I grew up on cheesy sci-fi movies and serials. As a kid, I loved seeing the strings on the flying monsters, plastic flora that never moved, and cheap wooden sets that shook when someone bumped into them. I was an Ed Wood fan decades before Tim Burton introduced the world to the amazing auteur. So when ACE Team and Atlus announced they were creating a game that took all of those B-movie elements, and made a single-player action-adventure game out of them, I was on-board 100 percent. The Deadly Tower of Monsters is that game, and it is magnificent.
I first got my hands on an early build of The Deadly Tower of Monsters at last year’s E3. In a show that saw a new Batman game, a new Fallout game, a sublime Call of Duty game, and so many other huge titles, Deadly Tower of Monsters was one of my favorite games played. Now, developer ACE Team (Abyss Odyssey) has unleashed this gem of a title to the world, and fictional director Dan Smith’s long-lost science-fiction epic film is getting the recognition it deserves.
The Deadly Tower of Monsters is a single player adventure that tasks the player with climbing a massive tower filled with, you guessed it, monsters. ACE Team has taken the B-movie genre and gloriously recreated it here. The monsters are clearly actors in rubber suits (with zippers exposed), deadly bats are attached to clearly visible strings, and some monsters are even dogs covered in cardboard “costumes.” There are even a few rubber-faced monkeys scattered around the tower still wearing the actor’s wristwatches on the outside. Every thing is tongue-in-cheek, and that is punctuated by the ongoing audio-track commentary by Dan Smith the “director” of the original film.
The premise is that Smith and a sound guy are doing commentary for the fictional DVD release of the film. The jokes come fast as Dan Smith tells how certain actors were drunk on set, others weren’t paid, and how his stop motion animators promised him it would look life-like, even as the hero, Dick Starspeed, along with the lovely Scarlet and his co-pilot, Robot, battle the monsters who move at 15-frames per second (meaning they are exceptionally jerky). The inside jokes of 1950s Hollywood are some of the best, and I laughed out loud more than a few times while playing.
At one point, the heroes square off with a giant gorilla, and when the beast’s hand comes on screen to smash, we can see the stage hands controlling it via a large stick. This is but one of many examples where the fourth wall breaks (or, in a game like this, maybe the fifth wall?), and really creates a new and fun gaming experience.
The Deadly Tower of Monsters holds many secrets, including new weapons to collect (with the same cheesy commentary; Sparky, a electrical gun was just an electric shaver that someone found on set, according to Smith), and the characters and weapons are upgradable as the player ascends.
The play control has both shooting and melee elements, and a limited use jetpack. Each character also has innate powers that must be used to solve certain puzzles to continue the climb.
The graphics use the grainy look of an old VHS copy of the film to mask any texture issues, and the player can opt for the DVD audio or VHS audio. I suggest selecting DVD for audio and VHS for video, as the grainy look is part of the fun. You want to keep the audio crisp to hear the commentary and to listen to the best part of the entire game: the music.
I cannot stress enough how amazing the score is in The Deadly Tower of Monsters. The songs are very throwback to the 50s and 60s B-movies, with enough modernization to keep them hummable. I finished the game a few days ago, and I’m still humming these tunes. I’m sure by year’s end, this game and it’s soundtrack will be forgotten — much like Dan Smith’s movie — but that would be a shame, as this music is worthy of game of the year consideration. And I’m very well aware that I am saying this in January. It’s that good.
The Deadly Tower of Monsters takes a very neat concept and executes it splendidly. My first run through took about eight hours, and I still need to find a few things to complete my collections and trophies. The tower still holds secrets, and I will not stop until I have found them all.
The Deadly Tower of Monsters is the perfect game for fans of old films, especially science fiction, and fans of fun games that don’t demand too much skill. This is definitely one of those games where the beauty is in the journey, not the destination. I would love to see Dan Smith return one day to give commentary on another of his iconic films, and maybe that is the best indicator of how enjoyable The Deadly Tower of Monsters really is.
The Deadly Tower of Monsters is available now for the Playstation 4. For a limited time, the game is discounted by 33 percent in the PlayStation Store, which makes this an absolute steal. This review is based off a review code provided by Atlus.
