Indie Focus: Towerfall Ascension

Originally releasing as an Ouya exclusive, Towerfall has since released on other platforms. It’s an archery combat game that’s built around fast combat, limited ammunition, and a fluid movement system. A focus on local multiplayer makes for some truly hectic and immensely enjoyable sessions with friends.

Ascension is the definitive version of Towerfall, with an extra mode, additional characters, maps, and power-ups. Versus mode for 2-4 players returns and now features a variants menu that lets you customise your match by disabling power-ups and enabling mutators like slowing time or fiery revenge, which makes characters explode upon death. The Trials mode also returns, allowing you to test your speed by killing straw dummies as quickly as possible, with medals awarded based on your speed. New to Ascension is Quest mode, which allows you and a friend to cooperatively fight your way through AI-filled maps – it’s difficult on normal and there’s a hardcore difficulty too.

You can only take one hit from an arrow or other hazard, so perhaps the most important aspect of your play is how effectively you traverse the maps. It may take a few rounds to get used to how the game handles, but once you’ve had a little practise you’ll find yourself wall-jumping and dashing to get around without even thinking about it. Dashing with a tap of a trigger will not only let you avoid arrows and other traps but will let you grab arrows out of the air if you dash into them when they’re in flight, which is cool.

Although it’s not quite as cool as knocking them out of the air with your own arrows, which is really cool, but also pretty difficult to pull off. You can only aim in 8 directions, though your arrows will curve towards enemies if they get close. You may be tempted to just launch all your ammunition at someone but if you do, you’ll quickly find that you’ve ran out and, if your enemies manage to avoid them you are at a considerable disadvantage. You can always go the Mario way though – just jump on their head, or if you time it right, bits from the environment like icicles and lanterns can be knocked off their supports and onto an enemy. Or you can go and pick arrows back up by walking over them, whether they are yours or belong to another player.

Chests can be opened for power-ups ranging from additional arrows to coating the top and bottom of the screen with lava for a while, or enabling slow-motion. You can also find things like wings and shields, or arrows that have special effects like drilling through platforms or bouncing off walls. Chests will appear randomly on the map, likely prompting a rush for them from all the players. The maps themselves are more than just aesthetic differences, as some of them have spinning flails or jump pads, so you’ll want to keep an eye on your surroundings or you might get squished by a moving platform.

Towerfall’s simple mechanics all combine into fast, frantic battles that generate those moments that feel fantastic. Like when you survive having no arrows by grabbing your enemy’s out of the air and then killing them before even landing, or when you manage to avoid three incoming arrows and jump onto another player’s head as they swear at you. The multiplayer focus is a good choice as it makes a fun little game into one that you could play for hours with friends in the living room, but the lack of online multiplayer severely limits whether or not I would recommend a purchase.

If you want to play multiplayer but are unlikely to have friends around regularly or the single player pursuits aren’t something that will hold you attention, then you are probably better off waiting for a sale. But if you have a few friends who you can regularly play the game with, then £11.99 is likely worth it for you. Similarly, if you are likely to enjoy a horde mode alone or with one friend, or even the single player only trials then you are also probably going to find the price reasonable.

Below is about 10 minutes of me destroying my girlfriend in versus. It was quite fun.