Lucky Tower Ultimate — Slashy Slashy
Preview
I tried the demo of Lucky Tower Ultimate a few months ago and got hooked for a week. Yes, hooked on a demo. Now the Early Access version is here, and I got the chance to preview it properly, leading to an even longer obsession. I didn’t know until a few days ago that this used to be a Flash browser game a long time ago. I tried the browser version, but it’s just too clunky. This PC reboot is insanely good.
Studio Seufz has a long history as a developer and as an animation studio, and the animations in Lucky Tower Ultimate are full of interesting details. AMC Games, the publisher, is also the publisher of another great indie game that featured here last year: The Fabulous Fear Machine. This weird indie spirit is part of the satirical cartoon take on the dungeon crawler hero as a bumbling hero called Von Wanst.
The Art of Stupid Deaths
The gameplay is intuitive and easy; the combat is button-mashing fun for the most part. What’s actually difficult is how the challenges in each level can be unpredictable, and opening the wrong door can literally kill you. Enemy and event variety is great, and the game manages to keep surprising you with every new run. It’s this roguelite loop that keeps you addicted, as you die and die but keep going: just one more run.
Dying in stupid ways is all part of the fun of Lucky Tower Ultimate. I made a short video of my experience with the demo and the many varieties of stupid deaths that you might also experience when you play. Winning the fights and descending the tower is ultimately the goal, but why rush when you can have so much fun watching your hero get sliced, diced, decapitated, impaled, crushed, hammered flat, etc. etc. etc.
The Ambiguity of Evil
There is also plenty of situational humour in the interactions. Say you kill a monster and then throw it down the gaps: Von Wanst will say a quick prayer, “Sorry for killing you.” It’s these little bits of narrative and character development that keep you interested in the larger storyline, as silly as it is. You end up feeling like you want to help this poor idiot leave the tower and stop dying a thousand gruesome deaths.
Evelius is your antagonist, a green goblin-shrimp creature wearing a blue cloak who watches over Von Wanst as he runs down the stairs. Sometimes he helps, sometimes he hinders you, and sometimes he just wastes your time. Sometimes you’re doing amazing, with lots of cool gear, and Evelius just takes it all away and then you’re back in your heart boxers, punching the monsters until you get a new weapon.
Hammered Flat
Lucky Tower Ultimate will be in Early Access “for less than a year,” starting when they launched months ago. I have not experienced a single bug or game breaking moment so far, though sometimes I don’t fully understand how I died and just assume I did something wrong. The game feels polished and not at all like a usual Early Access game, so I look forward to patches with new content and more gruesome deaths.
I can’t stop playing it when I need to unwind and just enjoy relentless failure and a million gruesome deaths. It’s almost like therapy for a guy who can’t really afford therapy. I love this genre of silly cartoonish ultraviolent action roguelike loop with fun companions to engage with as you go down the tower. Sometimes I just rush through the doors and levels to try to descend the tower as soon as possible, but then you miss out on the fun interactions between Von Wanst and the companions.
Not to mention all the surprises that break the sameness of the loop; every run has a unique flavour. So just enjoy dying. It’s ridiculously fun to die in the Tower. Just watch out for the screaming, wall-breaking monster with a huge hammer. Seriously. I hate that fucking thing.
Disclosure: Lucky Tower Ultimate was previewed on PC with a Steam key provided by the developer. The game is currently available in Early Access on Steam. More information available on the official website.