Black Tower Enigma from Ogre Pixel is a retro-style puzzle-solving adventure about an orc who enters a tower looking for his wife. Check out our Black Tower Enigma review!

 

Black Tower Enigma from Ogre Pixel is a retro-style puzzle-solving adventure about an orc who enters a tower looking for his wife, Galda. Your name is Wigo, and you must explore the mysterious tower after your wife is kidnapped and taken to the skies by a magic dress that had been gifted by a fairy. This is why you enter the titular Black Tower Enigma, since it’s the tallest known building on the continent, and the only option you have for getting close enough to the sky. But, as expected, you won’t be able to just waltz in and climb to the top, since you’ll first need to solve a series of puzzles and challenges to progress further and further into the massive structure.

Ogre Pixel took Black Tower Enigma to Kickstarter last year, seeking MX$180,000 in funding to work on the game’s development for Game Boy/Game Boy Color and Nintendo Switch, as well as to offer the game on a physical Game Boy Color cartridge for backers. Once the crowdfunding campaign was over, and thanks to the support of 730+ backers, the project ended up securing almost MX$700,000 in funding. It’s now 2026, and the game is available on Nintendo’s hybrid console for all to enjoy.

It’s thanks to this that the game was not only completed, but it was also expanded thanks to a series of stretch goals that were achieved. These include, for example, an extra mini-cave with extra puzzles to solve, additional books inside the tower with some funny quotes and jokes, extra story cutscenes, customization colors for your character, an alternate ending, a boss encounter at the end of it all, and even a fishing mini-game.

 

Once the intro cutscene is over, you’ll be taking control of Wigo by using the left analog stick or the D-Pad as you interact with objects or other characters by pressing the A button. Other than that, you can use the L and R buttons to switch between the available color palettes, or use the ZL button to change the bezel or go full screen.

Inside the tower, each floor will represent a puzzle or riddle that you’ll need to solve. You will find bookcases where you can read books with useful information for solving some riddles, signs with instructions and information, or boxes that you can push around. There are also balls that you can interact with to push them so that they can roll until they collide with something, clocks that will let you know the current time, levers that can be pulled once you think you’ve solved the puzzle so that you can then take the stairs to the next floor, or a vessel that can sometimes contain switches.

There are seven different types of books that you can run into during your time with Black Tower Enigma: black, blue, green, purple, red, brown, and secret books. Black books are for light and dark elements; blue books are for phrases, sayings, and riddles; green books are for information about the races; purple books are for story and lore; red books are for myths and legends; brown books are for sayings and jokes; as for secret books, they will include sayings or jokes.

This release features an in-game achievement system for you to work on if you want to 100% the game. What will you need to do if you want to do that? You’ll need to complete all of the different book types, catch all of the fish, complete the regular tower, complete the dark tower, and get the different endings that the game has to offer.

Black Tower Enigma is a retro-style puzzle-solving adventure about an orc who enters a tower looking for his wife, Galda. Your name is Wigo, and you must explore the mysterious tower after your wife is kidnapped and taken to the skies by a magic dress that had been gifted by a fairy. This is why you enter the titular Black Tower Enigma, since it’s the tallest known building on the continent, and the only option you have for getting close enough to the sky. But, as expected, you won’t be able to just waltz in and climb to the top, since you’ll first need to solve a series of puzzles and challenges to progress further and further into the massive structure.

You’ll get to learn more about the Black Tower Enigma universe by checking out the many books contained within the building. Some will present to you the background story for it all, while others will – thanks to a Kickstarter stretch goal – lean more into funny territory. You can also use the music player to check out the different songs in the game or use the video player to check out the game’s trailers and cinematics.

On top of that, there’s a product gallery section where you can check out the game’s box and digital manual, as well as some of the images that were created for the game’s development. There’s even a digital version of the game’s official guide, which you can check if you’re ever feeling like you’re stuck.

You can customize your experience as needed by picking the screen size between fit screen, original framed, or original, adding a grid filter, turning the background on or off, as well as switching between the different color palette options. You can go with the original presentation, active green, black and white, GameBob 2, GameBob Color, 80’s post apocalyptic, or chocolatier. Black Tower Enigma is out on Nintendo Switch with a $7.99 price tag.

Disclaimer
This Black Tower Enigma review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Ogre Pixel.