Image courtesy Mosaique Games
Tomb Towers is an upcoming puzzle platform game by developer Mosaique Games, which is the effort of sole developer Abdulaziz Alrasheed. In
Tomb Towers you take the role of a knight trying to save a princess by fighting your way through a dark wizard’s tower full of enemies, traps, and of course: items to find and collect.
Image courtesy Mosaique Games
If you like retro,
Tomb Towers doesn’t just emulate games from yore, but seems to be taken directly from an era before computer games scrolled and were instead a series of rooms or screens. From the sound effects, to the color palette,
Tomb Towers is like finding an ancient, lost artifact of a game that runs on modern systems. That is also one of
Tomb Towers’ chief downfalls, as it is so completely wrapped up in this aesthetic even to the point of animations that seem like they have a few too few frames, with sluggish gameplay as a result. This is not a game of tight controls like
Celeste or
The End is Nigh.
Image courtesy Mosaique Games
Despite how “low res” everything is,
Tomb Towers is perfectly capable of delivering on the experience that it promises. In fact, it’s the perfect vehicle for the mostly simple puzzles that will have you pushing and jumping while avoiding certain death by touching enemies or environmental hazards. Though the platforming isn’t terrible, I died more often to the sluggish feeling controls than I would have liked to.
Image courtesy Mosaique Games
To pass each room you must collect the key and then survive to the exit. You help slow down or speed things up, but there is also a mechanic that allows you to run
Tomb Towers at three different speeds, which helps you takes the challenges at a slower speed, or speed up platforms so you don’t have to wait long for them to return to you.
Image courtesy Mosaique Games
It does have a relatively small amount of rooms, making the whole experience feel a little short. There are further challenges with the “nightmare mode” available after all of the main stage levels are completed. You can also go back to collect any items you may have missed during your regular playthrough to complete a perfect run.
Tomb Towers is technically in Early Access, but it’s pretty feature-complete for an Early Access title. The developer plans to further polish the title as well as take into account player feedback regarding “the final look and feel of the game” according to the Early Access information on Steam.
Tomb Towers is expected to be in Early Access for two to three months. Despite its flaws, I had a lovely time with
Tomb Towers. It did manage to induce a heavy sense of retro childhood nostalgia in me, so perhaps I am a little eager to look past its archaic nature. Even so, I am interested to revisit
Tomb Towers once it leaves Early Access, so look for my review.
Tomb Towers will be available on Steam Early Access on 5/10
A copy of this game was provided to us for this preview.