROGRESS SYSTEM
Although your ultimate goal is to take down the final boss, progress in Knightmare Tower can be measured in a number of ways. For a start, you're always presented with a stat screen at the end of each run which shows most gold collected and best distance covered. This will tend to always be 25000 metres once you've maxed out upgrades. Secondly, you have ten princesses to rescue who can be tracked and viewed and who mainly unlock the appearance of increasingly more powerful potions to help your run. Thirdly, there are 40 quests to go for but these tend to be automatically achieved as you play. Fourthly, there are those upgrades which can all be maxed out after buying them in six increments or stages. 

CONCLUSION

Thankfully, while making the move from iOS to PC, Knightmare Tower is not one of those games whose enjoyment is lost in translation. It is an extremely basic and simple game that can be picked up and understood by anyone in minutes. To its credit, it continually sprinkles and layers in surprises along the way so that its admittedly repetitive mechanic - dash-attacking monsters underneath you - almost remains fresh and satisfying to the end. This brings me to my one and only concern which lies in the tough 3-stage boss fight at the end which I personally found to be a right royal pain in the neck and which remains undefeated to this day. Still, everything else about the game is top-notch and well worth the small asking price.