[Review] Towerfall Ascension

[Spring*]

from Celeste developer MattMakesGames, Towerfall Ascension was originally released as simply Towerfall on the doomed platform Ouya, before being ported to the PS4, Steam, and other platforms with the new name. Known as one of the few games worth playing on the Ouya before its demise, Towerfall Ascension is the perfect local multiplayer game for your PC, with a focus on 4-player combat and a similar style of gameplay to the likes of Super Smash Bros. or Nidhogg. In Towerfall, you and the other players are each given a bow with several arrows, along with items, power-ups, and special arrows spread throughout the arena. Your goal is to kill off the other players using your arrows by jumping and dashing around the map, with the latter ability used to catch other players’ arrows in the air as they fire. The game is a blast, and though a single-player option exists, the game truly shines in multiplayer mode.

Whether you’re playing with or without variants, Towerfall is a blast to play with your friends. Scoring a kill takes work since the arrows don’t move much faster than the characters, and can be snatched out of the air by alert players. Instead of fighting head-on, you are constantly thinking of new ways to outsmart the other players--either by tricking them with some new tactic or catching them with a surprise attack. You need a plan of attack, and when that plan comes together it feels very rewarding.

If you don’t have any friends on hand, Towerfall’s appeal drops significantly. Quest mode is a fun distraction, but pales against the fierce competition of Versus, which requires at least two local players to use. Online play is completely absent as well, which further compounds this issue. With a few friends, Towerfall Ascension is a fantastic multiplayer game that offers a ton of variations on its enjoyable archery combat. Just make sure those friends can join you on the couch.

Unfortunately, if you’re playing Towerfall alone your options are limited as this game is definitely designed for group play. When played solo, you can either hone your skills in Trials mode, or take on the AI in Quest mode. The trials are broken out into several time trials which test your ability to take down targets in the fastest time. Trials are also a great place to master the game’s many arrow variants--such as drill arrows and bomb arrows--since there are trials specifically tailored for different arrow types. In the Quest mode, you and up to one other player can take on waves of monsters cooperatively across 10 different stages. Not only will you encounter enemy archers in this mode, but slimes, ghosts, and grim reapers as well. These foes fight differently from the archers, which is good for breaking up the archer-on-archer combat that’s so prevalent in the game’s main mode: Versus.