Towerfall Ascension

"TowerFall Ascension is an archery platform and should at best be played with friends - cross- legged on the floor and also within a slap from the face ." That is what TowerFall Ascension developer Matt Thorson advises on his website.

So the author of these lines grabbed two willing buddies, planted them on the couch and connected the PC to the television. So much to be said: The trio (hereinafter referred to as M., P. and A.) had a darn fun afternoon.

Every beginning is easy

1:30 p.m .: We start Versus mode first. It is the heart of TowerFall Ascension and offers the three variants Team Deathmatch, Last Man Standing (games won count) and Headhunters (every kill counts). Schlaumeier P. wants to know in advance how the game works, but a detailed explanation is not necessary. TowerFall, as we say in Austria, is easy to learn.

As an archery pixel male you are thrown into equally pixelated platforming arenas and have to take the competition around the corner. Basically, you can run, hop, shoot arrows and put down a brisk dodge. You can die either with an arrow, or if the other player jumps on the head. That's it in terms of the basic principle - TowerFall Ascension gets out of this simple premise with lots of little tricks and subtleties, however, a lot of depth of play.

1:31 p.m .: P. learns the hard way that his pixel shooter has only a few arrows in his quiver and that you should aim well firstly and secondly keep smart. After peppering three storeys in the continuous fire over A., he nailed him to the wall with a single shot. This is followed by a description of what has just been experienced and the realization that a frontal attack may not be the smartest approach.

TowerFall Ascension looks chaotic, but should be played carefully and cleverly. If you want to win, you have to trick and deceive to land the perfect shot or plunge.

The comedy of tragedy

1:40 p.m .: P. notes that you can even pick arrows out of the air with an alternative dodge and send them back to the sender immediately - nasty, elegant and very effective. M. gets a lesson in gravity for beginners. When he shoots an arrow straight up, it clearly comes back and catches the stupid gawking M. With loud laughter, he can watch this shameful death again - after each round there is a short replay of the last few seconds in the match.

A., on the other hand, feels that everything that flies out of the arenas on the left, right, up or down comes in again on the other side. So also the arrow that flutters in his back. The words with which he thanks the clever M. for that are not nice.

1:45 p.m .: Hard fights always unfold around treasure chests, because they contain valuable power-ups, such as a practical shield or useful wings) and various special arrows. There is, for example, the drill arrow, which P. the valuable A. then drills from below through a platform into the most valuable. Or bomb arrows that flatten an entire area - unfortunately also the shooter himself, as M. immediately discovers when he lands after a jump exactly where he sank the explosive arrow a second ago into the puzzled P.

Insults, swear words and roaring laughter signal even our neighbors that we are having a good time.

Sense and nonsense at will

3:15 p.m .: Unanimous enthusiasm for the numerous mutators! This can be used to make serious changes to the games. More treasure chests, special arrows as starting equipment for everyone, but also funny nonsense like big heads or exploding corpses spice up the matches. For example, a game in which the trio tries out so-called toy arrows, which do not cause any damage, but a cute squeaking sound.

This makes TowerFall Ascension, for example, a stamp orgy that looks a bit like a competitive variant of Super Mario. Thanks to dozens of options, countless combinations can be tinkered and conveniently saved as a preset.

4:30 pm: Even after three hours and dozens of matches, the Versus mode is a blast. Above all, it is the countless details and details that make every game pleasantly varied. Every tiny little game element can be the trigger for crazy situations. Be it when A. collects a power-up that slows down the time, when P. cleverly blows up crumbling walls to have a free field of fire or when M. ducks in a corner and becomes almost invisible - even after tens of games to discover clever tricks.

At the same time, TowerFall Ascension remains fair and comprehensible thanks to precise controls (from practical experience at best via gamepad) and child's play mechanics. Which is great, because thanks to the said replays you can practically rub your own superiority under the nose of unbelieving fellow players.

Couple on a big quest

6:00 p.m .: The trio has now shrunk to a duo and is now venturing into quest mode. It hasn't existed at OUYA yet and it is basically a horde variant in which you can do ever more crispy monster waves alone or in pairs. The assortment of enemies is quite clear, but the boys have it as big as a fist. Even standard enemies avoid our arrows surprisingly elegantly and jump into our faces with astonishing precision. A winged journeyman, nicknamed Death Angel by M. and A., kills the two brave Wilhelm Tells in a chord, for example.

The damned imp flutters around the level and can block arrows with a mean hurricane attack. And because Friendly Fire is also activated in Quest mode, such an arrow can cheat on the other player, which in turn leads to fierce discussions about the mental state of the co-op partner in our test round.

6:55 pm: But it gets even harder: enemy archers pick arrows from the air with pinpoint accuracy and persistently chase players across the entire arena. The final obligatory boss fight is a tough one too, and if you haven't had a death rate as high as that of Dark Souls 2 in the statistics, you can tackle the handful of levels again in the hardcore version.

Although professionals are sure to be through in one afternoon, there is hardly any slack or intrusive repetition work and you can also unlock new arenas, mutators and game characters in the classic way. However, the latter only differ optically.

Alone in the Jammer Valley

9:00 p.m .: M. is finally alone with TowerFall Ascension. He tries a little more on the quest mode, which is solo but a bit too difficult and frustrating for him. Even the nice trials (small dexterity tests against dummy dolls on time) are only entertaining. There is still time for reflections on graphics, sound and atmosphere. The pixel look is of course a matter of taste but stylish and functional. Even if the overview is sometimes flute, it is so deliberately intended and entertaining in an insidious way.

The music supports the retro flair, but does not stick to the ear canal for hours. The sound effects alone, such as the sad "beep" in the event of a player's death, are recognizable and trigger something like emotions (be it anger or euphoria). And then there is the keyboard control, which with its fixed and (purely subjective) completely impracticable standard assignment almost requires access to the gamepad. A malus that should be remedied as quickly as possible.

10:00 p.m .: M. throws in the towel, because alone the whole thing is simply pointless. There is no online multiplayer and so in the well-intentioned solo versions there is always the depressing certainty that TowerFall Ascension would be a thousand times more fun with a few players in the face.

Matt Thorson is absolutely right with his advice. TowerFall Ascension should be played in pairs, thirds or fourths (the slap range is not mandatory, but should be recommended as a free program). Then the thing is a stunner. However, the attempt to bring solo players with quest and trial mode on board has not been successful.