Kami Retro is an interesting genre mix with outstanding visuals. Think of Lemmings thrown into a blender together with Mario and add a rainbow into the mix – the result would be Kami Retro, a puzzle game that involves gesture controlled platforming.

What you will notice first when you look at Kami Retro are the visuals. This game is over the top colorful. Even the menus give you a ‘too much information to handle’ feeling. I guess this is a hate it or love it look. Personally, I always appreciate it when developers go all out and try something new, and in the case of Kami Retro the result is great.

The goal of Kami Retro is to make sure your characters arrive safely on the other side of each level. This involves 2 aspects. First of all, you will have to figure out the correct path and solve some puzzles. The game will regularly introduce new items like ventilators or springs that you need to put in place for your characters. Second, you will then have to guide your character through the level. That means even after you figured out the perfect path, you will still have to prove yourself in some platforming action before you have solved the level.

The controls are gesture based. A swipe up will make your character jump, a swipe against the direction your character is running will make him turn around. At the beginning I found myself swiping randomly on the screen wondering why he didn’t jump every now and then until I learned that you have to swipe on the character. Besides that, Kami Retro is very intuitive and fun to control. However, things can get pretty hectic as you advance in the game. In each level you will have to rescue 4 characters. Throughout the first levels this is not a big deal because the characters show up one by one. After a while this changes and you will have to deal with more than one of them on-screen.

The game comes with 6 scenarios, 12 levels each. In the levels you have to collect stars that will unlock the next scenarios one by one. There is also 1 bonus stage per scenario where you have to collect all the stars within a certain time limit. They are actually quite challenging. But because they are really fun as well, I happily replayed them to get all the stars.

I had a great time playing Kami Retro, especially thanks to the outstanding visuals. The concept, despite being put together from existing ideas, is original, fun and packed into a very polished experience. You can get it for $1,99 on the App Store.