Volcano Tower begins with your hero impressively grabbing the golden statue, seemingly succeeding in his adventure. Except, oh wait, no… you’re going to die.
Gigantic rocks will begin plummeting down along 7 parts of the limited playing area, intent on crushing you. You need to jump around and avoid the blocks as they fall, grabbing falling coins as they float downwards.
From that immediate description, the gameplay is obviously very simplistic. See a rock, jump to a different block, easy right?[sc name=”quote” text=”From that immediate description, the gameplay is obviously very simplistic. See a rock, jump to a different block, easy right?.”]
However, Volcano Tower seems to have procedural patterns within the rock fall placements that means you’ll be finding yourself jumping and running to a distinct pattern.
Instead of just the odd random rock, you’ll find a cascading row of rocks from left to right, then right to left – or instead, three repetitive rows of rocks, each with a single gap you need to jump to.
Combined with the continuous cycle of coins falling around you – which can be used in the shop between levels so as to buy more ways to survive – you’ll find yourself struggling to keep your head above the water.
That idiom actually has a rather accurate link to Volcano Tower, as each layer of rocks that cascade down form the new layer of ground, building up constantly like a Tetris game with no way to remove the blocks, forcing you to constantly be on the move and reposition yourself whenever you can.
This combination of fast movement with the need to acquire coins means that you are never actually free to breathe. This is actually a good thing – in some games it can be frustrating if you don’t get a moment to pause and consider life around you, but in Volcano Tower’s case, it makes the whole experience much stronger.
Were you able to literally do nothing for a moment, you’d quickly realize there is nothing to Volcano Tower other than this jumping mechanism, so it’s a good thing it keeps you occupied.
Luckily, there is some variety of obstacles beyond that of the simple rocks. Once you start to survive for a bit longer than the initial few seconds at the start, very angry fire-rocks will drop that will randomly belch out fire above them, forcing you to have to avoid using them as a platform.
You might start to feel a bit betrayed by the game at this point – everything wants to kill you, even the very floor. That’s okay, it’s bound to happen.[sc name=”quote” text=”You might start to feel a bit betrayed by the game at this point – everything wants to kill you, even the very floor. That’s okay, it’s bound to happen.”]
Items in the shop can be used to give you a bit more of a jump, a bit stronger on defense or increase the chance for special power-ups to drop down and keep you alive a bit more.
Whether you choose to upgrade using the shop or not, Volcano Tower remains a decently interesting platformer with a good quality of engaging platforming gameplay, along with the requisite nail-biting as to whether you can actually survive or not.
[review pros=”The limited variety of falling rocks can provide some decent variance of gameplay. The blend of currency and rocks provides a good feeling of constant pace.” cons=”There isn’t really much beyond jumping around a bit.” score=7]
[appbox appstore id1350250773]
