Game: Tower of Babel – no mercy
Genre: Party, Action, Arcade, Multiplayer
System: Nintendo Switch
Developer/Publisher: DNA Studios
Age Rating: EU 3+| US E
Price: US $9.99|CA $12.59|AU$ 13.49| £8.99 | €9,99
Release Date: 21st February 2020
To Hyperbole, Or Not To Hyperbole
“This is the most fun I’ve had in my whole life.” -said my friend as we were playing Tower of Babel – no mercy.
And while he may have been using a bit of hyperbole, even so, he wasn’t being sarcastic or facetious or flippant.
Tower of Babel – no mercy is one of the most fun party games I have ever had the pleasure to play.
Press A To Play
This game could not be more simple. Literally. The game has a piece of a tower swinging back and forth from a rope, and all you have to do is hit A to drop it.
That. Is. It.
I honestly think that’s what is so addictive about this game; it’s simplicity means that anyone can pick it up at any time and enjoy it. No tutorials, no hand-holding, just simply “Press A to play”.
You might be thinking to yourself: “Well, how can anyone have fun with something so simple? Where’s the challenge then?”
Tower of Babel – no mercy balances the perfect amount of competition and challenge, as well as simplicity and fun to make this one of the best, most well-rounded party games I’ve ever played!
It had me and my friends shouting at each other, laughing, jumping out of our seats to stomp on the ground like wee children in a temper tantrum. When a game can do that, you’ve created a winner.
The Challenge
So the challenge to this game is to land your particular tower-block on your turn perfectly onto the previous block.
Makes sense right? You want to build a nice straight tower; if the tower is not straight, or if you mess up your drop, it’s going over!
And this game is like Jenga: whoever makes the tower fall is the one who loses the round (even if you’re winning in points!)
If you manage to land your block perfectly on top of the previous block you will get a satisfying little chime and the word “perfect” will pop up…
… and come on, who doesn’t like to be told that they’re perfect, amirite?!
This is where the fun comes in. Every perfect you get adds a special move to your arsenal you can use to mess with your friends.
Modes And Specials
There are three modes:
Co-op: you, and up to three other people, work together to build a beautiful tower for as long and as high as you can!
Selfish: you, and up to three friends, compete to build one tower. You each take turns dropping your respective character’s blocks, trying to make it perfect, but also mess up your friends and make them be the one to make the tower topple.
Battle: you, and up to three friends, choose teams and compete to build two separate towers. It’s like co-op mixed with selfish in a way! First team to topple the tower loses.
In co-op mode, your not going to be using your special moves. You’re all trying to reach the same goal, so it doesn’t make sense to mess your teammates up. But in the other two modes, every time you achieve a perfect drop, you get a special ability. In Battle mode, they are used automatically; in Selfish mode, you simply hit the L or R button to activate your ability on whichever player you choose.
The abilities are SO much fun. There’s strong winds, stealing the player’s turn, bombs to blow their block up if they take too long to drop it; as well, every character has a special move, and once you manage to get three perfects you can use your special ability.
For example: I played a lot of the character Mr. Z, and his special ability was to make the player’s swinging block vanish in and out of visibility until they drop it.
Fun Factor
This game is SOOOOO much fun, and bloody addictive. I just spent a Sunday game day with my friends, and we played this game for a bit, then we went on to some board games, but then we came back to this later in the evening (around 7pm); then all of a sudden my friend checks his phone and is like “Oh man, I have to go home.”
It was already ten o’clock!
That’s when you know you’ve got a good game on your hands; when you lose track of time so hard you realize you have work in the morning and have to go to bed ASAP!
Another really fun thing about this game is the music.
There’s a different song for each of the modes, all of them catchy and fun. I particularly liked the Battle mode music which has this tribal sounding chanting kind of thing going on that really gets the blood pumping.
What I, and my friends, really loved though is whenever you use the wind special move, the little people inside of each of your building blocks just fly right out of the block and off the edge, and they have this cute little scream as they fall.
Man, it sounds morbid when I write it out like that… but it is funny and kinda cute, and it just added that little extra bit of spice to the game that is like the sprinkles on top of the honey vanilla tea latte!
Final Verdict
If you like party games, and you have friends whom you frequently game with (board, tabletop, video, any kind of game) I can’t recommend this game enough. You want to get a loved one into playing video games with you, this game is going to be one of the best and easiest ways to do that!
It’s mesmerizing (maybe it’s that back and forth pendulum movement of the block, but I found my eyes GLUED to the screen while I played… and I LOVED it).
It’s cute. It’s challenging. It sounds great. It’s simple and easy to pick up. It’s basically everything you want in a party game.
It’ll satisfy your hardcore gamer friends, as well as your friends who’ve never touched a controller in their whole lives and are actually a bit afraid of them. ( I just googled it, and I found out that it’s called Ludectrophobia. The fear of video games is Ludectrophobia.)
So… Get. This. Game. PERIOD! It’s worth the low-low-super-affordable price. There’s even a discount if you pre-order it. Don’t miss this one!
Final Verdict: I love it, Two Thumbs Up!
Thanks and loves from the devs <3
You’re welcome!