Grade: A-
A slightly addictive action game about keeping the momentum
Knightmare Tower has a simple and classic premise. You need to save the princesses in the tower. But there’s a twist. Instead of the boring version of tower climbing, like stairs or a grappling hook, you are shot upwards from a rocket. The monsters jump out at you from all around, and you have to fight to keep your momentum up while also fighting to stay alive.
To keep up your speed, you can kill monsters, get combos, and limit the times you miss. A swing and a miss will slow you down significantly. If you lose your speed, then you lose the game. It’s a wildly fun game mechanic. I got hooked and spent an entire evening defeating the tower.
Upgrade Path is epic.
Part of the fun of Knightmare Tower is collecting money and getting upgrades. The upgrades allow you to increase your equipment. You can get a better sword, armor, higher speed, rocket launch, and more. There are ten princesses to save along the way, and each princess you save gives you a helpful power-up.
At the beginning of the game, you are given a cruddy wooden sword, and it’s impossible to progress very far. This video shows you the vibe of the beginning level.
In comparison, by the end of the game, you have lots of armor and abilities. In addition, if you strike carefully, your speed can boost over 600, which has you flying upwards through the map at a lightning pace.
After the regular map at the end of the game, you have an impossibly hard boss battle. I beat mega-boss once (off-camera, stupidly). It’s a fiddly bullet hell challenge. My only slight complaint about the game is my frustration with the third phase of the final boss. It stopped being fun on the 10th try.
Wrap-up
All in all, Knightmare Tower was a wonderful hidden gem in the bundle. I had no idea what I was getting into with this game, and all of a sudden was flying upward and hacking and slashing my way through this tower. Well worth a playthrough.
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