It's been 14 years since I played a 2D/3D hybrid puzzle game as clever as Cassette Boy

A screenshot of Cassette Boy. A small boy made of white cubes stands on a path in a town colored green and rendered in a retro 2D pixel art style.

I've spent the last 14 years surprised that more games haven't stolen the central gimmick to 2012's Fez. A 2D world that you can rotate like a 3D object to find hidden secrets is the kind of trick that never gets old. But the Fez-like era never really happened and I've been left to wonder what it might be like to play something even half as clever.

Cassette Boy is the closest I've ever got to playing a game that might actually rival Fez. While it lacks Tetris blocks and made-up languages, it's full of similarly mysterious characters and puzzles to uncover as you spin every level around in search of answers.