The Deadly Tower of Monsters is a third-person action game, released in 2016, where you must climb a series of large towers, to complete various tasks, all presented like a parody of old fantasy and science fiction films. You can play as either a man (Dick Starspeed) or a woman (Scarlet Nova), and you can even play as the robot sidekick (just called “Robot“) at certain points too.

The game is mostly weapons and shooting-based, with some trampolining, platforming and freefalling at certain points. You have health and ammo bars and a pot of money shown on-screen. Weapons are mainly guns and melee, but there’s also a flamethrower. There’s also a Jet Pack that allows you to hover and fly around. And other new items and skills to find and earn as you progress.

The levels ape cultural icons like Forbidden Planet, Jurassic Park, King Kong, Planet of the Apes, Flash Gordon, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and others, and the different play modes, and the achievements linked to them, make for some enjoyable gameplay.

There are running jokes about bad props and sets that are quite funny, and everything is nicely-presented, with a unique visual style. The Deadly Tower of Monsters even takes plenty of digs at itself, and doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s a comedic game that is mildly funny and isn’t too rude or objectionable.

The Deadly Tower of Monsters features a survival mode; a four-player cooperative mode, and various multiplayer iterations, all of which are fun enough. Overall, it’s a decent game for those who love reference-spotting.

Developed by ACE Team, using Unreal Engine 3, and published by Atlus in the USA and Sega everywhere else.

More: The Deadly Tower of Monsters on Wikipedia
More: The Deadly Tower of Monsters on Steam
More: The Deadly Tower of Monsters on GOG.com