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Treasure Buster ($0.99) by FDG Mobile Games GbR is a unique roguelike dungeon crawling experience that mixes in bubble-shooting and pinball-like elements into the recipe. If you enjoy dungeon crawlers and collecting loot, but want something fresh and exciting, then Treasure Buster is one you shouldn’t miss.

When I have time to spare, I like to sit down and play a video game to unwind and relax, as well as pass the time. While I mostly like to keep busy with puzzles, I do love to play dungeon crawler games every now and then. That’s because of the awesome hack-n-slash action and all of the awesome loot that you can collect along the way that make your own characters stronger. I mean, what’s not to like about that? But I did notice that most of the games in the genre are usually the same thing, just with a different skin. So when I saw the news of Treasure Buster hit my inbox, I was intrigued — it’s a completely new take on dungeon crawlers that works incredibly well. In fact, once you get started with Treasure Buster, you’ll have a hard time putting it down.

Visually, Treasure Buster is gorgeous with the retro pixel art style that was everywhere back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and has been making a modern comeback. If you grew up with the games back then, you’ll feel right at home in Treasure Buster. The dungeons are full of detail and feature fantastic use of textures and shadows to give everything a bit more depth than just looking flat and 2-D. The character sprites are nicely done, as the game showcases great diversity in the heroes that you can choose. They all have their own unique appearances and strengths and weaknesses, and are bouncy with bubbly personalities. The colors used in Treasure Buster range from bright and vivid for the treasure, to more dark and rich hues for the dungeon environments and enemies. And despite the pixelated aesthetic, you can clearly tell what everything is supposed to be, so FDG did a great job with how everything looks and feels here. The chiptune soundtrack is upbeat, quirky, and definitely helps get you in the mood for some pinball dungeon crawling action. The sound effects as you bounce all over the room are delightful to hear, and will bring a smile to your face.

There are two game modes in Treasure Buster: Arcade and Endless. Arcade lets you go through a kind of single-player campaign mode, where you must navigate from room-to-room and eventually reach (and defeat) the boss of the area before proceeding to the next dungeon. You’ll have the opportunity to allocate skill points on your selected character’s attributes before moving on, so there are chances to improve your hero. In Endless, you clear out a room and then choose between two different coin tosses that will determine what the next room will hold. If you’re more into high score chasing, then Endless will be perfect, but if you like to see some kind of progression in a roguelike game, then Arcade is the way to go.

The controls in Treasure Buster are super simple and allow players to play the game with one hand. Since each room holds you, some enemies, and sometimes randomized obstacles like walls and blocks, movement is limited. To fling your hero into action, just touch-and-drag anywhere on the screen to reveal an arrow on your character. The further you pull back, the stronger the fling will be, similar to games like Angry Birds. When you have your arrow aiming where you want to go (make use of physics and angles to get hard to reach spots), just release your finger from the screen and your hero will be on their way. They’ll bounce around the room, hitting enemies and chipping away at their health bars along the way. Sometimes you may have a power-up item, like the Lance, that lets you pierce through enemies instead of bouncing off of them. These power-ups can be activated with a tap on the button in the bottom right corner.

Each hero has their own attributes, which will affect the speed, damage, and even health that they have. The numbers on opponents indicate how many moves you can make before they’ll move or unleash an attack, which may or may not hit you depending on where you stop. It’s important to note the attack patterns of enemies, because when they attack, it’s like dodging in a bullet hell game, except you can’t move. So getting into the best position ahead of time is important so you don’t get hit as much, which means less health you lose and more loot you can get before the run ends. When you’re on a hot streak during your turn, you’ll activate your hero’s “Treasure Aura,” which will get your better, more valuable loot drops from foes, which mean a higher score in the end.

I haven’t played the game too much yet, but in the short time I’ve spent with it, Treasure Buster is a new favorite. I am in love with the pixel-perfect vintage visuals, the chiptune soundtrack is a joy to my ears, and the controls are top-notch and what a mobile game is all about. While the controls are easy to learn, it’s difficult to master since you have to take into account positioning after the fling for maximum survivability. But it’s satisfying to watch your hero bounce and knock out all of the foes, while seeing the screen get showered with shiny loot. This is one game that I know I will be returning to often when I need to relieve some stress, which seems to be a lot as of late.

I highly recommend checking out Treasure Buster if you’re a fan of roguelike dungeon crawlers and pinball. You can get Treasure Buster on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $0.99.

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Dan The Man (Free) by Halfbrick Studios is an old-school style arcade platformer game that is packed with a ton of beat-em-up action. If you enjoyed tiles like Beatdown, but wish that there were some platformer action thrown into the mix, then you should give Dan the Man a try.

As a kid who grew up in the early ‘90s, I have fond memories of the arcade and even playing the Super Mario Bros. at home. And it didn’t just stop there — I branched off to other various platformer games that I could get my hands on (you know, as a kid with no disposable income). I ended up loving the platformer genre, but even more so when there was some kind of combat and objective other than “jump on some platforms.” When I had heard that Halfbrick Studios, the creators of the popular Jetpack Joyride games featuring Barry Steakfries, was creating a new arcade-like platformer, I was ecstatic to check it out for myself. It’s now available to the masses, and definitely a great way to pass the time if you’re a fan of the genre.

