In Tower Up, you are a real estate developer vying to claim the skyline, one rooftop at a time. And while the rules may look deceptively breezy, this game packs surprising depth into its foundation.
Simple Rules, Complex Minds
Turns are lightning fast: pick a floor card or break ground. That’s it. But soon each choice is tangled in delightful decision-making. Want that steel floor? Sure, but what will your neighbor do if you grab it? Is it worth building now, or should you wait to stack even higher?
The catch? When you build, you must also add floors to adjacent buildings, often helping your opponents as much as yourself. Strategic generosity or weaponized assistance? You decide.
Like a friendly game of checkers that suddenly morphs into 3D chess, Tower Up grows in complexity as your city sprawls. Every rooftop you place moves you forward on one of four color-coded scoring tracks. Every move is a delicate balance between greed, timing, and tactical obstruction.
Want to dominate the skyline? Better time your build. Want to earn extra turns? Focus on completing track milestones. Want to make enemies? Cap someone else’s tower with your roof. (You monster.)
Each session features randomly drawn objectives to keep gameplay fresh, from spanning neighborhoods to hugging parks or creating dense clusters of urban chaos. Meanwhile, blocking rivals, covering up their rooftops, and keeping an eye on their floor cards all become essential parts of the game’s low-key psychological warfare.
Visually, Tower Up is a charmer. Its minimalist aesthetic makes room for strategic clarity, until a skyscraper literally blocks your line of sight. Yes, that can happen. Rotate the board. You will thank us later.
Ready to build up? Click the link below, and play in no-time from 2 to 4 players!
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=towerup
Let's thank Frank Crittin, Grégoire Largey & Sébastien Pauchon for designing such an elegant game, and we also thank the Monolith Board Games team for bringing this title to BGA.
Let's mention the huge work done by BanBan to adapt it all in glorious 3D for browsers that are up-to-date.
That's your Wednesday Release Time!
Enjoy it, and as always, take care and play fair!
(see you next week for more games!)
