(Fez is out now on Xbox Live Arcade at 800 MS-points)

Old school, retro, classic, timeless what do these words mean to you and do you sometimes miss the way older games did things?  Maybe Fez here can help fix that.  Made by Polytron (well mostly by one man named Phil Fish), this Xbox Live Arcade game isn’t for everyone – but – for those who miss/loved those non-linear platforming games from the days of yore like Kid Icarus and Blaster Master or even new age versions like Cave Story and Outland you should really consider checking this title out.

With its retro 16-bit look (which it pulls off very well) and the old school platforming Fez has a nice new trick that old games never had; which is the fact that you can shift the cameras perspective between different angles in 3D, although the game always remains in 2D.  Now this idea has been done before somewhat in a few other games like Super Paper Mario (Wii), Echochrome (PSN) and a little known game called Crush from the PSP, the only thing I say Fez does better than those titles is the feeling of being a lot more developed in terms of this idea and additional old school exploration gameplay.  This manipulating the world between different 2D views using a 3D effect is not a gimmick, the whole game has been designed around this idea. Continue reading →