Who doesn’t love a good adventure, especially one you get to choose yourself?! When I picked up Burly Men at Sea I knew I was going to enjoy myself, but I was not prepared for the wave of nostalgia for those 50 cent “Choose Your Own Adventure” books from my elementary school days. Brain&Brain, the developer behind this joyful title, created such a fun, child-like experience for me that was honestly pure magic.
With simple graphics and quite a few nods to oceanic lore across the world, what’s not to love about this game? Normally you might think that playing through multiple branching story lines would become tedious, but in truth the dialogue was amusingly adjusted in such a way that both the player and characters are fully aware of the situation, bringing on a sense of jovial “here we go again.”
Although there are no directions to speak of, and not everything that can be interacted with is necessarily something that results in change, it was enormously fun to figure out the different action options and little nothings that just make scenes more wholesome.
As living proof that game artists don’t have to specialize in complex, realistic styles to be successful and make memorable games, I’d encourage anyone looking to add their artistic talents to look at titles like Burly Men at Sea for validation and inspiration.