“Fez” Charms at PAX East 2011

Posted by Evan Narcisse on March 15th

When I was a kid, the wait for new video games seemed interminable. I’d see the ads on the backs of comic books and shake my fist at the sky: “When, Lord?! When will I get ‘Double Dragon’ for my Genesis?!” And then I’d get it and it’d suck.

The point I’m making here is that people have been waiting for Polytron’s “Fez for a long time. First charming audiences during the run-up to the 2008 Independent Games Festival, the side-scrolling platformer looks like something made in 1982 but shows off the clever gameplay mechanics of a modern-day creation.

FEZ PAX TRAILER from POLYTRON on Vimeo.

You control Gomez, a hat-wearing gentlecreature who must tackle platforming challenges in a gorgeous, pixellated world. Our hero got his headgear after encountering a golden cube that explodes after speaking to him. He then must gather the pieces of the cube, to eventually reassemble the mysterious cube. Aiding him in his quest is the hat-given ability to switch the world from 2D to 3D, letting players create paths in places where there were previously none.

FEZ BEGINS from POLYTRON on Vimeo.

“Fez” won awards for Design Innovation and Excellence in Visual Art back in the 2008 IGF, so folks have understandably been chomping at the bit for a while. The hands-on time I spent with the game this past weekend at PAX East not only makes me feel like Polytron’s game will be worth the wait; it also makes me feel like the wait may noot be much longer. “Fez” is due to hit Xbox Live sometime this year.