When it comes to puzzle games, there is a fine line between too easy and outrageously difficult. If you land on either side of it, you will have a game that is either too boring or so frustrating that most people will give up before they are able to solve later levels. Midipixel has developed Wizard’s Tower, which has been brought to consoles by Ratalaika Games. A puzzle game that falls on the difficult end of the spectrum.
You play as a simple mailman, just trying to do his job. All you want to do is deliver a letter to the warlock and finish, your shift, but no, he has to put a curse on you. You begin each room with a set number of lives, and each step you take will cost you a life. Luckily, there are orbs that will give you more lives as you pick them up. This means you will end up taking the most round about route to your destination, but whatever it takes to get the job done.
Trying to traverse each room is the least of your problems. As you get further into the castle, the rooms get more difficult. Soon you will be facing zombies, bats, conveyor belts and more. Unfortunately, there are so many items thrown at you that you barely have time to learn the mechanics of one before you are dealing with the next. This makes the game more difficult to grasp, let alone master. There are also secret levels that unlocks as you go, but you must complete a specific number of rooms before you can enter them. The number of rooms required is usually several floors more worth than you are on, so you are forced to backtrack to try these levels, which offer nothing to the competition of the game or the story.
Since it is a puzzle game, there is not a lot in the way of flashy graphics. It actually looks like it would be at home on the Game Boy Color or similar system. Characters are well defined and it has a good look, but nothing that is new or ground breaking. The music is standard chip tune fare. After multiple repeats of the higher levels, you will probably find it grating and end up muting it.
With dozens of levels to keep you occupied, there is enough to do in this title. The question is will you have the patience to work through all of them or will you throw in the towel before you reach your final goal? Or, just give in and find a walk through to get the achievements and finish out the game. Warlock’s Tower is out now on XB1, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Steam, and mobile platforms. For about $10 you will get a puzzler that will test your skills and your patience.
