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PayPalLucky Tower Ultimate from Studio Seufz is probably one of the funniest real-time dungeon crawlers I've ever played and I can't wait to play more. Developed by Studio Seufz, who some might recognise from their previous game The Longing (which I also really liked). Note: key provided by Evolve PR.
Older readers might recognise the name Lucky Tower too, since it was a series of Flash games from quite a few years ago. Lucky Tower Ultimate is the third in the series, updated for new audiences and given a modern rogue-lite taste, you don't need to know anything about it to play this though it's completely standalone.
Here's the thing — some dungeon crawlers can be thoroughly frustrating to play. I end up getting annoyed, cursing at the screen and not in a fun way and so just stop playing and give up on them. Not the case here though thanks to the totally ridiculous slapstick comedy of Lucky Tower Ultimate. Each death was either a belly laugh or a rather silly surprise. It captured my attention instantly, and I haven't wanted to put it down and I still don't want to.
The idea here is that one night while having a drink at the local tavern, you go to use the facilities and you're suddenly teleported into a strange tower with nothing but your underwear. The top of the tower too, not the bottom, so you have to work your way down as you go through various doors. With some truly comical moments, backed up by some nice voice acting, it's certainly an experience you won't forget. Part of what makes it funny, is that you can pick up pretty much all items to use as weapons — including creatures and people.
I'm just going to give you a small slice of what to expect from it…
In my first run, I came across an old lady wandering around. After a little chat, I accidentally picked her up and shook her about for some loot. Obviously she was unhappy about this and slapped me dead. Well, that was a short run for my first go. On my second run I opened a door and walked into a room that was entirely full of barrels of dynamite with lit fuses, and then the entire tower blew up. Taking a second look inside "just to be sure" wasn't my best idea. You can see where this is going right? This game is the story of how you will die a thousand different ways.
At times a creepy wizard will appear and offer you items for free. Like potions! Who doesn't love a fancy potion! I decided to drink it, for science, and — dead again. The very next run they promptly appeared in front of me again, and dropped a hammer for me, so perhaps I can trust them? That is a helpful item indeed to smash some goblins with.
Run number…oh I don't know I've lost count, I found the old lady again. This time she was trapped in a cage, so I freed her and it turns out her name is Alva and she can give you potions. Hooray! Off we go into another room where a creature was sat at a table with three pots. They offered me a bet: pick the right pot that has a tooth under it after they spin them around and win a prize, lose and forfeit a wager. I clearly wasn’t paying attention as my wager was supposed to be placed on a button behind me…right where Alva was stood. I lost and Alva got turned into food. Stupid creature cheated though! I picked right at least once and they said they weren’t paying attention so spun the pots again. Annoyed, I hit them with a hammer and they punched the life out of me. That's another run over.
One run lasted all of about 30 seconds. As I walked into a room that seemed safe, so I took a hand off my controller for a few seconds to grab a drink next to me and the floor opened up and goodbye hero — dammit!
Every time I think I'm doing well, and that I'm safe, the tower has other ideas. Hear some screaming getting louder? Well, standing around to find out wasn't my brightest idea as this thing below smashed through the wall and promptly smashed me with a rather large hammer.
Okay. Next time I will beat it for sure, I say to myself.
I walk into a room and there's a creature asleep on a chair. Near the creature is a horn on the floor, obviously I didn't see it so I stepped on it creating a honk and the creature cheekily opens one eye to take a little look. So I back off, wait for them to sleep again and try to creep past…but they wake up and quickly scoop me up into their mouth. I became lunch. Run over. Ouch.
What makes it great is that it really is mechanically simple. From movement to combat, it's all very basic. It's the silliness of it, and all the different encounters and traps that make it worth playing through. The design is just fantastic.
I could go on for quite some time about how stupidly I died, and how each death made me want to just play more. But I'll leave you with that small slice for now. Lucky Tower Ultimate is all about expecting the unexpected, and then probably dying in some really silly way. Truly fun.
Since it's in Early Access these are just my initial thoughts on it, and I'll be playing a whole lot more right up until release where I'll be covering it again no doubt. The developer has announced a big content update is due out today (Nov 5th) too, so that's my late evening and probably into the early hours entirely written-off to play and discover more.
It plays beautifully with the latest Proton 9.0-3, with my time playing it on Steam Deck across a mixture of docking it up to a TV and playing it handheld. Not a single problem encountered, which is why it's a surprise to see it only rated Steam Deck Playable as everything appears to work out of the box.
This is one of the easiest recommendations I've ever done. Go buy it.
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