"It's not great, but it's not THAT bad..."

Somebody somewhere decided that this was one of the three worst games on the NES. I don't know who decided that not only was Deadly Towers on the same level as Heroes of the Lance and Hydlide, but that those three games were also worse than Cheetahmen II, Action 52, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Deadly Towers isn't a great game, but it's a long way from being the worst.

Gameplay: 8/10
It's hard to get started, and rest assured, you WILL die many times, but a hard game isn't always a bad game, and if you're willing to stick with it you'll be able to enjoy it. Okay, the game plays like an isometric Zelda (which was released BEFORE Zelda, so keep that in mind before you dismiss it as a clone) There's a bunch of dungeons that you've gotta clear, and you find them by stepping over invisible triggers that teleport you there (Okay, not the best feature. Or am I missing something that I needed the manual to understand?). A major problem is the massive amount of money you'll need to buy anything at all, collecting enough can get tedious. I really can't make a big deal about it since money-getting has never been fun for me, but lowering the prices or increasing the money drop amounts wouldn't have hurt anybody.

Story 6/10
Okay, One day this guy named prince Myer (no, that's not a typo) who is about to become king sits by some lake to think, when who should appear but an image of God himself (No, I'm not making this up) who tells our hero about this guy named Rubas who can summon huge armies by ringing magic bells, and the armies are going to attack the kingdom (called Willner, yeah, that's a crappy name for a kingdom). Naturally, our hero must stop this, so he goes on a quest to burn down the bell towers. It's gotta get points for the pyromaniac hero, you don't see too many of them.

Graphics 3/10
Yeah, they could've done better. Trying to make the game 3D-looking didn't work, but it's okay. you can pretty much tell what you're looking at, and that's good enough for me.

Challenge 10/10
Boy, this game is hard. in the beginning it's almost impossible to survive, but once you collect enough Ludder (money, which ranks up there with "Golds" as one of the more dumb sounding money names) you can buy upgrades. No, you never leave the castle, there are shops inside that sell you things. Is Rubas some kind of an idiot? Why does he have shops all around his castle that sell his enemies the weapons they need to kill him? Oh well...

sound 6/10
A pretty good medieval theme, and there are a few different tunes. They're catchy and give off a decent mood. Just good enough.

r8ing: Eh, it's far from perfect, it's far from abysmal. Get it for 2 bucks, you'll have fun with it.

buy/rent
Buy it, hey, even if you don't like it, it's only a few bucks.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/11/04, Updated 06/12/06