Most video game worlds take place on horizontal planes and are usually filled with many features, depending on the game type. For example, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has an expansive open world to explore, encompassing various landmasses, cities, and even cliffs to climb. It's not exactly a vertical world, even with the climbing aspect.
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For anyone looking for a set of niche games centered around the idea of either climbing or descending a vertical space, these are the ones to check out. They include everything from platformers to action RPGs to roguelikes, and can be played on a multitude of consoles. So prepare to get lost in these dizzying heights.
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Donkey Kong Banana
Go through the sublayers
Donkey Kong Banana is one of the latest examples of a game set in a vertical world, albeit the opposite of the norm. As Donkey Kong, together with Pauline, players will have to cross each substratum, solve some problems and then they can dive deeper and sink further and further into the core of the planet.
What awaits them at the bottom? It is well worth the trip. Surprises aside, the destructibility of the environment is addictive, and in each layer DK can climb up tall structures or hills, adding to the vertical nature of the exploration.
Persona 3 Reload
Ascending terminus
Persona 3 Reloada remake of the original PS2 game, is about a group of teenagers who possess supernatural powers to survive a hidden hour when everyone else is asleep in Japan.
At this point, their school turns into a huge tower called Tartarus, and in each major chapter of the game, players must get to the base floor of each section, fight a boss, and then the story can continue. The floors are randomized with monsters and loot, similar to a roguelike, while the battles are turn-based. Everything is inside, so there is no physical climbing involved within Tartarus.
Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
Travel across Bionis And Mechonis
Xenoblade Chroniclesthe first game in Xenoblade series, has one of the coolest ideas for a setting. Humanity is fighting an all-out war with robots, and each side lives on the backs of one of two titans that stopped moving long ago: Bionis and Mechonis.
To stop the war, players will start in Bionis, ascend its body, and then cross over to Mechonis and descend into its depths. Combat is akin to an MMO, and players have a huge open world to explore between these titans, with the Switch remaster, Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Editionserves as the next way to experience the game.
Etrian Odyssey 2: Heroes Of Lagaard
Enters Yggdrasil's tribe
Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard
- Released
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February 21, 2008
Etrian Odyssey 2: Heroes of Lagaard is a challenging turn-based RPG that allows players to create their class-based party from melee fighters to magic users. The game is themed around the tree of life, Yggdrasil, where there is a labyrinth that starts at the base city, and players must climb to the top and reach a mythical castle.
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Dungeon exploration is in first-person, and players must map the area themselves from resource locations to hidden paths. It's definitely one of the hardest entries in the series, which was lightened up a bit for the 2023 remaster.
Kid Icarus
Pit's Challenge
Kid Icarus was released after Metroid on the NES, but the same year in Japan. Both games have similar game mechanics, with Kid Icarus have more verticality to their design. Pit, the hero, had a bit more flexibility than Samus from Metroid because he had wings.
Armed with a bow at first, players could obtain various power-ups as they tried to get closer and closer to Medusa, the game's big boss. It's an archaic adventure that's more challenging than it needs to be, like so many NES games, but those who want to find out the origins of Pit in his first adventure can easily access the game on Switch with the NES digital library.
Grow home
Robot And The Beanstalk
Grow home was a little indie darling from within Ubisoft from about a decade ago that, like the beanstalk of gaming, slowly began to grow on people. The BUD robot is dropped on an alien planet, and all players have to do is grow vines between the base plant and liquid nutrients sprinkled across the vertical sky to reach their spaceship.
It's not that simple because BUD has awkward controls that resemble something similar The baby stepswhich makes the game a challenging endeavor, but also fits well with the idea of verticality. Reaching the top of any peak and then sliding down under a flower can be fun to see how players do. Its sequel, Grow upis also worth checking out.
Exactly
A less scary way to live out your dreams
Exactly
- Released
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30 October 2023
Anyone trying to enter Cairn but struggling with the mechanics might want to check Exactly instead. The ideas are similar because players are mountain climbers who long for adventure. The big difference is that the controls are much more user-friendly, allowing players to enjoy the ride and the view with little challenge and not scream in frustration every time a foot goes the wrong way.
Jusant is certainly much safer than real-life rock climbing, but players can still think about trying to climb a mountain after completing its many challenges and seeing the breathtaking views it has to offer.
Pandora's Tower
Feed her heart
Pandora's Tower takes place in an interconnected dungeon known as The Thirteen Towers. Players control Aeron, who has taken a woman named Elena to this deadly place to fight a disease. Elena is cursed, and to save her life, players must kill deadly enemies and give her their hearts to replenish her body. It's kind of gross, but love is a powerful thing.
This Wii exclusive is a bit like Metroid meet one Zelda game, as players use their chain weapons to explore the interconnected dungeon, fight monsters and solve puzzles. Between the views and the swinging action, Pandora's Tower uses the idea of verticality well, and it's a shame it hasn't been remastered yet.
Monster's Deadly Tower
A B-movie parody
The Deadly Tower of Monsters has one of the coolest concepts for an indie game that many missed from early 2016. The game is framed as if players are watching an old B-movie with a running commentary. Frames will stutter, the director will talk about what's wrong with scenes, and so on.
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The plot of the movie/game sees the playable heroes have to climb an ever-growing tower towards the sky, fight dinosaurs, aliens, monsters and so much more. The mixed reality elements are what help this game stand out, such as using low framerates to mirror stop-motion animations. B-Movie fans will dig the absurd nature of this top-down action game that breaks the fourth wall.
Let it die
Beware the Towers of Thorns
The original Let it die The concept featured The Towers of Barbs, a mysterious dungeon that appeared outside of Japan one day, with adventurers heading in to claim its treasure. Players could create their avatar and find various weapons, equipment and power-ups in their dungeon, with the full knowledge that the game supported permadeath.
The permadeath factor, free-to-play model, and sheer Soulslike difficulty of the game made it seemingly impossible to complete without shelling out money. As I said, those who quit Let it die and made it to the top of The Towers of Barbs must have felt pretty lucky.
