ADG Episode 29 - Mystic Towers

Episode Originally Released: December 18th, 2010
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Who knew Apogee released a game with nudity? :D
Mind you, this is one of the extremely few games made outside of Apogee, as opposed to internally as many of their titles were.
TBH, I like the music in this game more than the gameplay, but the gameplay's not that bad considering the 3D fixed-perspective style that was used. There was this sort of fad in the mid-90s where making your game in 3D, even with a fixed perspective, somehow made it better. Really, all this did was make such games look good in screenshots as the gameplay of most of them suffered from failing to convey spatial awareness to players.
The best ones to use this type of 3D were pretty much all puzzle games, like this one! (Or sims.)
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Additional Information and Corrections:
If you want to download or purchase Mystic Towers, head on over to this page on the 3D Realms website: 3drealms.com/c...
Not quite sure if I pronounced the name of "Baron Lazarus Pedabouche" correctly. There's about a zillion different ways you could say that name. :P
"That said"... geeze, even I am sick of the phrase after hearing myself say it way too many times in this episode. :P
One thing I neglected to mention were the three special powerups. There's an invisibility powerup which makes the enemies and turrets ignore you, a shield powerup which makes you invulnerable to all forms of damage, and a meta powerup which makes your attack spells several times stronger. They don't last very long and you can generally find at least one of each in every tower.
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Pixelmusement Website: www.pixelships.com
ADG on Pixelmusement: www.pixelships....
Alphabetical Index of ADG Episodes: www.pixelships....

[@wulfman15]

I can't believe I've been watching this series for 9 years already.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Chris Groff Since the beginning then! :)

[@wulfman15]

@@Pixelmusement pretty darn close. Your system shock review brought me here, and there weren't many episodes past that at the time.

[@wardrich]

I can't believe I only found this channel like a year (if that) ago

[@harley-wp6xt]

the main theme is so kickass, im kind of surprised there hasnt been a remix.

[@WhiskeyRichard.]

You reviewed Mystic Towers? You sir have my subscription and my most reverent admiration

[@nemtudom5074]

6:24 I have been playing this game for 21 years, and i just learned i could select spells with the numbers. MAN

[@TeraunceFoaloke]

Woo! What a blast from the past 12 and a half years later.

[@Maggerama]

I wish I had the game explained to me so thoroughly in the past. But my incomprehension only played second fiddle to my fear. That's right, this game terrified me as a kid and even as a teen. A kid and a teen who played Alone in The Dark without a hitch! I still feel uneasy when I look at Mystic Towers for some reason, and it's not that I'm afraid of old people or anything.

[@wardrich]

5:35 - might remap my keys to Q E A D for movement, and use mouse controls for on-screen interaction. QEAD would also be closer to the control key. ...oh, there's a backspace key that's gonna need to be remapped too lol. Tab it is!

[@BzBlade]

Holy shit I've been trying to figure out this old game I've played a long time ago and I just happened to stumbled on this video. I didn't remember that the character was an old man but I did remembered those pickup items and a bit of those monsters

[@solarbumsfalera5316]

that game is fun as hell after you get used to the controls.

[@nemtudom5074]

5:29 Man, i miss the keyboards with the asian Big-Ass enter keys...

[@Andrew_Erickson]

Looks like an Amiga game.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Andrew Erickson Even sounds like one! Animation FX, the developers behind this game, had done some Amiga stuff prior so I wouldn't be surprised if there was an Amiga port of this game in the works but never completed. They were publishing through Apogee and Apogee primarily had DOS customers.

[@AleksandrBekhtin]

I always thought that Mystic Towers is like Apogee's answer to Bitmap Bros' Cadaver (1990).

[@Lachlant1984]

I didn't know you could get extra lives in this game, I thought the 9 lives were all you get. Yeah, the ice spell sucks.

[@gravity8120]

+Lachlant1984 I've seen part of a Let's Play of this game by Firewizard23 and I've noticed that he doesn't get an extra life every 10,000 points, which is supposed to happen...

[@thermallance7947]

I know this is an old video but thank you for this review. Back when I was a kid I couldnt wrap my head around the controls since I had never played isometric games back then. Just saw that video scrolling through your ADG series and it made me want to give it another spin. It's a pretty fun game all things considered. And quite fast paced depending on how you play. Personally I avoid monsters and blaze through. Destroy the generator. Do a sweep to kill the monsters and leave. Works for the apprentice towers so far. I wonder if whoever did that game should perhaps make a new one in this style. I'm sure it would get more success today than it did back then.

