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Disco Party ($1.99) by Appsolute Games LLC is a puzzle platformer that will get you into the groove with old-school jams. If you enjoyed games like Mimpi Dreams and Super Phantom Cat, then you will like what Disco Party has to offer.

When life gets tough, I like to retreat into my own little escape with video games. For me, it’s the best way for me to relax and forget about all of my troubles for a few minutes or even an hour. As someone who grew up with platformer games as a child (like Super Mario Bros.), I can’t help but be drawn to the genre even after all those years. And another genre that I love are puzzles, because they help keep my mind stimulated as I take a break from reality, so I’m not completely vegging out. Naturally, when I see a game that combines both of these elements, I can’t resist. I managed to try out an early build of Disco Party at GDC earlier this year, and I fell in love with it from the start. I’ve been eager to get my hands on the game, and now that it’s finally available to the public, I am not disappointed.

In terms of visuals, Disco Party has a fairly cartoonish style overall, but it’s rather cute and charming. And since it has a disco theme going on, it’s only natural that everything is a bit flashy and over-the-top when it comes to the lights and glamour. Character models are well done with their realistic movements and unique outfits that fit the disco era, and the stage layouts have a good amount of detail when it comes to the texture and objects. The animations in the game are buttery smooth on my iPhone 7, so I experienced no lag while playing. And since the theme of the game is disco, you can expect a groovy soundtrack in the background as you play. If you’re a fan of the genre, then you’ll love it, but if you’re not, well, you can always just turn the sound off.

In typical puzzle platformer style, Disco Party is level-based, with four different worlds that contain 15 stages each. The goal in each level is to get your character to their love interest and avoid the rival security guards, all while collecting the golden discs along the way. In order to do this, players will have to manipulate certain tiles on the ground to do different functions, and new game mechanics are introduced in each chapter at a gradual pace. While you can complete the stages by getting to the love interest without collecting all of the discs, you’ll need the discs in order to unlock access to other chapters.

The controls in Disco Party are simple and intuitive enough for anyone to pick up the game and play. As you’ll see on the stage, there will be special tiles (light gray with flickering lights) on the ground that you can manipulate with a tap. The first tap will turn the tile blue with a straight arrow, which causes your character to turn around once they step on the tile. The second tap makes it become red with a curved arrow, indicating your character will jump forward from that tile. The third and last tap changes it to a yellow tile with two vertical arrows, and this inverts the gravity for your character.

As you make progress, you’ll encounter various new obstacles, such as multiple rival security guards, spikes, spinning blades, lasers, and much more. As I mentioned earlier, the game does a pretty good job of introducing everything at a gradual pace, so it’s not overwhelming. But be warned — your character will automatically move forward after you tap on the screen regardless, so you’ll have to plan out your moves quickly or else you’ll fall or hit a hazard and have to restart.

As you pass through stages, you will earn coins. These coins can be spent in the game’s shop to unlock new characters (player, goal, and rival) and costumes for each. There’s plenty of customization in Disco Party, though they’re all cosmetic and don’t affect the gameplay in any way. Another cool thing about Disco Party is the fact that it is LGBT-friendly, since you can have same-sex goals. Even though the game is fairly generous with giving you coins for completing levels, it does offer in-app purchases if you want to buy a character or costume and are short on coins.

I’ve been playing Disco Party over the weekend as I’m between Pokémon Go sessions and studying, and it’s been enjoyable so far. I love the delightful cartoon-style graphics and flashy disco theme, and the controls are simple enough for anyone. The puzzles start off easy enough, but they definitely get trickier as you power through. The customization adds an extra incentive for players, though I’m not too fond of the fact that the game is a paid download but still offers in-app purchases for coins. Fortunately, they’re only used for cosmetic things and nothing that changes the gameplay itself, which makes it less of a problem I suppose. Bonus points for making the game LGBT-friendly, though.

I recommend checking out Disco Party if you enjoy a good puzzle platformer that will tickle your brain, and if you like disco and LGBT-friendly themes. You can get Disco Party on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $1.99. There are optional in-app purchases for more coins to spend for characters and costumes.

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Burly Men at Sea ($4.99) by Brain&Brain is an adventure game that puts you in the shoes of a storyteller as well as a wayfinder. If you love titles that play more like experiences and stories rather than just another game, such as Monument Valley, then you will enjoy Burly Men at Sea.

I’ve been fairly busy these days, balancing a life of work and school and personal things, but I’ve been managing so far. Whenever I have some downtime, I like to sit down and play a game to ease my mind and even enjoy a good story. I know that some people like to unwind by reading a book, but I prefer to relax with a story that also lets me interact with it, perhaps affecting the outcome in some way (or not). When I first heard of Burly Men at Sea, I was intrigued because of the art and the story seemed interesting. Needless to say, I’m not disappointed now that the game is available to the masses.

Visually, Burly Men at Sea features a minimalist aesthetic that will definitely appeal to anyone who likes simple but elegant graphics. I feel like the game runs on vector graphics, and the colors are a nice mix of soft pastels and more rich and vibrant hues. Since the game involves a bit of reading in order to reveal the story and dialogue, it makes use of an easy to read serif typeface that is legible against the colored backgrounds. Animations in Burly Men at Sea are smooth and fluid with no lag on my iPhone 7. The atmospheric soundtrack is rather ambient and soothing, which sets the perfect mood for telling a folklore tale that is set in early 20th-century Scandinavia. Overall, I would say that Brain&Brain knocked it out of the park with Burly Men at Sea in terms of the visual and audio department, which is amazing considering that Brain&Brain is a studio consisting of just a husband and wife. They also have another title, Doggins, that is worth checking out as well.

Since Burly Men at Sea is a point-and-click adventure game, there are no levels and you’ll go through the story from start-to-finish. The game does bring you back to where you last left off if you need to take a break, so you can safely leave the game without worrying. Even though you can just sit down and go through the entire game in one sitting, there are multiple paths that you can take at certain points, which mean brand new adventures that will certainly be worth your time. As I mentioned, there is a lot of reading involved with this game, so get ready for that — at least you can tap on the screen to skip the animation of text showing up on the screen.

The controls in Burly Men at Sea are simple and intuitive, though it will take a bit of time to get used to since it’s a bit different from the norm. The game uses a unique, interactive vignette that you drag around in order to pan the camera and reveal settings and other characters around you. As you move the vignette around, the three bearded fisherman brothers will walk in that direction, and you can tap on other NPCs in order to talk to them. When a dialogue begins, the rest of the environment drops off and you get solid colored backgrounds with just the characters (and key objects) on them, which is a nice focal point. Text will show up, you read it, and you’ll uncover more of the story and get a general direction of what you need to do next, or even who to speak to.

I’ve just started Burly Men at Sea, but so far I’m loving it a lot. The visuals are gorgeous and emit a distinctive style among the world of minimalistic games, and the original soundtrack is just perfect. While there may not have many gameplay elements to it, I don’t care too much, because I feel like this is an immersive, interactive storybook and I’m hooked on the folklore tale. Each of the brothers has their own distinguishing appearance and personality, and there are definitely some interesting characters that you’re going to meet along the journey. To me, the game is like one of those gripping novels where you just can’t stop turning the pages, and you keep telling yourself “just one more chapter” before you’ve realized that you just finished the book.

I highly recommend giving Burly Men at Sea a try if you’re into engaging stories and folklore. Burly Men at Sea is available on the App Store as a universal download on your iPhone and iPad for just $4.99.

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