As you all probably know all too well by this point, I am a big defender for retro video games, and I will usually go out of my way to say a lot of them still hold up to this day despite how dated they are by today’s standards. Sure, there are definitely plenty of these that have not aged well over time, as well as plenty of others that have been improved upon over the years through remakes, re-releases, remasters and what have you, but even with all of those things available, I am still able to go back to a lot of older titles from the arcade or NES days, play them, and have a really great time with them. Of course though, there will always be those moments where I will get to a specific oldie that I have been wanting to play for a while, finally try it out, and realize that it actually isn’t as good as most people probably think it is. That was pretty much the experience I had with The Tower of Druaga.
I have wanted to check this game out for the longest time, seeing as it is one of Namco’s arcade classics paired right alongside others like Pac-Man, Galaga, and so on, as well as all of the other things that were released in the Babylonian Castle Saga, such as the sequels and remakes that were made, and even the anime that was made based on the game………. no, seriously, someone actually made an official anime based on this game, and I have no clue why. But anyways, I figured that I was gonna have a great time with the game, seeing as I usually always do with Namco arcade classics, with the rare exception that was known as Rolling Thunder, but then, as soon as I did start playing the game, it then dawned on me that, after wanting to play this for so long, I found that Tower of Druaga…… isn’t good at all. I wouldn’t say I haaaaaaated it, as there are some admirable elements to be found here for the time that it came out, but it definitely shows its age in MANY areas, making it a frustrating experience at worst and a boring slog at least.
The story is about as typical as it gets, where the evil Druaga plans on enslaving all of mankind with the power of the mystical Blue Crystal Rod, and just to be even more of a dick, he kidnaps the fair maiden Princess Ki and seals her away in his tower, so it is up to the brave knight Gilgamesh to ascend the tower of Druaga (......wait a minute), save the princess, and retrieve the Blue Crystal Rod before it is too late, which is a simple, yet fine plot for this kind of game, and one that I can’t complain about too much, because we have a bunch of other stuff to complain about! The graphics are alright, having the typical look that Namco’s titles had back around that time, nothing too impressive but nothing too bad either, the music is decent, having some catchy little tunes to listen to while slashing through dudes, even though you will be listening to the same track for a majority of the game, and the gameplay/control is… wonky, where what you do in the game is simple, but actually trying to do that is more of a hassle than anything else.
The game is an isometric maze adventure game, where you take control of Gilgamesh, go through 60 different almost-identical floors throughout Druaga’s tower of doom, take out many different enemies as you navigate through these many different mazes, gather plenty of items to help you out on your journey, mostly just keys that will help you proceed to the next floor, and pray that you can make it all the way up to the top floor with at least some of your lives in-tact…… which will most likely never happen, let’s be real here. Given that it is an arcade game from 1984, it is extremely easy to pick up, figure out, and get to playing, which does help you get into it pretty quickly, and there are some interesting elements to it that make it that much more fun, but the way that you do all this just… doesn’t feel all that satisfying or fun to handle.
To get the positives out of the way first, I do like the way in which this game handles how you get additional items to help you out. Rather then just simply going to get the items, each floor has a specific task that you have to complete in order to get these items, such as killing a set number of enemies, going to a specific part of the maze, or even how you go about killing or fending off a specific enemy, and while the game doesn’t explicitly tell you what you need to do, the tasks themselves are simple enough (most of the time anyway) for you to figure out. Not only that, but the items that you do get can help you out tremendously throughout the game, such as boots that can make you run faster, pickaxes that can allow you to bust open walls of the mazes, and potions that can heal you or save you in a moment’s notice. Most of the items don’t make the game too much easier, but they do help you with taking on the many different situations that the game has planned out for you.
Aside from that and the presentation though, those are really all of the compliments that I can give this game, because with everything else…… woo boy. First of all, this obviously goes without saying, but the controls definitely are not the best. Your movement feels way too stiff, where your main speed is way too slow, and turning around any corner or performing any action (and by that, I mean the one action) feels way too stiff and awkward, to the point where you will probably be dead before you can do either of these things. I get it, it’s an arcade game from 1984, so stiff controls are to be expected, but if games like Pac-Man and Galaga, games made by the same company YEARS before this one, manage to still feel great and smooth to play almost 45 years later, then you have definitely screwed up here.
