Sometimes, a game can grab my attention immediately.  Whether it’s the presentation or the ironclad mechanics, very few developers are skilled enough to really blow me away out of the gate. Beneath the Lighthouse (Free) was one of those games. I was drawn in by the Fez-like art style, and stayed for the gameplay.

At first glance Lighthouse looks like just another art game, but don’t be fooled by its small intro scene, which features a boy (of sorts) being tortured by birds, and thrown into a chasm of seemingly no return. It might look like something that warrants hours of exposition, but in reality, it’s an action puzzler of sorts. Your job is to guide the boy through a series of tunnels by shifting the screen around in a circular fashion. He’s an object, essentially, at your disposal, and will fall wherever gravity takes him. Because of this Lighthouse is deliciously easy to control, as all you have to do is swipe towards a spoke on the wheel, and the screen will shift accordingly.

Of course, you’ll need to take a bit to get used to the momentum and physics involved, which feel spot-on and arcade-like, in a good way. The controls are responsive and it’s easy to get a feel for the game without feeling like it’s constantly cheating you, which is great, as the hazards are plentiful. As a note, it’s not tilt-based. The theme that permeates throughout Lighthouse is unexpected bliss. The soundtrack is better than I thought it would be, the art is bright and colorful throughout, and the controls never feel rigid, even as the game adds more concepts. It doesn’t mess around either, because by the time you get to level 17, it’s on. Lighthouse might have a gentle color scheme and cute character designs, but it’s most definitely a hardcore affair by the time you reach the later stages.

While the game is free, it follows the typical ad-based model you’ve seen many times before. For $3.99, you can purchase a “premium unlock," which eliminates ads and provides the player with infinite hearts. It’s not necessarily needed as the ads are only played after deaths occasionally, and that’s all there is in terms of IAP — the developer is pretty upfront about it. How hearts work is also straight-forward. You have three tries to beat a (small) group of levels in a set, and if you fail, you can watch an ad to return your hearts or restart the grouping. The choice is yours, but either way, the monetization scheme is incredibly fair, as you have the full option to binge if you’d like.

Beneath the Lighthouse has a mesmerizing presentation coupled with easy to use controls and interesting levels. I was pretty surprised going in as I didn’t expect it to be so tricky (I thought it was going to be a standard platformer), but that surprise was a pleasant feeling. I wasn’t all that familiar with the developer Nitrome, but now they have my attention.