Tricky ‘Tetris’ Towers
Game: Tricky Towers
Developer: WeirdBeard
Publisher: WeirdBeard
Reviewed on: PlayStation 4 (Review code provided by publisher)
I’ll start with this. If you were a big fan of Tetris back in the day, there is a big chance, no, I almost guarantee that you’ll enjoy this. However, Tetris wasn’t really one that I got on with when I was a child. It bored me pretty quickly, so you can probably guess where this review is heading..
Of course, Tricky Towers isn’t just a Tetris clone. The game is all about physics, giving you the task to build a tower block without the tower falling down. Whilst that sounds easy, the physics system really makes it quite the challenge, with your tower often falling over even if you have slightly misplaced on of your previous blocks. My time with Tricky Towers was met with pure frustration, I turned it off on multiple occasions, only to try and try again.
The multiplayer aspect is what will keep you coming back time and time again. What is handy and quite a neat feature from the developers is that they have added the ability to cast magic on your opponents. In 4 player natch ups against your friends (local or offline), you will have the chance to cast magic in order to cause havoc to your friends tower, leaving them shouting “timberrrrrr” as their efforts crash down faster than the Titanic on the seabed floor! (I may be going slightly over the top here…..).
There are three modes for you to play with your local or online friends. These include Survival, Race and Puzzle. Survival is the most tense of games you can play online. Having three lives, you lose a life each time that one of your blocks falls to the ground, so make sure you place them very securely or you’ll find yourself losing the match with ease. Race is pretty self explanatory, you, along with your opponents see who can build the highest tower in the allocated time given. Puzzle is one that requires a more strategic approach to it. You and your opponents have to create a tower that comes under the required height. This is the mode that I found the most challenging, with me very frequently not being able to get the tower at the right height. You can nudge blocks out of the way. However like me, you’ll quickly find out that it often results in your whole tower to fall out, leading to even more frustration.
If you don’t want to play multiplayer, and just want to build some towers on your own (not sure why you’d want to, if I’m honest), there is the option of the single player. There is an Endless mode that just gives you creative freedom to create a tower for as long as you see fit.
What is disappointing is that the magic-casting feature is completely missing from single player. It is one of the best gameplay features in Tricky Towers so why they omitted it from the single player game is beyond me. If they can bring it in via a patch, that would at least keep the single player modes interesting for a little longer.
What is quite interesting though is the charm of the visuals. I was quite pleased to see how vibrant the colour scheme is in Tricky Towers. It will definitely appeal to a younger audience. However, the sound does let it down quite a bit, especially in the menu screens, where the sound is nothing more than annoying.
VERDICT
Tricky Towers is a difficult one really. If you’re having friends over, looking for some online fun or want to keep the kids busy for a while then you can’t go wrong with this. The multiplayer is alot of fun and whilst can get frustrating, matches can become exciting, drawn out affairs, especially with the magic-casting feature that comes with it. However, it is completely reversed with the single player experience, where you’re not going to want to play it for a long time at all. Fortunately, it is part of this month’s PlayStation Plus offering so whilst it certainly isn’t the best they have put out in recent months, I would recommend picking it up for the multiplayer alone.
