"They have stood here forever...
Many men dreamt to reach the top...
Today, another one tries."
—The game's Opening Text
TowerClimb is an indie 2D platformer developed by Davioware which is heavily influenced by Roguelike mechanics, such as permadeath and random levels.
You play as a randomly-named man who, for some unexplained reason, wants to climb one of the titular towers.
The game can be bought here
or on Steam here.
TowerClimb provides examples of:
- A Winner Is You: Made it to the top of the tower and killed Zardo? Congratulations, you get an end card! Completed a Legend Fragment run and killed Krystelle? Congratulations, you get a different end card!
- Air-Aided Acrobatics: The air currents in the Ruins can help cause this. Jumping while in one of these plus under the effects of a Jump Berry causes you to go to truly incredible heights. Just make sure you have a safe place to land.
- Amusement Park of Doom: The very unsafe Zardoland, which features wrecking balls that you can swing on, cannons to shoot yourself out of, and track-guided wheels to run on (and subsequently slip off). Oh yeah, Zardoland also has a ton of mines, and is patrolled by some pretty strong goons.
- Badass Normal: The climber, for taking on an entire miles-high tower and everything in, on, and around it. It only makes sense that the victory card for completing the Legend Fragment run simply says "Unstoppable."
- Bad Guy Bar: Club Z is a colossal nightclub near the top of the tower, filled with pounding music, strobe lighting, lethal ravers and bouncers that will utterly obliterate you if you vandalize anything or hurt anyone.
- Bandit Mook: Zardo in earlier levels. Heralded by a message of "It feels strange in here...", he teleports in and chases you relentlessly, firing bolts of stunning energy at you. If one hits you, you are paralyzed and have to look on as he robs you of every one of your potions, and throws all of your inventory items around the room. This ranges from annoying and dangerous to an absolute death sentence.
- Battle Boomerang: The boomerang, which doesn't deal much damage to enemies, but it can be used to retrieve items. It can be upgraded to the boomerorb if crafted together with the vapour wand, which deals more damage and has a much larger range.
- Bragging Rights Reward: Brobash's scimitar and the boiler wand are only obtainable extremely late into the game in optional areas, and by the time you get them there's nothing worth using them on.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall
- Also Zardo when you get to the top on Easy:
Zardo: You made it up here? I'm not that impressed. It was Easy Mode... - Brutal Bonus Level: Three of them, all of which are required to access the Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
- First, the very aptly named Brutal Boiler, which requires you to traverse a floating lava maze using nothing but a winchshot, with all the rest of your items confiscated.
- Second, Zardo's Dream, a massive non sequitur of an area, where you end up playing basketball with him. Lose, and you get dunked.
- Third, the Arcade - The walls and floors constantly change properties, from jump blocks to death blocks.
- Bubblegloop Swamp: The Conservatory is a mix between this and Jungle Japes.
- Cool Sword: The challenger's sword, crafted together from two old swords, and the Bitchbane, achieved by killing 9 dogs in a single level. The Ascender is another cool sword, being easily 5 times larger than the climber holding it and allowing him or her to basically fly. It's also required for completing the quest, Arsenal of the Ascended. Also the sword you use for the Zardo boss fight.
- Deadly Gas: The gas that descends from the ceiling occasionally at the end of a level in the Conservatory, or randomly in the Centurial Trials.
- Double Jump: The Jump Berries and Jump Potions give you a one-time double jump. You can stack them up to four times, but taking a fifth one will cause your heart to explode.
- Easy-Mode Mockery: Getting to the Zardo fight on Easy mode will have him call out that you're playing on Easy mode.
- Floating Limbs: Zardo doesn't have these normally, but his giant form does.
- Hypocrite: Zardo spends most of the first chapter happily stealing your stuff, but he changes his attitude when you steal his sword.Zardo: You thief! That's my sword! I can't stand thieves...
- Item Crafting: A very rudimentary system in which the Crafter can appear in a random area very infrequently, takes two items and a few precious Berries as a fee that goes up with each attempt, and gives you something based on what you gave him. Good luck finding what two combination of items doesn't give you useless Junk, let alone finding the components for it.
- It's All Upstairs From Here: The entire game.
- Lethal Lava Land: The Heart.
- Magic Wand: Zardo's vapour wand, which can be used by you if you chase him off in Chapter 1. It can fire a magic orb that gradually increases in speed. There's also Krystelle's boiler wand, which is only dropped by her at the end of the Legend Fragment run. It shoots a much faster magic orb that can destroy blocks.
