Tower Up is by EntwicklerX, a two man team from Germany, who are known for bare bones, dry takes on established formulas. Take Bubble Shooter FX, which did bust-a-move with absolutely no charm whatsoever. It was functional, yes, but charmless. Even the game of theirs I gave a Must Play to, Word Mesh, was graphically pedestrian and boring. But the game play more than made up for it. Tower Up takes the opposite approach, takes the dry Stack Tower and adds a bit of charm to the formula. Instead of 3d isometric, we get flat 2D towers with little people inside. Observe:
The game play in Tower Up is exactly the same as Stack Tower, however. I would expect nothing less from the developers, this is EntwicklerX, after all. You are building a tower. If you miss, whatever part of the block misses falls away, making the blocks you drop smaller. However, they did add a twist. This time, you earn coins, which you can spend to make the blocks bigger, or you start twenty floors up. That can help a lot. The graphics don’t play a role in game play, though eventually you’ll end up in outer space, though I never got there.
I know some developers read my reviews, the question if they take them to heart. I don’t know if EntwicklerX read my earlier reviews of their work, but the change in Tower Up from charmless to charming is a nice one. They also attempted to add to the the formula, which is great too. Tower Up will get a Recommended because its a better version of stack tower, believe it or not. Hopefully Entwicklerx this trend continues into the future!
Overall: Tower Up is cutesy version of Stack Tower by EntwicklerX that adds to the formula, instead of straight copying it.
Verdict: Recommended
| Platform | Nintendo Switch |
| Release Date | 6/29/23 |
| Cost | $2.99 |
| Publisher | EntwicklerX |
| ESRB Rating | E |