Secondly, attacking enemies in this game is a complete crapshoot. In most games like this, where you are an adventurer facing many dangerous threats in a medieval land, you usually have a habit of slashing your sword at foes to make quick work of them, but in The Tower of Druaga, you don’t do that. Instead, you press the button to have your character SLOWLY pull out their sword, and in order to actually attack enemies, you have to hold the button so that he keeps the sword out, and then you have to physically run into the enemies yourself. This, naturally, feels extremely awkward and unreliable to do, not only because your dinky little sword can only do so much when dealing with a million guys at once, but also because there are plenty of enemies in the game that can just straight up ignore your sword and kill you with spells and other stuff, and we all know how fun that can be.
And finally, for the last major problem of the game, we have our good old friend Arcade Game Syndrome in the studio to show us just how much of a pain in the ass he still is after all these years. This one is pretty self-explanatory, with the game getting way too hard way too fast, spawning many different enemies all around you at once, given you little chance to react to anything at all, all for the sole purpose of sucking down every single quarter you have in your pocket. This can even be seen as early as around the 10th floor, where you will have plenty of wizards teleporting all over the place, shooting spells in whatever direction they are facing, more often than not right towards you. Keep in mind, folks, there are 60 FLOORS in the whole game, so if it is getting this hard this early, then you can’t even begin to imagine what the later floors are like, except for, you know, not being fun in the slightest.
Overall, despite having some unique ideas and innovations that weren’t seen too often this early on in gaming history, this is definitely one of the worst classic arcade titles that I have ever played from Namco’s library, having a decent set-up that could make for an enjoyable time waster for a good dozen levels or so, but then it stabs itself in the foot by having stiff controls, unreliable weapons to use, and of course, the difficulty that will make you wanna bash your skull through the arcade cabinet. I would only recommend this for people to try only once, just to see if you really like it or not, because if that’s the case, then kudos to you, but just do yourself a favor and don’t try to beat the game like I did…… you will instantly regret doing so. disappointed sigh......... but hey, that was just one game in the series, and there are quite a few more to tackle, so who knows? Maybe the next game will manage to be quite the improvement over th- AAAAAAAAND it is a multiplayer-only title……….. never thought I would see one of those from 1986. Alright, hold on, I’m gonna need to make a call for this one……
Game #634.5
I have wanted to check this game out for the longest time, seeing as it is one of Namco’s arcade classics paired right alongside others like Pac-Man, Galaga, and so on, as well as all of the other things that were released in the Babylonian Castle Saga, such as the sequels and remakes that were made, and even the anime that was made based on the game………. no, seriously, someone actually made an official anime based on this game, and I have no clue why. But anyways, I figured that I was gonna have a great time with the game, seeing as I usually always do with Namco arcade classics, with the rare exception that was known as Rolling Thunder, but then, as soon as I did start playing the game, it then dawned on me that, after wanting to play this for so long, I found that Tower of Druaga…… isn’t good at all. I wouldn’t say I haaaaaaated it, as there are some admirable elements to be found here for the time that it came out, but it definitely shows its age in MANY areas, making it a frustrating experience at worst and a boring slog at least.
The story is about as typical as it gets, where the evil Druaga plans on enslaving all of mankind with the power of the mystical Blue Crystal Rod, and just to be even more of a dick, he kidnaps the fair maiden Princess Ki and seals her away in his tower, so it is up to the brave knight Gilgamesh to ascend the tower of Druaga (......wait a minute), save the princess, and retrieve the Blue Crystal Rod before it is too late, which is a simple, yet fine plot for this kind of game, and one that I can’t complain about too much, because we have a bunch of other stuff to complain about! The graphics are alright, having the typical look that Namco’s titles had back around that time, nothing too impressive but nothing too bad either, the music is decent, having some catchy little tunes to listen to while slashing through dudes, even though you will be listening to the same track for a majority of the game, and the gameplay/control is… wonky, where what you do in the game is simple, but actually trying to do that is more of a hassle than anything else.
