Review: And Yet It Moves

Posted By: Rian Quenlin In: PC, Reviews, Wii On: 16 Aug

Another game from the Humble Indie Bundle. And Yet It Moves is a platformer with physics elements and a different form of gameplay you wouldn’t expect in the platform genre. And Yet It Moves’ concept involves moving through a dangerous area full of rocks and other obstacles that need to be overcome by the character’s ability to rotate the world as the world, quite literally, revolves around him.

The graphics uses a collage style that may remind people of the Canadian cutout animation series Angela Anaconda and the animation scenes in the sketch comedy Monty Python’s Flying Circus. The entire style of the game is made from what looks like paper cutouts from photographs of rocks, trees, and other

There is no real music to the game, other than some ambient sound effects and simple sounds, a style that was used commonly in the original Tomb Raider games where music only played at key points, and even then it was some percussion instruments. This game has some music to it, but it’s short and repetitive

The gameplay. Well… even though most give this good reviews, this is actually a really mediocre game in my opinion. The levels are predictable at best and there really isn’t a high degree of challenge to them. Rotate the level, make rocks fall, move bats, platforms move. Don’t hit the ground too fast. You have a good degree of flexibility however, meaning that the first solution may not be obvious.

The WiiWare version of this game has great flexibility in the controls, but the PC port only allows for 90 degree rotation which inhibits your style and can cause more deaths than needed.

Good points:
- Interesting idea.
- Makes you think differently.
- One of the very, very few games to use this art style

Bad points:
- The SFX and music is lacking.
- Gets boring quickly.
- The PC port isn’t too great. Get the Wiiware version if you can.

This gets a 5/10 from me for the PC version, and a 6/10 for the Wiiware version based strictly on the controls. It is genuinely unique but it’s just rather dull and doesn’t hold my interest. People who are really into these kinds of games might actually enjoy it however. I’d play the demo first and see if you like it, since I feel this game is a “You’ll love it or hate it” deal.