Fez

With its exquisite, beautiful game world and its still fresh and ingenious gameplay mechanics, FEZ is a marvelous puzzle platformer and one which will undoubtedly remain a timeless classic ten more years from now.

Despite its age, Fez manages to feel as entertaining and relevant as it ever was — it’s a puzzle-platformer that expertly hides a deep level of difficulty behind a surface layer of relaxing action, beautiful music and attractive graphics. While there are no new features of note on this Switch port, what’s here is still as scrumptious and inviting as it ever was.

Ultimately, I have more positive things than negative to say about FEZ. Sure it can be cumbersome and confusing at times, but it’s still a beautiful and creative game. It’s nice I was finally able to play this one-time exclusive on a Nintendo console.

FEZ is a 2D puzzle and platform game that is very innovative in its mechanics. It can be enjoyed equally by someone who is not an expert in the genre as well as by more experienced players. Switch is the perfect platform to discover its secrets anywhere.

Fez was originally released at a time when indie games were exploding, and it’s a perfect example of why that happened. Fez is a gorgeous work of art, both effortlessly accessible and masterfully complex, and even nine years later, it’s practically perfect.

It’s very much a post-Super Mario 64 game, with lots of mysteries to discover alongside the more typical and “in plain sight" challenges. Some of those mysteries are unbelievably well-hidden, to the point that you may never find them. But it probably won’t bother you that much, because even without digging into the depths of its madness FEZ has an awful lot to give.

As someone who has played an unhealthy amount of games over the years, it’s rare to find a game like a FEZ that not only implements an ambitious structure of gameplay that should, by rights, turn players off unless they have a smarty pants master’s degree, to still providing a memorable gameplay experience based solely around its face-value mechanics. Pretty environments, fantastic sound, well-written dialogue and tight gameplay mechanics are often ten-a-penny these days. Despite pushing 10 years old, FEZ not only maintains these values in spades, but it also manages to do so by staying utterly unique without the fear of not being understood.

When Fez clicks, it’s sublime. Bouncing through the world while rotating it to figure out the right way to reach a platform nails the right balance of difficulty and reward. The way the game opens up as you play, revealing secrets on top of secrets is something I’ve never seen another game land quite as well. What stands out most to me about Fez after nine years is that I’m in the midst of my third playthrough and even with some of the sheer novelty being lessened, I’m as enthralled as I was back in 2012. Fez stands as a truly unique indie game that draws inspiration from classics but is wholly its own precious and maddening experience that needs to be played.

Fez is ultimately a masterpiece in game design. After almost ten years, it retains its fresh approach and, after all the road made by indie titles, is still unrivaled as a platform-puzzle based on perspective.

FEZ is unique and irreplaceable. A masterpiece that still is as relevant as nine years ago.

On Switch or not, Fez is an incredible experience, strong and deep like very few games are. Whether you already played it somewhere else or not, Phil Fish's game is a must-have and has not aged a bit, even after 10 years.

With its unique concept that plays on perspectives, the puzzle platformer still impresses today thanks to its flawless ingenuity, as well as a formula that is enriched throughout the adventure.