Parents' Guide to The Deadly Tower of Monsters

If you've never experienced the sheer joy of watching one of those classic "so bad it's good" B-movie schlockfests, you don't know what you're missing. Much like the old B-movies it parodies, The Deadly Tower of Monsters offers nothing really groundbreaking, but anything it might lack in polish it more than makes up for in style and personality. Besides, it's hard to argue any lack of realism or detail when you can see fingerprints on the screen during a lens flare or wooden dowels controlling a boss creature's movements. Toss in the nearly nonstop voice-over work by the "director," dishing out play-by-play commentary on everything you do, see, or find, and it really does feel less like you're playing a game and more like you're enjoying some weird, interactive DVD release.

That's not to say the gameplay isn't worthwhile. Although the bulk of it is pretty much of your standard hack-'n'-slash/shoot-'em-up variety, there's one very interesting twist: The entirety of the Tower is fully loaded at all times. This means that at any time, you can jump off the side of the Tower and essentially skydive to any other section below. You just need to make sure to hit your rocket booster to cushion your landing. And if you've miscalculated your jump (or just gotten knocked off the side), there's also a teleport feature you can use anytime while in free-fall to immediately teleport you back to the last place you were standing on solid ground. There are a couple of minor irritations, usually due to the camera issues and a lack of any sort of controls for the view. Still, The Deadly Tower of Monsters is definitely a fun, if short, game that relishes its wackiness.