Why You Should Play
- Colorful Pixar-inspired graphics that give off a childlike charm.
- A fun, twin-stick shooter with easy-to-learn gameplay mechanics.
- Unique characters with a wide range of abilities and personalities.
- An assortment of special weapons, power-ups, and defenses to choose from.
Most of us can recall a time during our childhoods when we were afraid of monsters living under our bed or in our bedroom closet, waiting for nightfall to emerge from the darkness. We Are Fuzzy’s new twin-stick tower defense game Sleep Tight lets players battle those imaginary childhood monsters in a lighthearted take on the tower defense genre. Sleep Tight combines the nostalgic fun of fort-building with the satisfaction of conquering a variety of strange things that go bump in the night using a variety of fun weapons, power-ups, and defenses.
Gameplay
In Sleep Tight, players take on the role of an intrepid child who must defend their bedroom against waves of cartoony monsters and try to survive for as many nights as possible. Players start out as a kid named Joe, but a number of other characters are available to unlock throughout the game, each with their own special perks and attributes.
The game begins at night to allow players to take down their first wave of monsters and get a feel for the twin-stick shooting mechanics. Vanquishing monsters allows you to accumulate Stars, which are one of the two main forms of currency used to purchase items and upgrades, including health, shields, power-ups, and defense items. You also get Suns, which are earned for surviving the night and are used in tandem with Stars to make purchases.
Sleep Tight is as much of an inventory management game as it is a tower defense game. During the day, players are given the chance to make purchases and plan out their strategy for surviving the evening ahead. While defense items such as Walls and Turrets can be a huge help, allotting a portion of Suns and Stars on ammo, power-ups, and research becomes crucial for surviving higher waves with more difficult creatures.
The tower defense element comes from placing couch walls, turrets, and other defensive structures around your surprisingly empty bedroom. If done strategically enough, your defenses should be doing most of the work for you. The shooting aspect of the game isn’t terribly complex, but there are plenty of weapons to unlock to change up the gameplay a bit. From water-lobbing rocket launchers to rapid-fire dart guns, you’re sure to find a weapon that suits your style.
Visuals and Performance
The art style and animations of Sleep Tight is an obvious call back to the cartoon aesthetic of Pixar’s Monsters Inc. Even some of the creatures in the game resemble Sully. This certainly works in the game’s favor, as the endearing design of both the children and monsters in Sleep Tight help to give off that extra feeling of nostalgia that the game is clearly striving for.
The game is also easy to dive into from the start, which makes it that much easier to sink hours into. Before you know it, you’ll find yourself dozens of waves in, with a powerful fort built to withstand what’s coming.
Game of the Week
We’ve chosen Sleep Tight as our Prima Game of the Week for its fun gameplay and interesting concept. Sleep Tight is a charming tower defense game with a nostalgic twist that everyone can relate to and enjoy. The game even allows you to save your progress during a single run, so if you need to quit the game for whatever reason, you don’t have to start your playthrough from scratch. This only works for one playthrough at a time (you can’t have multiple saves), but it’s better than having to prematurely end your streak. Sleep Tight is available now on Nintendo Switch and PC.
