TowerFall is a Platform Fighter, based around archery and arrows. In the world of TowerFall, the King has gone mad, and monsters have arisen to destroy the land. Several figures arise from the conflict: the Last of the Order, who wants to free the land; the Vigilante Thief, who wishes to profit from the conflict and help the weak; the Assassin Prince, who views the conflict as a way to seize the throne and obtain glory and riches; and the Turncloak Soldier, who wishes to kill the king and free the land. Also accompanying in the Ascension version are the Prancing Puppet, the Forgotten Master, the Ancient Exile and the Vicious Vessel.
In essence, TowerFall plays like Samurai Gunn, in that you have one hit, and if you're hit with an arrow, you're dead. This includes your own. Unlike Samurai Gunn, there is no melee move (save for the option to jump onto your opponents' heads), and arrows can be picked back up and placed in your quiver for later. There are a number of intricacies with the gameplay: you can dodge in any direction, catch arrows out of mid-air, wall jump, slide, and more. There are also an insane amount of variants that will completely change the game, and a number of stages to keep the backgrounds fresh. It's quite a lot of fun with friends, but is local multiplayer only.
Available for PS4, PS Vita, PC/Mac, and the Ouya. TowerFall: Ascension was released in 2014. It contains four new characters (Prancing Puppet, Ancient Exile, Vicious Vessel, and Forgotten Master), a slew of new variants, four unlockable stages, a single-player campaign (complete with it's own stage, and a final boss), a bunch of new stat-tracks, new titles, and the mysterious "Ascension" screen.
A second expansion, TowerFall: Dark World was released for PC and PSN on May 12, 2015, adding new stages and archers. Joining the roster is the red archer, the Vanglorious Ghoul/Crimson Corsair. Additionally, the existing cast will gain alternate versions of themselves.
The Switch version of the game features 6-players battles, new variants and guest characters Madeline and Badeline from Celeste.
TowerFall and TowerFall: Ascension contains the following tropes:
- Authority Equals Asskicking: The king in the background of The King's Court quest level turns into a giant head with wings that shoots exploding energy spheres.
- Arrow Catch: During your dash, any arrows that hit you are added to your arsenal.
- The Artful Dodger: Every character in the game.
- Boss Rush: Beating all the stages of the Dark World's new co-op mode unlocks this.
- Bullet Hell: The final boss of the Dark World expansion has this as its final phase.
- Classic Cheat Code: Hold L2 while selecting the Ancient Exile to get her hair down from the start of the match. The same method on the Assassin Prince gets him wearing a different hat.
- Press Left, Right, L2, R2, Up, Up, Down, Left, R2 and Cross on the credits menu to unlock everything in the game in the PS4 version, or the same code with L instead of L2 and R instead of R2 in the Vita Version.
- Comeback Mechanic: Players lagging behind on Versus Mode get shields at the start of the round. This mechanic can be lessened or taken off with certain variants.
- Defeat Means Playable: In Quest Mode, Sunken City's last opponent is the Prancing Puppet. Completing the stage unlocks them.
- Death-Activated Superpower: multiplayer has a setting that lets defeated players return as ghosts for sweet revenge. If they're quick (and can avoid getting arrowed or stomped), they can bump another player to kill them.
- Death as Game Mechanic: One of the options in multiplayer PvP allows dead players to come back as ghosts who can attack the remaining players.
- Dark World: The expansion for Ascension seems to be adding new stages that are darker counterparts to the old levels, including Dreadwood and Darkfang Fortress for Thornwood and Icefang Fortress respectively.
- Goomba Stomp: One of two ways of killing enemies, the other of course being to use your arrows.
- Guide Dang It!: Unlocking anything in Ascension. For those who want to know:
- Characters:
- Prancing Puppet: Complete Sunken City in quest mode.
- Vicious Vessel: Play Twilight Spire in versus, and in a certain stage, a portal will show up. Kill all the creatures, and she'll be unlocked at the end of the round.
- Ancient Exile: Play Moonstone in versus, and in a certain stage there will be a purple rock with an archer shape on it. Hit the rock 3 times, and she shall be unlocked.
- Forgotten Master: Finish the Gold Triangle Sidequest, which is a Guide Dang It! in and of itself.
- Stages:
- Sunken City: Randomly obtained by hitting the random stage select in versus mode.
- Moonstone: Play every regular stage in versus, the play Sacred Ground. Spend a few rounds there, and eventually the stage will automatically be unlocked. You'll know when.
- Towerforge: Complete Quest Mode.
- Ascension: Complete the Ascension puzzle.
- Gauntlet: Complete Ascension in quest mode.
- Characters:
- Hat Damage: Every character has a hat or some other kind of headgear that can be knocked off during a match if an arrow is shot just over their head. This also includes the crown that adorns the head of whoever's in the lead on points/kills. In the case of the Ancient Exile, her hair tie will be cut, letting her hair down.
- Loads And Loadsof Loading: The Vita version takes quite a while to start up.
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Nintendo Hard: Quest Mode will beat the crap out of you aren't prepared. - No "Arc" in "Archery": Averted and Inverted at the same time: Arrows do arc downwards, but can also home into enemies by arcing upwards.
- Pinned to the Wall: Certain deaths can end up with the opponent like this.
- Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: On the trailer for Ascension, the Vicious Vessel is the only playable character that doesn't make an appearance.
- Videogame Dashing: Dashing, or dodging as it's called in this game, is an important tool in the game as they also allow players to catch arrows that have been shot at them.
- Then there's "dodge cancelling" where players can cancel a dodge immediately with another dodge, while still retaining the momentum of the dodge, allowing them to travel longer distances than a normal dodge. The caveat is that players doing this cannot catch arrows that have been shot at them.
