| The Deadly Tower of Monsters | |
| Developer: | ACE Team |
| Publisher: | Atlus USA |
| Engine: | Unreal Engine 3 |
| Released: | 19 January 2016 |
| Genre: | Action-adventure |
| Modes: | Single-player, multiplayer (PC) |
The Deadly Tower of Monsters is an action-adventure game[1] developed by ACE Team and published by Atlus USA for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4 in January 2016. The game is a metafictional parody of science fiction midnight B movie from its golden age, with caricatural superheroes.
The Deadly Tower of Monsters mixes beat 'em up and twin-stick shooter elements, with a fixed camera system seen from a top-down perspective.[2] [3] The main focus during player's gameplay is one long, continuous climb up the outside of the titular tower.[4] A jetpack can be used to reach high areas.[5] [6]
There is also a 4-player cooperative and hard mode, released on 14 March 2016, and survival mode, released on 4 October the same year – both exclusively to Windows version.[7] [8]
The Deadly Tower of Monsters follows three actors in the in-game space opera movie of the same name: Jonathan Digby who stars as Dick Starspeed – an astronaut hero who crash-lands his spaceship on the outlandish planet Gravoria, ruled by a tyrannical Emperor; Stacy Sharp as Scarlet Nova – daughter of the planet's evil Emperor; and The Robot as Robot – a co-pilot and Starspeed's trusty sidekick.[3] [9]
The game's frame story is that of an early 1970s B movie The Deadly Tower of Monsters recently released on DVD, with the director's commentary of its in-universe director Dan Smith, serving as a combination of tutorial and meta-commentary on the game, providing an explanation as to why many default elements of shooters would be in what is ostensibly a film (the player being required to break boxes to obtain items, for example, is taken as the lead actor ad-libbing on Smith's advice to make sure every moment was somewhat exciting).
The Deadly Tower of Monsters was announced on 12 June 2015.[10] According to Carlos Bordeu, one of the ACE Team founders, it was initially planned as a dungeon crawler set in a vertical labyrinth, with the "more generic fantasy".[3] Game's concept was changed because the team "wanted to do something that was completely different", as he stated.[3] The inspiration came from the 1950s and 1960s science fiction films, including the Godzilla franchise, Forbidden Planet, and Plan 9 from Outer Space; as well as TV series Flash Gordon and Lost in Space from the same era.[3] [4] [11] Scarlet Nova character was modeled after Jane Fonda's heroine Barbarella, from the 1968 film of the same name.[3] Dan Smith's exaggerated personality, on the other hand, was partly based on the Mystery Science Theater 3000 – a science fiction comedy series created by Joel Hodgson, which ACE Team loved; and Ed Wood, an American cult filmmaker.[3] [4] Some enemies were animated by using the stop motion and rotoscoping technique.[12]
The Deadly Tower of Monsters trailer was published on 2 December 2015, followed by the game's release on 19 January 2016.
The Deadly Tower of Monsters received above-average reviews on both platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Destructoid said, "The Deadly Tower of Monsters is a fleeting experience, but one that no B-movie fan should go without."[6] PlayStation LifeStyle said, "Just like the movies it tries to emulate, the game is so bad with its special effects, dialogue, and set-pieces that it's rather good."[9] Hardcore Gamer said, "Minor issues aside, The Deadly Tower of Monsters is a pleasant surprise indeed and a particularly impressive budget action game showcasing a lot of creativity."[4]