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Ever dreamt of crafting a city skyline, one floor at a time? Well, Tower Up gives you the tools to become a master builder, or at least a competitive one! In this game, you will battle it out as a developer, racing to stack buildings, top them with roofs, and conquer city planning objectives. The ultimate goal is to amass the most wealth and claim your spot as the city’s top mogul.
👥 2-4 players, ages 8+
⌛ Playing time: 30-45 minutes
📝 Designers: Frank Crittin, Grégoire Largey & Sébastien Pauchon
🎨 Artwork: Nadege Calegari, Laurent Escoffier, Geoffrey Stepourenko
🏢 Publisher: Monolith Board Games (Review copy provided by Asmodee Belgium)
Gameplay Overview
In Tower Up, you and your opponents compete to place all your roofs across a shared cityscape. Each turn presents a choice: gather resources or dive straight into construction. Resources come in the form of floor cards, drawn from a market. These cards determine the color of the floors you can add to your supply. However, there is a catch: you can only hold up to ten floors at a time! Managing your resources wisely is key to success.
When it is time to build, you will place a floor from your supply onto an empty construction site. Sounds simple, right? Not so fast! Each site must be adjacent to an existing building, and placement rules demand that you avoid matching colors with neighboring structures. To add to the challenge, you’ll need to ‘pay’ for construction by contributing matching floors to nearby buildings. This sparks a chain reaction of growth, expanding the city while making every move a tactical decision. After finishing your part of the construction, it is time to seal the deal by placing one of your roofs on a building you helped build during that turn.
But there is more than just building to think about! Each roof you place advances your progress on a personal board, where color-coded tracks reflect the buildings’ colors. Moving forward on these tracks can earn you handy rewards, such as extra turns to plan ambitious moves. These tracks are also essential for scoring. Your position on them will play a big role in determining your wealth when the game ends.
Speaking of wealth, city planning objectives are another way to rake in rewards. These objectives encourage you to diversify your strategy, for example, by spreading your roofs across multiple zones or participating in buildings of every color. Completing these goals earns you bonus tokens, which add to your wealth and can tip the scales in your favor.
The game wraps up when one player places their final roof. Once that happens, it is time for everyone to tally their wealth. Add up the value of your visible roofs, your progress on the color tracks, and any bonus tokens you have claimed. The player with the highest total wins the game and the title of the city’s most successful developer!
Game Info
Tower Up is a family game designed for 2 to 4 players, aged 8 and up. Each game session lasts about 30–45 minutes, making it a good choice for a weeknight or a quick weekend challenge. The game comes from the trio Frank Crittin, Grégoire Largey, and Sébastien Pauchon, and is published by Monolith Board Games. Known for their epic miniature-heavy games like Mythic Battles and Conan, Monolith has ventured into a more family-friendly space with Tower Up, proving they can do small and strategic just as well as they do big and bold.
Components, Production, and Artwork
Let’s peek inside the box, because Tower Up does not cut corners when it comes to production. The double-sided game board is the heart of the action, offering one layout for 3–4 players and a scaled-down version for 2-player games. Each player gets their own dual-layered board to track progress and stash bonus tokens, along with 10 bright, sturdy plastic roofs. Everything fits neatly into a well-designed tray that keeps pieces secure, even if you’re the kind of person who stores games vertically. No box avalanches when you open it!
The game’s plastic floors come in four colors, with 30 pieces each, stored in a handy container that doubles as an organizer during gameplay. This clever tray also has slots for the material cards, allowing you to display three cards for easy viewing while keeping the draw and discard piles tidy. The addition of these custom trays means setting up the game is a breeze, which is a big win when you’re eager to jump straight into the action.
The production quality is surprisingly high, especially for a family game at this price point. And the artwork? Clean, bright, and cheerful, matching the game’s family-friendly vibe. It’s a visual treat on the table, and yes, it will absolutely make your Instagram feed pop.
Gameplay and Strategy
One of Tower Up’s greatest strengths is its accessibility. The rules are straightforward, making it easy for players of all ages to dive in. Turns are simple; you either gather materials or start building. Though it seems straightforward, the choices you make carry surprising weight.
The game offers plenty to consider. Advancing on your personal board’s color-coded tracks is key, as these determine end-game scoring. Will you focus on maxing out a single track for big points, or spread your efforts across all colors to snag extra turns? Both approaches have their merits, and managing these decisions brings variety to every playthrough.
Placing roofs is another strategic puzzle. Not only does it score you points, but the placement itself can impact future turns. Locking down roofs on buildings less likely to be expanded by opponents is a clever way to secure their visibility (and their value) until the game ends.
Then there’s resource management. With a limit of just ten floor tiles, timing becomes crucial. Wait too long to construct, and you might find opponents blocking your plans or driving up the costs. The shared cityscape turns every action into a ripple effect you’ll need to navigate. The player’s actions directly influence the board, so staying flexible and adapting your strategy is a must. Plus, the city planning objectives add variety and encourage players to mix up their strategies game after game.
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for something heavy and deeply strategic, or a game with intense competition, Tower Up might not scratch that itch. Its focus is on accessibility and lighthearted fun, which makes it more suitable for relaxed play rather than cutthroat tactics.
That said, I found Tower Up to be a delightful mix of simplicity and strategy. It’s perfect for families, casual players, or anyone who appreciates quick turns and intuitive rules. While it doesn’t take hours to master, there’s plenty of depth in deciding when and where to place those all-important buildings.
The components also deserve a shout-out. The sturdy pieces and clever trays make the whole experience smooth, from setup to storage. For its price, it’s hard to find a game that offers this level of polish. If you’re looking for a game that’s light, engaging, and easy to bring to the table, Tower Up is absolutely worth playing.
📝 We received a copy of the game from Asmodee Belgium for review purposes.
