Fez

Fez is a puzzle platformer by Canadian developer Phil Fish and his studio Polytron, which arrived on Xbox Live Arcade in 2012 after an unusually long and heavily publicized development. At first glance the game looks like a classic 2D platformer with pixel art visuals, but its central mechanic is the ability to rotate the entire world ninety degrees around a vertical axis — what looked like a chasm becomes a solid path after rotating, and vice versa. This principle changes the perception of space and forces the player to think of levels as three-dimensional structures made up of flat images, while the camera stays fixed to individual faces and never shifts into a full 3D view.

As the player progresses through the game as the character Gomez, they collect cubes and cube fragments that open up new areas of the map, all linked into one sprawling whole without artificial division into levels. Besides the spatial puzzles, the game contains a layer of encrypted mysteries based on an unknown script and symbols that remain among the hardest puzzles in video game history, and which were ultimately cracked by the player community working together and sharing observations on internet forums. The visual side combines retro pixel art with a subtle color palette and an atmospheric, meditative soundtrack that greatly contributes to the sense of mystery and solitude and pairs well with the game's slow, contemplative pace.

Fez was received exceptionally well by critics and players alike upon release and became one of the defining titles of the wave of independent games on Xbox Live Arcade during the heyday of the so-called art platformer. Its influence on the genre lies chiefly in proving that a simple visual idea can carry an entire game if executed with maximum rigor. Even with the years, the game still feels fresh and original — many of its puzzles have become legendary and inspired other creators to experiment with perspective and space in two-dimensional games, even though the game's own development was also accompanied by widely publicized disputes and delays that were much discussed at the time.

Why play it: As proof that a simple visual idea executed with maximum rigor can carry an entire game, it offers legendary puzzles that still inspire creators to experiment with perspective.