Drop Wizard Tower

ADDICTIVE ARCADE ACTION. Free with IAP | www.nitrome.com

WITH CLASSIC 8-BIT styling, chiptune music and retro cutscenes and menus, the latest platformer from developer Nitrome stays admirably true to its characteristic aesthetic and offers up a new type of challenge for lovers of the arcade. Drop Wizard Tower (a pseudo sequel to the slightly less tower-esque Drop

Wizard) sees you playing as a wizard who must climb a tower in order to reach a mystical egg and defeat the dark order... or something. With easy-to-learn, hard-to-master gameplay, you’ll ascend through each semi-randomised level of the tower by stomping all the enemies.

You’re only given a left and right control to steer the direction of your auto-walking, and each time you drop off a platform, you’ll fire a magical spell in the direction that you face, stunning enemies so you can proceed to biff them. This is a very simple mechanic, but it takes a while to adjust to the foresight this requires — it may not be worth steamrolling that dazed enemy on the ground floor if it means you’ll then drop directly onto an angry bat when you return to the top of the screen.

There’s a levelling system and an array of bonuses as you climb, but you’ll need to start again fresh if you lose all four lives. The only thing that remains permanently unlocked is your cast of playable wizards, purchased with collectible diamonds. A quick bite-sized challenge.