S&S; Indie Review: Fez

Title: Fez
Format: XBLA
Release Date: April 13, 2012
Publisher: Polytron Corp.
Developer: Polytron Corp/TrapDoor
Price: 
ESRB Rating: E

With Fez already selling over 100,00 copies to date, I know that I'm a little late to the party.  With some cool new innovations in the platforming genre, I'm glad that I finally got around to playing this great indie game.
Presentation and Story:
You'll be controlling Gomez throughout your travels in Fez.  He lived in a peaceful pixelated village, well until a huge 3-Dimensional cube appears and changes everything that little Gomez knows about the world he knows.  He's granted a red fez that gives him the power to shift the perspective of the world around him.  The first time I changed up the dimensions, it really threw my brain through a loop.  The environments at a glance appeared very simplistic in design, but rotating the world around four times gives you a different perspective with each button press.  I instantly came to appreciate the game's gorgeous aesthetics, lots of bright and vibrant colors will fill your screen.  If you haven't noticed, the game sports an old school pixelated style, each pixel was intricately painted to really bring out the game's cutesy personality.  There's a lot vast levels that offer up a lot of diversity in color and level design.  There is a lot of witty writing in most of the levels via random characters you come across.  There isn't any voice acting in the game, but the great soundtrack more than makes up for it.  The charming soundtrack rounds out an inviting presentation giving you a lot of reason to start the game up.  
Core Gameplay:
The game at its core is a platformer, but the mechanics of changing the different planes around to assist your way through a level makes this game completely unique in its own way.  The rotation gimmick this game throws around could have made this game a nightmare, but the puzzles revolved around the gimmick are well designed.  There are a lot of challenged puzzles which will require a lot of dedication and patience on your end.  The good thing about the puzzles is that they are never cheap, and you won't be throwing your controller to the ground in frustration.  Each new area you come across offers up a number different routes to take, and secret treasures that you probably won't find with just one playthrough.  This is another reason to come back to the game after you've completed it, achievement hunters will have field day with Fez.  There is even a heavy component involving QR codes, scanning the secret codes will unlock more.  Have your smartphone handy just in case you come across a secret QR code.  
Final Thoughts:Fez is a great game, and I kinda wished that I had picked this one up a lot earlier.  It has been out for sometime now, and I now know why it has become one of the best selling games on the Xbox so far.
S&S Rating: 9/10 @whatsPlay