Deadly Towers

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Deadly Towers

Developer(s)	Lenar
Publisher(s)	Brøderbund Software, Inc.
Platform(s)	NES
Release date	^JP December 15, 1986 ^NA September 1987
Genre(s)	Action-Adventure, Role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	n/a
Media	1-megabit cartridge
Input methods	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, which involved entering different areas with no clear reason why, as the entrances are invisible.

In Japan, Deadly Towers was titled Mashō (魔鐘), literally meaning "Evil Bell". It is a pun of the word mashō (魔性), meaning "devilishness." Fittingly, the original title outside the Japanese market was to have been "Hell's Bells," but according to the game's producer, Nintendo of America ordered the name changed.^[1]

1 Plot
2 References
3 Sources
4 External links

[edit] Plot

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). These hidden (although statically placed, always in the same spot) entrances have a horrendous tendency to trap players in nearly inescapable dungeon mazes filled with creatures too powerful for the player to defeat.

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. Even at maximum power, defeating these 2 bosses alone is extremely difficult, and this is immediately followed up with the final confrontation, itself just as hard.