The world of independently-developed videogames is a strange one.  It’s a market overflowing with any number of budget-level attempts by amateur developers looking to replicate the look and feel of their bigger-budgeted inspirations, only (too often) over-lavished with undeserved praise by critics and fans who know and wish to champion the developers.  A majority of these games typically rely on stylized visuals, a singular game mechanic and a unique take on in-game physics, most times pilfered from some unaccredited inspiration from gaming’s past or present.  Another common trait is to have the game emerge from a pre-existing technology or academic concept, which gives those playing them the added feeling they’re engaged in an intellectual pursuit, rather than playing a mere game for their enjoyment.

Developed by Austrian-based troupe Broken Rules, And Yet It Moves neatly follows these rules almost to the letter, yet has the audacity to offer a thoroughly unique indie-adventure that probably would never have seen a full retail release in this age of me-too blockbusters and cookie-cutter sequels.  The Wii’s distinct controls and relatively inexpensive development requirements have made it a favorite among indie developers to port their products to console gamers hungry for something – anything – new and innovative.  It may earn its indie-cred with pasted visuals inspired more by impressionist paintings and sketchbook doodles, but it’s the genre-busting gameplay and utter lack of concern for expectations that make it so endearing.  And best of all, it’s actually fun to play.

Originally released to various PC download services last year, it makes its entrance onto Nintendo’s WiiWare service in grand style, complete with dramatically improved controls, more levels, and the same vertigo-inducing gameplay mechanic that makes it such a compelling experience.  From the original Sonic the Hedgehog to LocoRoco, the concept of full 360-degree world rotation is hardly a new trick, though it’s hard to believe this gimmick has never really been applied to a 2D platformer until now.

The game completely eschews any semblance of story or ongoing narrative, instead focusing its energy on delivering a 2D platforming experience like never before.  You assume the role of a wild-haired animated sketch boy as he travels across 16 levels of varying design and paper-like construction and textured locations.  Your movements are limited to moving forward and backward, aided only by your ability to jump; there’s no grapple, crawl, or simple ledge-climbing to be found anywhere.  While this may sound somewhat simplistic, what’s here is a game-changing mechanic that - literally - turns this world on its head.  You have the power to fully rotate the world as you like in 360-degrees, reordering the flow of gravity whenever you like.

The feeling of having complete control over the direction of the world isn’t unlike playing Super Mario Galaxy for the first time, although this time you have complete control over the direction and timing of how and when the world rotates.  Obstructing walls soon become floors and ceilings, while something as simple as leaping off cliffs become quick lessons in testing your spatial reorganizing skills.  Just as with Nintendo’s gravity-defying plumber, you’re asked to forget 25 years of platforming conventions and play styles on the fly, as you leave the comfort of constant perspective behind.  Completing some levels is as simple as turning walls into floors, while others will shake the complacency from your bones, as a never-ending stream of new ideas and concepts quickly replace the ones you just learned.  Later levels will have you control parallel versions of yourself (black & white), with the fate of the whole dependent on the survival of the two.

Mid-level checkpoints come in the form of transparent versions of yourself and have the secondary role of helping you navigate these increasingly complex worlds by pointing you in the right direction.  You’ll need all the help you can get, because in this topsy-turvy world death happens quite a bit - and it’s not just frustrating falls or splatters you’ll have to contend with.  Cut ‘n paste gorillas, iguanas (?), and even what appears to be a hamster will all thwart your progress at some time or another, and if you think a little bop to the noggin will dispatch them, you’ve got another thing coming.  As with completing levels, the key is to think outside the box, taking full advantage of whatever influence your ability to control the world has to offer.  You won’t find much in the way of suggestions or helpful hints, meaning you’ll have to call upon the previously unused nether regions of gray matter in your skull to figure out the best way to put that monkey in his place.

Despite having the ability to tilt and rotate things as you like, real-world physics and the nagging laws of gravity and velocity still apply.  Leap too far or spend too much ‘hang time’ trying to salvage an ill-timed jump and you’ll find yourself splatting into confetti with a spittle-laden ‘skoosh’.  Your body is as brittle as the paper it resembles, so don’t be surprised if you end up intentionally sacrificing yourself to test the possibilities, as there’s often more than one way to complete a level.  Thankfully, the checkpoints are never more than a stone’s throw away and death is little more than a temporary inconvenience.

Perhaps the most substantial upgrade to this version are the updated controls and gameplay, which have been expanded to allow full 360-degree rotations, opposed to the limited 90-degree turns in the original.  Not only does this add a greater sense of freedom to solving the many puzzles, but it also helps transform an interesting gimmick into a great one, making the game intimately more fun in the process.

The stock control scheme is simply holding the Wii remote sideways, using the d-pad for movement and using Buttons 1 + 2 for freezing the world and jumping.  Rotation is handled by twisting the remote (as in New Super Mario Bros. Wii) and typically works very well.  Classic Controller support works exactly like the standard Wii remote, only excising motion-controls and allocating world rotation to the shoulder buttons.

While adding motion-controls to the turning mechanic generally works fine, I found the ideal set-up (for me, anyway) was using both the Wii remote + Nunchuk, which set character movement and jumping to the Nunchuk and the rest to the Wii remote.  This not only allowed me to use motions to rotate the world (either by twisting the remote or aiming an onscreen reticule) but also by pressing the d-pad left or right.  This is considerably more precise than turning your wrist and was (for me) necessary to help navigate some of the sticker moments that required pinpoint accuracy.

The Wii version loses the original’s online ghost runs and leaderboards, but gains a slew of new features that actually extend its relatively short playtime (around 3 – 5 hours) with difficulty-increased modes like Time Trial, Limited Rotations, and even Survival.  This version also features four brand-new levels (upon completing the game) and even more achievements, which can be used to unlock further modifications to the game’s controls and options.  Given the complexity of the actual adventure itself, there’s actually quite a bit of bang for your digital buck here.

The game’s unique look was literally assembled from a range of sources and inspirations (deviantArt gets name-checked in the credits) and the Wii generally displays this strange pastiche of crumpled paper and the odd animal JPEG well.  Though things do get a bit hectic and there’s unfortunate slowdown in some of the later levels, this seldom affects gameplay and is more an annoyance than anything.  One chapter that’s informed by kindergarten-style doodles and bizarre creations is absolutely mind-blowing in its brilliance, and it might surprise you to learn the sparse, yet appropriately ambient soundtrack is entirely compromised of sound-effects and other vocal ‘accomplishments’ by the game’s sound engineer (Christoph, according to the official website) - entirely Bobby McFerrin-style.

And Yet It Moves for the Wii is a superlative example of an independently-developed game done right, as it introduces a wholly unique gameplay concept, exploits it to the fullest, and has the decency to wrap things up before overextending its welcome.  It's a vast improvement over its PC counterpart, with improved controls, more levels, and a host of new features that turn a tightly constructed adventure into an endless series of challenges for obsessive-compulsives.  Its vertigo-inducing 360-degree rotation mechanic makes the platformer exasperatingly fun to learn all over again and, unlike the majority of celebrated indie-releases, the developers at Broken Rules had the audacity to craft a genuinely innovative experience that's the rarest of all things - fun to play.