Deadly Towers (1987, NES) by Broderbund

Current Any% Leaderboard (speedrun.com)

There are three types of games I’ve noticed so far in the trials: those that sneak up on you and are completely unfair, difficult, ugly, and/or hard to play… those that are pretty much what you expected… and those like Deadly Towers: I expected this to be an awful, horrid mess. And what I got instead was one of the biggest surprises so far in the Trials: this is a good speedrun, no bones about it.

By no means is it perfect: there’s lots of grinding, especially near the beginning. And, if you go for the friskiest WR-calibur strats, this is a very difficult game. There’s not a lot of speed tech either, but the gameplay rewards precise or skilled execution. The layout allows for excellent routing; this game rivals the best games when it comes to options for routing the run, as well as any safeties or backups along the way.

The music isn’t bad either, nor are the graphics. The controls are where this game suffers a bit: the knockback is legendary in it’s awfulness, and until you upgrade your character you move slowly, making you extremely vulnerable. This can be annoying, but if you route the game right, this is more annoying than frustrating, and you find that the latter half of this speedrun is exciting, pulse-accelerating, and fun!

I cannot believe how much I enjoyed this run. I would love to return to the towers at sometime in the future! If you are a fan of action RPG speedruns, I highly suggest you don’t look past this game!