The idea behind the TouchArcade Game of the Week is that every Friday afternoon we post the one game that came out this week that we think is worth giving a special nod to. Now, before anyone goes over-thinking this, it doesn’t necessarily mean our Game of the Week pick is the highest scoring game in a review, the game with the best graphics, or really any other quantifiable “best" thing. Instead, it’s more just us picking out the single game out of the week’s releases that we think is the most noteworthy, surprising, interesting, or really any other hard to describe quality that makes it worth having if you were just going to pick up one.

These picks might be controversial, and that’s OK. If you disagree with what we’ve chosen, let’s try to use the comments of these articles to have conversations about what game is your game of the week and why.

Without further ado…

The Deer God

Crescent Moon’s The Deer God ($4.99) has taken a pretty unusual path to Apple’s App Store. It was originally announced in our forums back in March of last year. That following November, it was part of a special Android bundle that allowed people who bought said bundle early access to an alpha version of the game. Then this past February it arrived on Steam, before finally hitting iOS and Xbox One this week. It’s weird to even think of a game that’s been around and playable on various platforms for nearly a year as “new", but the iOS version marks my first time with The Deer God, and it’s leaving quite the impression on me.

First of all, I should state that The Deer God has received wildly mixed reviews. There seems to be very little middle ground: people either love it or hate it. I’m definitely in the “love it" camp, but I can sure see why some people might not be. At its most basic The Deer God is simply a platforming game with some very light action and RPG elements. It’s also kind of a roguelike, with a couple different variations of permadeath, a hunger system, and randomly generated levels. There’s a lot going on, but first and foremost The Deer God is a platformer.

The Deer God also tries to tell a pretty powerful story. You begin the game as a human hunter, who perishes as he’s out hunting deer. In a fit of Karma, the actual Deer God reincarnates you as a baby deer, and from there you’re tasked with living life as a deer struggling in the wild. If you can manage to survive the game and complete all the quests, it’s possible for you to return to your human form, but it won’t be easy. The struggle is real when you’re a deer.

Whether or not you buy into the whole “experience life from a deer’s perspective" thing or not, The Deer God is a joy just to play. The “feel" of a platformer is always very important, meaning the actual physics of the jumping and how it feels to move around can make or break an otherwise great game. The Deer God nails this aspect, as the jumping and movement feels great, making it extremely fun just to run around and explore the interesting world around you.

The visuals are also downright incredible, with a 2.5D pixelized look that’s reminiscent of Sword & Sworcery ($3.99). In fact, I get a similar feeling from The Deer God as I did from Sworcery, where sometimes all the various elements–the visuals, the music, and the gameplay–come together like a force and give you a warm fuzzy feeling all over that reminds you why you love playing video games. It’s definitely not perfect, and in fact The Deer God on iOS is a bit buggy and some have found its gameplay repetitive. But for me, and it sounds like many others, it’s been an impactful and enjoyable experience.

So if any of this sounds interesting to you, I’d suggest giving The Deer God a shot, or at least reading up some more impressions from people in our forums. The game is currently at a launch price of $6.99, and the Steam version is on sale right now too for $10.49, down from $14.99. Finally, if you have an Xbox Live account, The Deer God is free for the entire month of September on Xbox One as part of the Games with Gold promotion. No matter where you end up playing The Deer God, it’s definitely one of the more interesting games I’ve played in some time, quirks and all.