A little game review for a little game...

In my down time/off time, I have a penchant for playing games. I am no stranger to Civilization 4 (I'm kicking some serious tail as Chairman Mao in a Terra campaign...) as well as a variety of other online and console games. When I don't have much time to mess around or needs some mindless/numbing entertainment, I drift towards simple flash-based games that abound on the internet. Recently, I discovered a game on onlineflashgames.org that really works for me on multiple levels. The game in question is 'Tower of Heaven'...

Game play is delightfully simple. Jump and move your little... whatever he is towards the exit to advance. At the beginning of each level of the tower, a text box discouraging you from the 'path of righteousness' appears and has varying levels of snarkiness for you to read. Obstacles (such as spikes and pits...) appear in your way to destroy you so you cannot reach the top of the tower. An interesting twist to this is that as you progress, the game will give you rules that are an instant kill if you violate them. A couple examples are, 'You cannot touch any living thing (such as vines, grass, and butterflies...)' and 'You cannot walk left (more annoying than you can imagine...)'. The game play is also very linear, which is no surprise for an online flash game, but this is not a detractor either. It's straight forward and simple and that's good for me...

Here's why I love this game: The graphics are done in the style and colors of the old school Game Boy (read: blacks, browns, and greens...), the sound effects are also appropriate to the style, and (last but certainly not least...) the soundtrack is f'ing fantastic. The composer is on deviantart as FlashyGoodness and has made a plethora of video game music as well as large variety of video game remixes. This dude has the chops, let me tell you. Beyond that, this game succeeds where many others I've played failed. It is very easy to make an homage game that is rather half-assed. It takes real talent, then, to make a game that shows the great affection the creator has the genre. The graphics and music blend together perfectly with the play style and make playing it a joy each time I load it up...

I give this game a solid A all around. I would pick this game up even after I beat it because of the music and of the challenge level. As of this blog post, I still haven't finished the game. Level 11 is smacking me around resoundly. I trust I shall complete it though. But unlike many other games, I'm in no hurry to do so. Game on, friends. Oh, and let's not forget you can find the link to the game here...