[@Pixelmusement]

+LanceTheInvader Part of the reason isometric games are rarely seen nowadays is because to REALLY take control of them... you need a diagonal D-Pad or something that can act as one. They were done early on just because anything 3D was "cool" but controlling them was always a hassle. Plus, 3D acceleration has made it just that much simpler to view and control action from whatever angle you want. :B

[@thermallance7947]

@@Pixelmusement With a mouse directly on the screen it is quite doable. Think diablo. The original game would have worked perfectly fine if you could click diretly in the direction you wanted to go. It ain't like the game asked lightning reflexes from the player. :) After all. Crusader did work an its quite a much more complicated game.

[@Pixelmusement]

+LanceTheInvader Which is a fair point, though I was mostly thinking in terms of tile-based movement. You ever try playing Diablo on the Playstation with a standard Playstation controller? It's... um... "bad"... ^_^;

[@thermallance7947]

@@Pixelmusement Why would I? With a PC with a mouse or on an android touchscreen. It could kind of work. Let's be clear that I do not want 1:1 gameplay. But keeping the spirit of the game and the isometric view. Expanding on the magic system beyond spells that are just basicly.. power levels. Have elements have an impact and give enemies specific resistances to encourage us to use different spells. But keep the core idea intact. Going from tower to tower to destroy the generators. That part I'm starting to enjoy. But each towers needs to be vastly different. With more elaborate puzzles. Make hunger and thirst a bigger issue but allow the player to carry a flash and food in their bag. So Food/Thirst can be the pressure point. The time limit. Also I am still waiting on that Star Ranger review. (won't give up :P ) Playing it right now and while it looks like a poor man's X-wing at first glance, the core of the gameplay aged quite well. Another game that would greatly benefit from a spiritual successor. The concept behind it is actually very good. And to this day it is still quite unique within space sims.

[@torgo_]

absolute banger soundtrack definitely going to load this puppy up tonight and see if i can beat it, or at least beat the apprentice towers.. a quest i've had on my to-do list for 3 decades? O_O suddenly i feel very old haha

[@Pixelmusement]

Be ready for a long haul. Even if you know exactly what to do you can expect a full run through this game to take between 6 and 9 hours, more if you're not 100% certain how to clear certain towers! :o

[@Citrusrock]

I enjoy your reviews so much, keep it going!

[@wardrich]

This game looks right up my alley! Kind of like Solstice (NES) and Equinox (SNES)

[@Pixelmusement]

Pretty sure those were the direct inspirations for this one. ;)

[@wardrich]

@@Pixelmusement probably. The art style and everything is quite similar

[@ninjacat230]

1:00 NEURON ACTIVATION: I HEARD THIS IN A DOOM WAD BEFORE

[@Pixelmusement]

Actually... I think that might've been Heretic or Hexen, not Doom. There are absolutely some common sound effects shared between many games given how many were taken from widely available sound effect archives. :B

[@ninjacat230]

@@Pixelmusement Actually, I was referring to the music. Zdoom can play MOD format music, which this game apparently uses, despite being a DOS game. (that or it's been converted) This song is used for Map02 of DUMP2.wad

[@Pixelmusement]

@@ninjacat230 Interesting... also not surprising really; People making custom content in their spare time will often pull from other games. :B

[@McQueeb]

New sub here :) LGR sent me!

[@generalgrim89]

Wow, this game really reminds me of Solstice.

[@wardrich]

Old comment (just getting around to watching the ADG backlong) but if you enjoy Solstice, there was a "sequel" for the SNES called Equinox that you might enjoy

[@jez9999]

Granddad's adventure.

[@Dino2yoyo]

Great review !!! keep up the good work!

[@Yusuke_Denton]

I love the graphics style of this and similar looking games. I have to disagree with your assessment of "3D fixed-perspective", though I do prefer a 45 degree or higher angle.

[@wardrich]

I find a lot of 3D-isometric games are hurt by awkward controls because of the diagonal aspect to it all.

[@ChaosPootato]

I couldn't stand this game as a child, I thought Baldric was the creepiest thing ever xD

[@Pixelmusement]

+ChaosPotato Pretty sure that's what they were going for with the design given the random nudity in a couple of the later parts of this game. :P

[@Duvmasta]

It’s “straight forward” not “straight forwards”