Escape from the Tower

Genre: Puzzle-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Escape from the Tower is a Puzzle-Platformer originally released in 2017 on mobile devices under the title Once Upon a Tower before being ported in 2024 to Nintendo Switch under this new title, which perplexes me since Once Upon a Tower sounds far less generic, but I suppose that’s neither here nor there when it comes to the game itself. In this game, players control a princess trapped in a tower guarded by a dragon who comes into possession of a hammer that enables her to dig her way down through the dungeons of the tower, hopefully securing her freedom.

The presentation in Escape From the Tower is pretty good, with simple stylized 3D characters and 2D environments with some decent animation, backed by whimsical music that fits the game’s slightly-cartoony style well. It’s nothing extraordinary, but it’s appealing and works well enough for the gameplay.

While I list this as a Puzzle-Platformer, know that you won’t be jumping in this game – all platforming comes in the form of falling. Players can swipe left, right, up, or down with their hammer, and move in that direction the same way. You’ll move through randomized areas separated by opportunities to purchase upgrades using resources collected on your current run. With these elements and with how quickly you can get killed, there are some strong similarities here to Roguelikes, though I don’t think this game offers quite the amount of variety you expect from a Roguelike.

While this limits the potential of Escape From the Tower, I don’t think it’s this game’s greatest failing. For that, I have to look at this game’s clear lineage coming from smartphones. Much as with those devices, you can choose to play this game with swipes on a touchscreen in portable mode. However, for most players I think standard gamepad controls are going to be the preferred way to play. And it’s when using gamepad controls you can see how this game’s controls fall flat, because as I mentioned both swinging your hammer and movement are controlled via the same inputs. This means that if you really need to move in a direction right now, but there’s an object in that direction you can swipe at, you may well swipe instead of moving, even if that object can be collected by walking into it. On the other hand, if you’re falling and want to swipe at enemies or collectibles as you do, you may inadvertently find yourself moving onto a platform in mid-air when you didn’t intend to.

Because Escape From the Tower continues to force two types of controls onto one set of control inputs even though it no longer has to, it results in the controls here being imprecise and unreliable. And in a game where one wrong move can mean death and the end of your run, unreliable controls are a pretty damning flaw.

It’s unfortunate, because if the controls were tightened up, I think this would be a much better game, and a pretty decent one overall. But as-is, it’s hard to recommend Escape From the Tower because this problem is so integral to the gameplay. I suggest getting something else instead.

tl;dr – Escape From the Tower is a Puzzle-Platformer where players try to dig their way down through a tower’s many dungeons. The presentation and gameplay concepts here are good, but poor controls really mar the experience and make this a difficult game to recommend.

Grade: C+

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