Indie game designer Phil Fish has pulled the pixelated, two-dimensional tarp away to reveal his latest project, Fez, an apparent platformer that blends an old-school look with with a new twist, the ability to shift the character's environment to make some obstacles easier to overcome.
The two-dimension to three-dimensional shifting gimmick doesn't seem quite as revolutionary with games like Crush and Super Paper Mario already on the market, but we still have to admit that we're intrigued to see where Fish will take it.
I'm okay with more games using space-shifting---after all, if lots of people do it, it stops being a gimmick and becomes a device, which is fine by me (would you call pressing buttons in rhythm a gimmick? or shooting crates?). And I dig the retro look.
i think 2d/3d is a natural evolution. 2D isnt a technical limitation anymore, its a choice. and 3D isnt the crazy new thing it was years ago. 2d/3d is just a new direction games could be (and are) taking. it feels natural to me that more games are blending the two.
SPM and CRUSH did it first, dosent mean they should be the only ones to ever do it.
its kinda like all these parkour and freerunning games being made right now. its where we're at now. nobody sent a memo around saying "hey everybody! its time to freerun"
or kinda how big movie blockbusters tend to come in twos.
and BTW, i *hated* SPM and i never played CRUSH (on purpose). it's just the game i wanted to make.
Sweet! This look like the game Super Paper Mario SHOULD have been.
Although...I can't help but worry that it looks a lot like an ordinary 3d platformer but just with 4 fixed camera views instead of a freefloating camera. Hopefully the level designs will make it not feel that way.
Now that you mention it, it does look like a blend between the two. The parts that looked "Wind Waker" to me were the stone and grass of the two small islands, that rock statue and pottery, the building and the sky. Especially the color palette that's being used.
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the similarities in appearance this has to Cave Story, (Which, BTW, is a good thing. Cave Story had a great style!).
Anyway, I like what I see so far. Any idea when this will be released? When it does come out, how much is it going to set me back?
