Over the weekend, my girlfriend and I played Fez. To be more precise I played Fez and my girlfriend watched from the sidelines. She enjoys watching me play, as she throws in both insightful and foolish remarks. I indulge myself in her witty and badly thought out jokes. At the same time I admire her child-like awe, as I play through a level of a game.

     Witnessing her reaction to Fez, reminded me how marveled I was, when I first bought the game in 2012. Astonished by the concept of Fez, which allowed players to rotate a 2D world, my girlfriend honored the developers as geniuses. At its core Fez is a 2D platformer, jumping from one end to another, but in depth Fez contains puzzle elements. My girlfriend is not a huge gamer, so showing her how Fez worked puzzled her. I demonstrated in order to the get full picture you need to spin around and keep an open mind.

     The puzzle solving might be a bit too much for my girlfriend alone, but the visuals of Fez are alluring to her. She could not stop staring at Fez, let alone stop commenting about how beautiful the game looks. The environment alone reinforced her to pick up the controller and explore. The bright vivid colors set up an atmosphere you want to live in and be a part of.

     A big part of Fez is mystery and the saying two heads are better than one applied. We would look at a map and ponder what it was trying to tell us, like a hidden platform lies here if we face in this direction or enter this door in this pattern. We did our to best to stay away from the Internet, but we had to look up what the symbols meant. We spent our time encrypting the foreign symbols and entering Konami like codes, to squeeze every bit of secret out of Fez. We unlocked a sweet level, where the platforms react to the beat of the music.

     After going through Fez with her, I’ve been inspired to continue exploring the world of Fez. Not alone, of course, the excitement of unraveling a mystery with my girlfriend brings nostalgia of the old SNES generation. Like showing your friend a really cool cut scene. Fez captures what I missed most about classic videogames, the sense of wonder and secrecy. Although, completing Fez alone is rewarding, going through Fez with a friend (or in this case girlfriend) adds a sense of joy. Finding treasure with a friend is the best; you all solved a mystery and, at the same time, shared an experience.