Parents' Guide to Disc Room

Friedrich Nietsche and Kelly Clarkson are both known for saying "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." But in the case of the sci-fi arcade action game Disc Room, it's the thing that does kill you which makes you stronger. Or at least more determined. The game's fairly nonsensical setup is an excuse to drop players into a series of more than fifty different unique rooms, each filled with a number of spinning blades o' death and a number of objectives to beat. This objective-based progression turns the game into a twisted collection of puzzle rooms, requiring not only quick reflexes but sharp strategies as well. Usually, in a game like this, survival is the main priority. But here, death isn't the end and, quite often, it's even a goal. For example, one objective specifically requires players to be killed by a certain number of different blade types before advancing.

Disc Room does a great job of keeping up players' interests. There's a surprising amount of variety in the challenges each room provides. Some rooms might be pitch black, except for an infrared spotlight. Other rooms might require players to stand in one area to keep the clock active while dodging flying discs. And still other rooms contain massive boss fights that can test the skills of even the most hardcore gamers. Make no mistake about it, the game can quickly test not only players' skills, but their patience as well. Certain stages can be particularly frustrating, especially after dying over and over, only to realize later you missed one key trick to accomplish an objective. Thankfully, the frustration never seems to last too long. Since each room is usually a quick undertaking, there's always that sense of trying "just one more time." And if the game ever feels too overwhelming, the developers were kind enough to add options setting to adjust its speed and difficulty to the players liking.