Chapter One: Introduction
I received a free, early access copy of this game from the developer. They wrote,
Lufia takes on the challenge of the mysterious tower on the outskirts of the imperial capital…the Tower of Boin.
The “Tower of Boin” sounds an awful lot like “Tower of Groin”. . . was that intentional? Wait, I bet it’s meant to sound like “Tower of Boing”. In any case, it’s win-win — I’ll take groin or boing any day!
After reviewing my footage I found out the tower is called “the Tower of Boing” in-game. . . but that’s not what’s on the title screen. Did Nenokuni Studio pay someone to draw the wrong title screen?
Chapter Two: Gameplay (3/5★)
Section One: Overview
Tasked with climbing a tower, players are tasked with guiding Lufia up a tower by jumping from platform to platform. But the journey to the top is treacherous — along the way are an assortment of enemies eager to have their way with Lufia’s bare, oversized chest.
If I was one of her guards watching from below, I’d be rooting for the enemy team!
Section Two: Combat
Lufia can defeat enemies by jumping on them — or crushing them with her oversized breasts! Combat in this game is choosing the right attack and leveraging the air Lufia gains whenever she kills an enemy.
In the following image, Lufia breast presses an unsuspecting slime.
Section Three: Balance
The length of each playthrough depends wholly on the difficulty setting chosen; FLAT, NORMAL, CHEBS, BUSTY and finally, INFINITY (an endless mode). Regardless of difficulty, Tower of Boin is a cake walk.
Lufia can afford to take several hits before dying, and health pick-ups are regular drops. The real danger is falling off the Tower of Boin (resulting in instant death).
In the following image I restock lost hit points with one of many health pick-ups.
Section Four: Controls
Tower of Boin offers toggleable keyboard and gamepad control schemes. I didn’t test the gamepad controls, but I found the arrow and spacebar controls to be sufficient. But I still wish keys could be rebound; that laptop I used to play this game has miniature arrow keys that aren’t as comfortable to use as WASD controls.
It’s a little frustrating Lufia doesn’t react to left and right movement when she’s on the ground. It makes sense mechanically speaking, but I wish she would have some reaction to indicate my keys aren’t broken.
Chapter Three: Sexual Content (4/5★)
Section One: Content
There are five unlockable sex-scenes that show Lufia being violated by a denizen of the Tower. Her orifices are subjected to the whims of a slime, tentacles, a goblin, an overgrown toad, and a mimic.
Section Two: Implementation
Taking lethal damage from an enemy will play a sexual scene as a “game over”. After completing the game, all sex-scenes are unlocked for viewing in the “Gallery”.
I’m surprised no “grapple” mechanic exists in the game to punish misguided attacks.
Section Three: Interactivity
Sex scenes are linear with skippable dialogue.
Section Four: Quality
The art, animation and dialogue are a wonderfully done. Lufia’s face hits hard and her over-sized breasts will get you hard — or wet (for all of you wombabes reading this article).
It’s a shame the sex-scenes are so short-lived. If you’re not careful, it’s easy to skip to the end.
Chapter Four: Story (3/5★)
Section One: Overview
Imperial Knight Lufia climbs a mysterious tower to undo a sinister spell. The women of Imperial City have grown several breast sizes, rendering them unable to cover up — let alone walk!
Section Two: Plot
On the Steam Store page, Nenokuni Studio writes,
“It is the year 833 of the Imperial Era. A mysterious wave emanates from a mysterious tower that suddenly appears on the outskirts of the Imperial City. All of the women who were affected by the wave were all transformed into big breasted beauties while the men watch in awe.”
I like this “plot”.
“However, this phenomenon also brought about various disasters at the same time. Because of the sudden increase in her breasts, Lufia is unable to wear armor and unable to keep her footing. The female elf knight went to a mysterious tower on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital to solve the case…”
Hang on, I don’t think I’d call a “sudden increase in . . . breasts” a “disaster”!
“She takes on the challenge of the mysterious tower on the outskirts of the imperial capital…the Tower of Boin.”
If you’re interested in recapping the plot, have a look at the following Star Wars throwback.
Section Three: Characters
Lufia is (arguably) the protagonist. Thanks to the Tower of Boin, she has “a bit of trouble walking with [her] chest”. So much so, she can’t walk — only jump and bounce (with her chest!)
Her mission is to protect “the world’s flat chests”.
On the other end of the spectrum is the “evil big titty mafia” led by Marjoram. It’s unclear why she wants to abolish flat chests, but I salute any effort that gets women topless. I can’t help but wonder if Marjoram considered the uh, the “smaller” female population that’s usually associated with flat chests.
Section Three: Writing
I have to admit, I’d impressed by how much story this game has! Tower of Boin proves no matter how simple your gameplay is, you can raise the stakes and humanize the cast with some creative writing.
The dialogue is a little off though. It’s clear the English wasn’t written by a native speaker, but I didn’t have any issues following along the story.
Chapter Five: Sound (5/5★)
Section One: Soundtrack
Tower of Boin has fun selection of retro, fantasy-themed tracks that suits whatever’s happening on screen. From choosing a difficulty setting, to climbing the tower or plummeting to your death, the music is excellent.
I’m impressed by how many tracks this game has in spite of how little playtime it has to offer.
Section Two: Sound Effects
Whether you’re navigating the user-interface or smashing slimes (or eh, getting smashed), the throwback sound effects are both confirming and fun. No part of gameplay is awkwardly quiet.
Chapter Six: Visuals (4/5★)
Section One: Title Screen
The title screen is nicely composed, although it does highlight an aesthetic discrepancy; while most of the game is hand-drawn pixel art, the tower itself is a 3D model.
The main-menu is bright, colorful and no sweat to navigate. Though a little grotesque, I enjoy the creativity of the letter “B” as a pair of disembodied breasts.
Section Two: User Configuration
From the “Option” menu, players may adjust audio, control and language preferences. Unfortunately, there are no display settings. I used “ALT” and “ENTER” to full-screen my game.
Section Two: Navigation
At one point, I accidently toggled my controls and struggled to regain control of the application. I appreciate full keyboard control, but the application needs partial mouse control for user accessibility.
Shown below is the aforementioned “Option” menu.
Section Two: Graphics
I adore the sprites and animation in this game! The 3D tower is a jarring sight during cut-scenes, but it looks great once the game begins. Lufia and her foes are all adorable — Nenokuni Studio hit the nail on the head animating big breasted foes and silly little monsters to stomp on.
Chapter Seven: Verdict (4/5★)
Tower of Boin is a delightful little game ideal for gamers on the go (or on the crapper). I beat the game in less than ten minutes on “Normal” difficulty. Higher difficulty settings offer longer sessions, but Tower of Boin doesn’t have any sort of “check points” or save system. Every playthrough is all or nothing — the only record of your efforts will be a Twitter post, if you so choose to share your score with your followers.
If you’re looking for a light hearted quickie, Tower of Boin might make your groin go “boing”!
Performance
I found Tower of Boin to be a well optimized game. My system ran quite cool for a Unity-based game, although I wish the application would pause when unfocused. While writing this article, it was annoying hearing Tower of Boin music blaring in the background, eating away at system resources.
System Specifications
I installed this software on a Windows 10 machine with an Intel Core i7-8750H CPU, and an RTX 2060 GPU and sixteen gigabytes of RAM. The software was installed onto a preinstalled HDD (manufacturer unknown).
