Deadly Towers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Deadly Towers | |
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| Developer(s) | Lenar |
| Publisher(s) | Brøderbund Software, Inc. |
| Release date(s) | JPN December 15, 1986 NA September, 1987 |
| Genre(s) | Action-adventure game, Role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | NES |
| Media | 1-megabit cartridge |
| Input | Gamepad |
Deadly Towers is a video game developed by Lenar and exclusively-licensed by Irem as a software title for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was released in Japan on December 15, 1986, and in the United States in September of the following year. One of the earliest published titles for the NES in America, Deadly Towers proved to be markedly unpopular, largely due to the high learning curve and high difficulty level when starting the game. Many players found the gameplay extremely frustrating.
In Japan, Deadly Towers was titled Mashō (魔鐘), literally meaning "Evil Bells". It is a pun of the word mashō (魔性), meaning "devilishness."
[edit] Storyline
On the moonlit eve of his coronation ceremony, pensive Prince Myer sits at the lakeside to ponder the future of the kingdom. Suddenly, a shadowy kami called Khan rises from the lake and coalesces into the form of a man. Although he doesn't identify himself, the figure greets Prince Myer by name, and informs him that the wizard Rubas, the "Devil of Darkness", is preparing to overtake Willner Kingdom by using seven magic bells capable of summoning an army of monsters.
To ensure peace, Prince Myer must travel to the northern mountain to burn the Seven Bells in the sacred flame; to burn down the seven bell towers in Rubas' magic palace; and, ultimately, to defeat Rubas himself.
When Rubas rang the bells, the resonance altered spacetime in parts of his palace. In Deadly Towers, the distortions function as invisible gateways to secret rooms and dungeons. The Seven Towers also contain invisible gateways to a parallel universe (called Parallel Zone in the English language version of the game).
Each of the Seven Bells is guarded by a (usually zoomorphic) flying devil (known as yokai in the Japanese language version):
- Great Wing (owl)
- Wheeler (blue flaming demon)
- Centipede (centipede)
- Great Burn (red-orange flaming demon)
- Death Bear (horned bear)
- Cold Killer (winged gorilla)
- Beat Plant (green, furry, apple-shaped plant)
Additionally, two anonymous, flying minibosses precede Rubas (the final boss): a Chinese dragon and a pair of horned fu dog heads.
[edit] Sources
- Deadly Towers Instruction Manual. Broderbund, 1986.
[edit] External links
- Deadly Towers at MobyGames
- Deadly Towers at GameFAQs
- Redwolf. "Secret Deadly Towers Maps Revealed!" Vintage Computing and Gaming. 11 January, 2006.
- Features rough, hand-drawn maps of the Deadly Towers dungeons
- Seanbaby's review of Deadly Towers (which claims that Deadly Towers is the worst NES game ever produced)
- How to Make a Sprite Comic in 8 Easy Bits, a webcomic which includes Myer as a character in a fashion similar to Who Framed Roger Rabbit: his promising career was ruined by Deadly Towers, and he has struggled for over fifteen years to escape the stigma it brought him.