- The Many Deaths of You: Getting eaten by a giant rat, falling too far, getting impaled on spikes, gluttony, getting pounced on by a dog, falling into lava...and that's just the first area. Each kind of death comes with a nice picture detailing your guy meeting his demise. Oh, and it takes a screenshot right at the point of death with a nice little trail of arrows showing the path you took up to your corpse.
- Mood Whiplash: The zone right after Club Z, a loud, bright, and flashy night club, is the Temple of Devotion, a creepy, dark cathedral with mindless worshippers, parasites, and Watchers that chase after you if you move a single inch within their gaze.
- Monster Arena: Colossus, which is unlocked after beating the Coliseum in Chapter 2.
- Mushroom Samba: The spores in the Volt Caves area give you gigantic amounts of Interface Screw if you touch them.
- New Game Plus: Chapter 1+, which starts the player with two calling horns, the Bitchbane, a hookshot, an elastograp, and a winchshot while also removing the witch (apart from getting VERY lucky). It's unlocked by beating the tower, a Legend Fragment run, Centurial Trials and both of its sidequests, and Colossus.
- No-Harm Requirement: Do not damage anything in Club Z, or the bouncer will toss you out and end your run for good.
- Not the Fall That Kills You…: Extremely, mercifully present. While you begin to tumble at terminal velocity and begin to outrun the screen, you retain control of your character and if you grab a wall or double jump, even at the last second, you live.
- One-Winged Angel: Zardo's boss fight has him transform into big and (after 2 hits) giant versions of himself, though he can revert to lower forms and always returns to normal for the tennis phase.
- Patchwork Map: The tower's layout itself, especially in Chapter 2. You ascend from the first tower into the a second tower floating in the sky, which goes, from bottom to top, a area filled with heavy machinery, a forest filled with lighting-conducting plants, an amusement park, a night club, a temple, and a nondescript area filled with very sharp blades.
- Permadeath: Present, as with most roguelites, but alleviated with revive potions which can be brought from the witch... unless you fall in lava, get crushed, or fall out of the tower entirely.
- Phlebotinum Overdose: Jump Potions / Berries / Gas. Going over four jumps worth of stored charge will cause you to instantly die. While for the most part this is avoidable by not overdosing on the potions, there are a few instances where this can be foisted upon you against your will. A later section of the game has dispensers of this gas, and some of these are underwater. You can't double jump under water, so it's very possible to overload yourself if you don't pay attention. One other later level has an enemy that explodes into huge amounts of jump gas. Staying inside it without jumping will result in an overdose.
- Rise to the Challenge: The occasional lava trap level. Especially dangerous, as lava is one of the few things that a revive potion will not save you from. The arcane lava in the Centurial Trials is even worse, as it rockets up the tower at truly terrifying speeds.
- The gas traps are this in reverse; occasionally the exit door in the Conservatory will be locked and poison gas leaks from the ceiling, forcing you to go back down until it dissipates and the door unlocks.
- Zardo's final phase will have him raise the arcane lava in his arena to force you into the cannons.
- Sidequest: 2 of them: Arsenal of the Ascended and To Bake a Pretty Cake. The former can be started in the main tower, but both can only be finished on the 101st floor in the Centurial Trials.
- Sinister Scimitar: Brobash's scimitar, which is dropped by him after you kill him in the Coliseum. At this point in the game, there are no more enemies to use it on. It's very useful in Colossus, however.
- Soft Water: You can survive falls from dozens of blocks high by landing in a single square of water.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The Ruins, which has ice, updrafts, and icicles, which fall when something shakes the ground near it. Like you.
- Super Not-Drowning Skills: Surprisingly enough for an Everything Trying to Kill You game, this is present and accounted for.
- Tennis Boss: Zardo's fight has you do this with him four times.
- Unwinnable by Design: It is entirely possible to end up stuck if you recklessly destroy blocks or don't have any means of higher jumping.
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment: The first thing you see in Club Z is a colossal bouncer, who states very clearly, "Kid, if you damage anything, I will kick your little butt out of here.". If you disrespect his warning by bombing any objects or hurting any of the patrons, he will relentlessly teleport to you and chase you down. If he grabs you, he instantly escorts you off the premises. By throwing you off the tower. Polite reminder: You're 10,000 feet above ground at this point.
