A Love Letter To Castlevania
Aleesha’s Tower is an action platformer that serves as a love letter to the 8-bit classics of yore. Castlevania is the most obvious inspiration for a title that challenges its players to guide a warrior through six levels, in order to confront the eponymous Allesha atop her tower.
Describing the protagonist as a warrior may seem non-descript, but that is exactly what he is, a blank slate. In fact, you can apply that to the entire narrative. A brief intro sets the scene: a young lady named Aleesha is accused of witchcraft and murdered as a result. Sometime later she is revived and enacts her revenge against mankind. It is up to our unnamed hero to climb her tower and defeat Aleesha once and for all.
Obviously, this lack of detail is very much intentional and harkens back to the early Castlevania’s, where a Belmont enters Dracula’s castle to slay the vampire, which was the only information we had. It’s nice to be thrown right into the thick of the action from the get go and this is likely to be something that will appeal to fans of the games that inspired Aleesha’s Tower. However, the 1980’s are long gone and the expectations of modern gamers are quite different to those of forty years ago.
There is no getting around it, Aleesha’s Tower is sorely lacking in regard to its storytelling. Again, I must stress that this is by design, the folks at Pixel Vs Pixel wanted a game with minimal story. Whilst I understand that decision and fully support it, I can’t help but feel that there was a healthy middle ground to be found. I am not asking for copious amounts of story, but a little goes a long way, just a few small cutscenes throughout could have helped flesh out the word our hero inhabits. How did the protagonist come to be the hero of the story? Is Aleesha actually a witch? If not, what is the cause of her demonic resurrection? These are just a few of the questions that Aleesha’s Tower never comes close to answering and that is a real shame.
Feels Like You Have A NES Controller In Your Hand
Make no mistake about it, this is a low budget affair and that can be plainly seen in its incredibly simplistic graphics. This is where Aleesha’s Tower’s adherence to the 8-bit style works to its benefit. Truthfully, it doesn’t look great, it is about as bare bones as you could imagine, but something about it just works. Would it be nice if the pixel art was as crisp and distinctive as Symphony of the Night? Sure, but it does not need to be.
From the archaic gameplay to the old-school level design, so much of Aleesha’s Tower invokes memories of the 8-bit era that the game holds in such reverence, but none more so than how it looks. Good looking graphics alone don’t make for great games. When done right, they instill a sense of verisimilitude in the player, nudging us towards a mindset that will maximise the joy we get in playing. Aleesha’s Tower’s isn’t much to look at, but it will make you feel like you have an NES controller in your hands, and in that regard, it is a smashing success.
Will Struggle To Create A Fanbase Of Its Own
Gameplay is always king, but in a title that is light on story and simplistic in looks, it becomes all the more important. Sadly, for Aleesha’s Tower, the results are something of a mixed bag. The hallmarks of the early Castlevania are well implemented here: contact damage, stiff movement and awkward jumping mechanics are faithfully recreated, the game even forces the player to use the d-pad, analog controls have no place here.
Although this will make Aleesha’s Tower feel alien to some, for lovers of the genre’s classics, it is the only way to play. No doubt, a more modernised control scheme would increase the game’s appeal to a broader audience, but how big would that audience be? I have to believe that the bulk of any potential player base would be those that already love this kind of game, Aleesha’s Tower wants to benefit from this already existing fanbase, but it almost certainly won’t be adding to it.
This brings us to what I believe is Aleesha’s Tower’s biggest pitfall – it is far too easy. Before I address the point further, let me make something clear, I am not a masochistic gamer. That is to say, that I do not enjoy a game that is virtually impossible to beat, however, some level of challenge is implicit in the makeup of Castlevania and the various off-shoots that Aleesha’s Tower pays homage to. The NES entries in the series are notorious for being Nintendo hard, which is shorthand for saying they were, in parts, infuriatingly difficult. It is extremely puzzling that a game that is so derivative of retro Castlevania – which I don’t say as a pejorative – is almost laughably easy.
The six levels are a breeze; each is divided into three sections, with the final part being a boss fight. A generous amount of hit points, simplistic enemies and checkpoints between each section, means even novice gamers will stroll to the finish line. The most challenging level is the third, which is fitting given it is the most Castlevania like of the six, but even it can be conquered with relative ease. Any potential challenge comes not from the enemies but from the level’s reliance on platforming, as long as a player is able to come to grips with the old-school mechanics they will be speeding along to level 4 and beyond in no time.
Aleesha Is No Dracula
Likewise, the boss battles are a cakewalk, the only one that offers some level of jeopardy is the final fight with Aleesha herself. However, the jeopardy is not long lasting. It is no surprise that the end resembles the Belmonts climatic duels with Dracula. Like in Castlevania, the battle is a matter of patterns, once you learn, it’s game over for Aleehsa. But unlike the Count, Aleesha has no second phase. After defeating Dracula’s humanoid form, the vampire would turn into a gigantic monstrosity and sought to smite our Belmont hero once and for all. No such thing exists in Aleesha’s Tower. Despite being by far the most challenging fight in the game, it is not quite enough, and leaves a sense of anticlimax as the tower crumbles to nothingness whilst the credits roll.
I am astounded to report that, for some reason, an easy mode exists. In this version the player is handed even more hit points and the enemies are made a tad weaker than they already are. I cannot in good conscience criticise a developer for making their game as accessible as they possibly can. If there are people out there who will make good use of Aleesha’s Tower’s easy mode then that can only be a positive thing, but I just don’t see its existence as being necessary. If Aleesha’s Tower needed anything, it was a hard mode, not one that made it even easier than it already is.
1000 Achievement Points In Half An Hour
The ease is good news for one group of players in particular – achievement hunters. Seriously, this may be the simplest set of achievements I have ever encountered. Although I have never personally been one to hunt every achievement in a game, in less than half an hour I had done exactly that. Speed is very much part of the equation here, a player should complete a playthrough in about forty minutes. I accept that sounds incredibly short but I would say that it is a perfect run time, any longer and its ease would likely incur irreversible boredom in a player.
Ultimately, Aleesha’s Tower is something to while away forty minutes whilst it reminds you of better games from long ago. It is by no means a bad game but it had the potential to be so much more. Unfortunately, it is held back, not by its meagre budget, but by design choices that render it an unremarkable time-killer.
Important Links
Can You Survive Aleesha’s Tower? – https://www.thexboxhub.com/can-you-survive-aleeshas-tower/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/aleeshas-tower/9N8VF2CDN3CH/0010
