Game Alert: Treasure Tower

Today's Game Alert will be a little shorter than usual, but by no means is the game covered any less worthwhile. Treasure Tower is a simple enough concept, yet surprisingly varied in its execution and highly addictive. In it, you play as a knight and you must reach the top of a tower after passing through several single-screen rooms. There are enemies and traps along the way, but neither of these kill you. Instead, the main adversary of the game is the clock as it is constantly counting down to your demise; taking 'damage' will significantly reduce the remaining time on the clock while clearing a room or finding food will increase it. There is, of course, also tons of treasure to collect along the way to increase your total points which, along with simply completing modes, are used to unlock new modes of play.

The most interesting aspect of Treasure Tower is probably its randomization. There are hundreds of rooms in the game and each gameplay mode will pull from a certain 'set' of these and distribute them in a random order, so going through the same mode twice can lead to not only a different room order, but different rooms entirely.

There are many modes to unlock and they each can affect not only the rooms, but many other aspects, such as food frequency, time, and room quantity. For example, the 'Collector' set has a twenty-room tower and requires players to collect every piece of treasure in each room while 'Blitz' only consists of twelve rooms, but also only puts thirty seconds on the clock and has no food. There is also a Time Attack section with online high scores which consists of over a dozen non-randomized sets of rooms (though the order is still random), including one featuring all 200 rooms in the game. The only downside is the The Attack leaderboard for the downloadable version is no longer function, but the newer browser version still works.

Even basic math can give you an adrenaline rush with that clock in the corner

The aesthetics of the game are also fairly nice. The graphics aren't particularly amazing, but they're not outright hideous either and the ever-present clock looks quite nice and suitable iconic. The music is not original, but it consists entirely of ragtime, which is both fun to listen to and perfectly fits the frantic pace of the game. There are also some nice little touches, such as a heartbeat noise when time is almost up and a different-looking 'room counter' for each mode.

So, if you like fast-paced, highly replayable games, go ahead and give Treasure Tower a shot and you'll likely be hooked for hours.


Treasure Tower and other games by its creator can be downloaded here: http://www.clickteam.info/davidn/games.php
The newer browser-based version can be found here: http://www.clickteam.info/davidn/games/treasuretower/