Platformer · 2014 · Maddy Makes Games Inc. · local
TowerFall Ascension
Four archers, one arena, and whoever gets hit pops.
What it is about
One arena that fits on a single screen, with up to four archers in it. One hit is enough: whoever gets hit pops, and the round is over.
You control it with three buttons — run, jump, shoot. The depth comes from the rules around them: arrows bounce off walls, can be caught mid-flight and fired again, and landing on an opponent's head works like a hit. Out of arrows, you pick them up off the ground.
Alongside the competition there is a Quest mode two people play through together: waves of enemies in the same arenas, with bosses and unlockable variants. There is no online mode; on Steam the game can be passed to the others via Remote Play Together.
Our verdict for couples
Three buttons, one rule: one hit and you are out. From exactly that comes something still not boring after twenty rounds — because arrows bounce, because you can catch them mid-flight, and because landing on someone's head does the same as a hit. You can stop after any round, and nobody does. For a couple the question is less whether the game is good and more whether you can take it: there is no shared victory, only one of the two of you. If you would rather stick together, there is a Quest mode alongside that two people play through.
Pros
- With Remote Play Together one copy covers all four of you
- Three buttons, explained in a minute
- A round rarely lasts longer than half a minute
Cons
- In the main mode only one of you ever wins
- No German version
- After a few evenings you have seen every arena
Suitable from
Casual–Hobby
- Conflict potential
- Relationship test
- Cosiness
- Mixed
- When you can stop
- After 15 minutes
- How long it lasts
- 5–15 hours
What other co-op fans say
Ninety-four percent approve, and a striking number of reviews talk less about the game than about evenings with friends. The praise goes to the tight controls and the fact that a round is over in seconds. One point recurs and is the most important one for a couple: the two-player Quest mode is considered good, but the actual game is the competition — if you only want to play with each other, you get the smaller half here.
- “Stellar game with impecable pixelgraphics and precise and fun to learn movement.”
- “As a coop game, this is great fun in the campaign.”
- “Coop is fun, but Versus is where the meat of the game is.”
Summarised by machine from 32 Steam reviews, not written by our editors. The quotes appear verbatim in those reviews.
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