Chances are pretty good that you haven’t played Tower of Heaven. Heck, I’d even say that it’s pretty likely that you haven’t even heard of it.
Tower of Heaven is a short little game put out by ASKIISOFT. It’s available from their website as a download, or it’s playable on Newgrounds with additional features. Why am I recommending a flash game? Because it’s a pretty good game, that’s why.
Tower of Heaven is a fairly simple platforming game. Your objective is to make it to the staircase to get to the next level, and your ultimate objective is to scale the tower to confront the deity residing at the top. For the most part, there’s not much to it, although the level design is pretty tricky at times. What makes the game really special is the rules.
At a certain point in the tower you will start to be given rules that you must abide by. Failure to follow the rules will result in your immediate death, usually from a bolt of lightning. They start out fairly simple (“Thou shalt not touch golden blocks.”) and become progressively more difficult as you go on. The way the game handles the rules is really special, and there is a certain point where something special happens if you make it far enough.
The special rules combined with the tricky level design can sometimes make the game pretty tough, especially if you aren’t that good at platformers. Thankfully, the game isn’t too long, and knows just when to let up and let you go. My first playthrough took about a half-hour, and that included about 200 deaths. Playing through a second time to find all the hidden secrets took me about 20 minutes and another 100 or so deaths.
The music for this game is incredible, and it’s actually how I found out about this game. A little while ago I picked up the Indie Game Music Bundle 2 (no longer for sale) and the soundtrack for this game was included. I was so impressed by the music that I decided to track down the game and play it. Turns out that was a good decision.
I think the graphics are worth mentioning as well. Pixelated graphics seem to be all the rage these days, but Tower of Heaven one-ups most by using a monochrome pseudo-Game Boy color scheme. The color scheme actually works quite well, and some actual color is used at one point to great effect. It’s hard to call the graphics here anything but good looking.
So what are you waiting for? Go check it out!
Newgrounds link: Tower of Heaven
ASKIISOFT Website: http://askiisoft.com/
118 deaths, but time said N/A for some reason. That "Thou shalt not check the rules" level was much harder than the rest. Pretty fun though, it's like if Super Meat Boy were a Gameboy game.
ReplyDeleteThe time says N/A unless you do the speed run.
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