Visually, Dan the Man is oozing with retro charm. Just like other Halfbrick games, Dan the Man has a classic vintage pixel-art style aesthetic that is gorgeous and packed with incredible detail. The environments range from lush wildlife areas to modern civilization and architecture, and all of the settings look fantastic. Character models are rendered nicely too, with everyone having their own unique appearance and movement patterns. The color palette is fantastic, with tones ranging from bright and vivid hues to darker and richer shades. All of the animations are smooth and fluid, and I did not experience lag on my iPhone 7. To top it all off, the game has a quirky and upbeat chiptune soundtrack that just adds to the thrill of the game. Sound effects are also fun to listen to as you beat up any foes that stand in your way. Overall, I love what Halfbrick has created in terms of visuals and audio with Dan the Man.

Like traditional platformer brawler games, Dan the Man features a level-based Story Mode, and you must clear the current stage before you can move on to the next area. Think of the levels in Super Mario Bros. games and you’ll get the picture. But even though the game is a free download, the levels are rather lengthy, and there are even secret areas to discover as you play, so there is a lot of content available from the get-go.

Eventually, you’ll also unlock daily missions and weekly events, which only add to the replay value of the game. Even though Dan the Man is a brawler, there is a story behind the chaos: a mysterious organization has emerged from the shadows and plunged a village into peril. They took Dan’s girlfriend, Josie (the roles can be reversed), and it’s up to you to help save everyone. It’s revealed in an in-game announcement that Dan the Man was originally just going to be a web series, but I’m glad that it turned into an action-packed iOS game instead. The goal is to reach the endpoint of the stage you’re on, or defeat tough bosses in intense battles. But be warned — there are some parts of the level where you’ll have to face off against a set number of foes before you can proceed. There’s no time limit in the game, but you’ll still be breaking a sweat over what seem like an endless swarm of foes coming at you relentlessly.

Controls in Dan the Man are simple enough to understand, though I feel that the button positioning could have been better optimized. The bottom left area will have your typical buttons for moving left and right. In the bottom right area will be buttons for jumping, attacking with your melee punches and kicks, and another button for weapon attacks. You’ll find a variety of weapons as you make your way through stages, and these can range from knives and shurikens to different guns to take down foes with. The damage done by each weapon will vary, and you can switch weapons at any time by tapping on the weapon box on the left side of the screen.

While the controls work for the most part, sometimes I did have issues with the spacing between the action buttons, so I ended up jumping instead of punching or using my ranged attack, and other times I was facing the wrong direction while attacking. While you can change the controls to cater to left-handed users, you can’t drag the buttons into a position that better suits you, which is a bit disappointing. Hopefully Halfbrick can consider allowing us to fine tune the controls to better suit us.

As I mentioned, the levels in the game are pretty long, which is a bit surprising for a free-to-download game. There are several checkpoints that you can reach in a stage, so if you end up failing, you can pick up at the last checkpoint. Sometimes you will find “video cassettes” that play an ad in the middle of a level, which is a bit annoying, but since you’ll be doing a lot of button mashing at times, it can be a nice 30-second break for your thumbs. You’ll also encounter “Ye Olde Shoppe” every so often on a level, which is where you can buy some food to heal up (like apples) or whatever weapon they have in stock. Coins are easy to collect in the game, because it will drop from fallen foes, broken boxes and vases, and there’s plenty of cash just scattered all over the stage for you to collect.

The money you find can also be used to purchase upgrades for your selected character, such as stronger attacks, more health, and even new moves. And if you don’t mind spending a few bucks of real cash, you can unlock special characters that have their own distinctive play styles, such as Barry Steakfries himself. The characters range in price from $0.99 to $4.99 for Barry Steakfries. You can also buy coins if you’re impatient, or go for Premium to get rid of the ads in the game. But again, all of the in-app purchases are completely optional, and the game is still a blast even if you never pay a dime. There’s a nice sense of balance here between the free-to-play aspect and in-app purchases.

I’ve been playing through Dan the Man over the past few days when I’m not busy with other aspects of my life, and am enjoying it a lot so far. The graphics take me back to the golden days of gaming and my youth, and everything about the game is eccentric and fun. The controls do need a bit more polish though, and I would prefer to be able to adjust the positioning myself, so hopefully that comes in a future update. Still, for a free game, it does not get in-your-face with the ads and in-app purchases too much, and there is a ton of content that is available for everyone to check out.

If you’re a fan of action-packed brawler platformer games, then I recommend giving Dan the Man a try. It’s a perfect way to kill some time or just relieve stress — I mean, you’ll be punching a bunch of baddies in the face, after all.

Dan the Man is available on the App Store as a free download for your iPhone and iPad. It has in-app purchases and also is compatible with iMessage for stickers.

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