The game is an isometric maze adventure game, where you take control of Gilgamesh, go through 60 different almost-identical floors throughout Druaga’s tower of doom, take out many different enemies as you navigate through these many different mazes, gather plenty of items to help you out on your journey, mostly just keys that will help you proceed to the next floor, and pray that you can make it all the way up to the top floor with at least some of your lives in-tact…… which will most likely never happen, let’s be real here. Given that it is an arcade game from 1984, it is extremely easy to pick up, figure out, and get to playing, which does help you get into it pretty quickly, and there are some interesting elements to it that make it that much more fun, but the way that you do all this just… doesn’t feel all that satisfying or fun to handle.
To get the positives out of the way first, I do like the way in which this game handles how you get additional items to help you out. Rather then just simply going to get the items, each floor has a specific task that you have to complete in order to get these items, such as killing a set number of enemies, going to a specific part of the maze, or even how you go about killing or fending off a specific enemy, and while the game doesn’t explicitly tell you what you need to do, the tasks themselves are simple enough (most of the time anyway) for you to figure out. Not only that, but the items that you do get can help you out tremendously throughout the game, such as boots that can make you run faster, pickaxes that can allow you to bust open walls of the mazes, and potions that can heal you or save you in a moment’s notice. Most of the items don’t make the game too much easier, but they do help you with taking on the many different situations that the game has planned out for you.
Aside from that and the presentation though, those are really all of the compliments that I can give this game, because with everything else…… woo boy. First of all, this obviously goes without saying, but the controls definitely are not the best. Your movement feels way too stiff, where your main speed is way too slow, and turning around any corner or performing any action (and by that, I mean the one action) feels way too stiff and awkward, to the point where you will probably be dead before you can do either of these things. I get it, it’s an arcade game from 1984, so stiff controls are to be expected, but if games like Pac-Man and Galaga, games made by the same company YEARS before this one, manage to still feel great and smooth to play almost 45 years later, then you have definitely screwed up here.
Secondly, attacking enemies in this game is a complete crapshoot. In most games like this, where you are an adventurer facing many dangerous threats in a medieval land, you usually have a habit of slashing your sword at foes to make quick work of them, but in The Tower of Druaga, you don’t do that. Instead, you press the button to have your character SLOWLY pull out their sword, and in order to actually attack enemies, you have to hold the button so that he keeps the sword out, and then you have to physically run into the enemies yourself. This, naturally, feels extremely awkward and unreliable to do, not only because your dinky little sword can only do so much when dealing with a million guys at once, but also because there are plenty of enemies in the game that can just straight up ignore your sword and kill you with spells and other stuff, and we all know how fun that can be.
And finally, for the last major problem of the game, we have our good old friend Arcade Game Syndrome in the studio to show us just how much of a pain in the ass he still is after all these years. This one is pretty self-explanatory, with the game getting way too hard way too fast, spawning many different enemies all around you at once, given you little chance to react to anything at all, all for the sole purpose of sucking down every single quarter you have in your pocket. This can even be seen as early as around the 10th floor, where you will have plenty of wizards teleporting all over the place, shooting spells in whatever direction they are facing, more often than not right towards you. Keep in mind, folks, there are 60 FLOORS in the whole game, so if it is getting this hard this early, then you can’t even begin to imagine what the later floors are like, except for, you know, not being fun in the slightest.
Overall, despite having some unique ideas and innovations that weren’t seen too often this early on in gaming history, this is definitely one of the worst classic arcade titles that I have ever played from Namco’s library, having a decent set-up that could make for an enjoyable time waster for a good dozen levels or so, but then it stabs itself in the foot by having stiff controls, unreliable weapons to use, and of course, the difficulty that will make you wanna bash your skull through the arcade cabinet. I would only recommend this for people to try only once, just to see if you really like it or not, because if that’s the case, then kudos to you, but just do yourself a favor and don’t try to beat the game like I did…… you will instantly regret doing so. disappointed sigh......... but hey, that was just one game in the series, and there are quite a few more to tackle, so who knows? Maybe the next game will manage to be quite the improvement over th- AAAAAAAAND it is a multiplayer-only title……….. never thought I would see one of those from 1986. Alright, hold on, I’m gonna need to make a call for this one……
Game #634.5