Underground Games: And Yet it Moves

This one might be cheating a little bit, but in the spirit of IndieCade this past weekend, I wanted to talk about one such game that was released with little fanfare, but is a great game nonetheless. While other indie games such as Braid, Limbo and P.B. Winterbottom have all gotten a certain degree of hype within the Xbox Live circles, And Yet it Moves was a game cut from the same cloth that went largely unnoticed when it hit WiiWare in summer 2010, but that didn’t make it any less special. While it didn’t have many tricks, it did a great job of taking a single core mechanic and exploiting it to its fullest.

Much like video games that I grew up with, AYIM doesn’t have much of a story. It’s as simple as guiding a little paper cut out guy from one end of each stage to another, avoiding traps in the process. The entire game is presented in a type of pop up book look, so each set of stages has a unique feel from the forest to the cave stage. 

But if that’s all there was to AYIM, this wouldn’t be a game worth bragging about. Its catch is the ability to freeze the game and rotate the world with the Wii Remote. Suddenly, leaps of faith became problem solvers, because due to the momentum physics, the main character could jump off a ledge, at which point the world could be spun in a different direction so that his momentum would push him through a tear in a wall. This mechanic was used in so many cool ways, like moving boulders, avoiding bees. On paper, it doesn’t sound like much, but in action, it was so rewarding to figure out each platforming challenge as they came.

It’s too bad that Nintendo never adopted an efficient way to highlight the premiere games that were released for its WiiWare service, leading so many gamers to believe it didn’t offer anything worth playing. I feel this is where the problem was for this game getting zero exposure, because even for an indie game, it flew in so far under the radar that it hardly was a blip on anyone’s conscious. Much like other games that will probably end up in this series eventually, (I’m looking at you bit.Trip and MotoHeroz,) if Nintendo promoted these games half as much as games like Limbo and Braid were promoted, they could have gathered a much bigger console following. But the lack of exposure didn’t mean AIYM wasn’t some of the most fun I’ve had with a download title.

If you ask me, the game play in AYIM stands up well against some of the best indie games out there. Aside from its short length, it did everything a game needs to to be successful. With its unique art style, its solid execution and memorable moments, this game is a perfect reason to pick up a few old Wii point cards and give this one a shot.