TowerFall Ascension

Playing TowerFall Ascension by yourself is like kicking a football against a wall. It's fun, it can be a distraction to while away an hour or two, but at the end of the day it's just practice for when your friends come over and you play a game together.

And so it is with the single player modes that adorn TowerFall. They're there, they're appreciated, but they're a sideshow at best. The real joy is in the four-player battles that take place on the game's single-screen arenas, with pixelated characters darting between ledges, stomping on each other's heads and pinning each other to walls with well placed arrow shots.

The best thing about Towerfall - or perhaps our favourite thing - is the bow and arrow. They're a feature that's enjoyed a bit of renaissance in recent years, with Crysis 3, Tomb Raider and Far Cry 3 among the more notable games that have modern/futuristic settings but have embraced the weapon, and of course there's plenty of fantasy and historically themed games that use them too.

Towerfall falls into that latter bracket, with a fantasy setting decorated in lush 8-bit graphics. Four different characters, colour-coded but ultimately the same, shoot their bows at each other as well as taking down ghouls and demons. The bow is central to nearly all of the action, and mastering it is no mean feat. Arrows drop when fired, trajectory ever dipping as the projectile moves further away; this isn't gunplay, but something more organic and exploitable.

The game is at its absolute best when there's four players in the mix. Each character starts in their own corner of the map, and then hops between ledges as they look to take out their opponents. There are open doorways on all four sides of the arena, and passing through - either by walking left to right/right to left, or by jumping down - brings you to the other side of the screen, a move that can be used tactically for both escaping an attack and flanking an otherwise engaged enemy for a cheeky attack from the rear.

The arenas themselves are beautifully realised and wonderfully simple. There's a nice amount of variation between the different stages, and the decorations are eye catching. It's pixelated craftsmanship of the highest order, and proof positive that sometimes less can be more. Another example of the "less is more" mantra comes in the allocation of arrows - each player starts each round with just three, so if you miss your shots you have to either pick up your misfired arrows, hoover up those of your opponents, or simply stomp on the heads of your enemies in lieu of a means of shooting them.

There's chests that appear in the different stages, and getting to these first can make all the difference. There's power-ups such as wings, shields and invisibility to give you a tactical edge, and different arrow tips will change how you approach your opponents (for example, you can fire through scenery with the drill-tipped arrows, or blow up multiple enemies with the bomb-tipped arrows).

Controls are strikingly simple, but at the same time there's a subtlety to them that only becomes apparent after a few hours of play. Characters move, jump and shoot, and there's a dash button that, when employed at the right moment, can protect you from incoming attacks, allowing you to catch an arrow and fire it back at your opponent. The dash/block can be utilised mid-jump allowing for a decent range of aerial movement, you can also use wall jumps to ascend, and there's plenty of ledges to catch as you're jumping/falling between platforms.

With four players on screen together the results are nothing short of mayhem. Rivalries will develop in double quick time, with perceived injustices needing to be punished, and revenge always on the agenda. It's the kind of game that can ruin a perfectly good friendship in seconds, but in a good way. There's a multitude of tricks that can be employed, and sometimes good old fashioned luck rears its head and crowns a champion. Sometimes it comes down to supreme skills, other times a flukey shot, but it's always entertaining (and can be enjoyed afterwards thanks to the replay at the end of each match).

The action itself is actually very variable, thanks to a robust collection of modifiers and adjustable settings. The direction and tone of a game can be changed thanks to offering different power-ups and starting arrows, randomised settings, removing auto-balancing and much more. You can also change the win conditions, so players have to win individual rounds by killing everyone, or get points-per-kill. The range of options is really very impressive, and should keep extended multiplayer sessions interesting for the duration.

There's also the single-player modes that we mentioned at the very start. They'll not be the main draw for anyone, but we appreciated their inclusion nonetheless. There's a series of trials so you can get to grips with the game's more nuanced controls, as well as trying out the different arrows in a safe environment. There's also a Quest mode (that's actually for up to two people playing co-operatively) where you're up against waves of increasingly challenging enemies, shooting them with your limited supply of arrows and trying desperately to dodge their attacks. The challenge quickly ramps, but it's solid practice for anyone wanting to brush up on their skills ahead of the arrival of some friends and an impending multiplayer session.

The game was originally an exclusive for Ouya, and although it's a loss for that platform to see it land on both PlayStation 4 and PC, we're really pleased that it'll now be exposed to the audience that it deserves, because it's an absolutely fantastic party game and a devilish multiplayer platformer. We reviewed the PlayStation 4 version and it works really well on the big screen, and the vibrations and sound effects coming from the DualShock 4 controllers really add something to the experience. If you've got the option, that's the way we'd recommend you play (although you will have to fork out for additional controllers - or find a friend with a couple spare).

Overall TowerFall Ascension is very easy to recommend. This new version includes new content, a co-op campaign, unlockable characters and new arenas to play in. There's single player distractions if you need them, but at the heart of it sits a fantastic local multiplayer shooter. While it's true that there's no online component, it doesn't matter as it's an experience best served locally, with combatants sat together in the same room. There's no way of knowing for sure, but we reckon the experience wouldn't translate as well to the online space, and as such we didn't mind its omission.

If you've got friends (who live nearby) and you're happy to make enemies of them, make sure you download this one as soon as possible and invite them over for a round or twenty.

TowerFall Ascension is available on Steam and PS4's PSN Store now, priced at £11.99.