Whether games are played in first or third-person, most don’t try to trick the human eye by manipulating their camera angles, landscapes, and designs to inspire new ways of thinking, like in games that play with perspective.
Although few games feature optical illusions, combine 2D and 3D features, or take place in worlds filled with impossible architecture, those that challenge the player’s point of view are often unique, enigmatic, and innovative. It may take a while to adjust to the logic and limitations of each game’s world while playing them, but these games use their creativity to prove that perspective is everything.
10 Echochrome
In Echochrome, players help a drawing mannequin navigate complicated levels filled with springs, holes, and fragmented pathways by adjusting the camera. At certain angles, walkways can reconnect, allowing the figure to avoid obstacles and reach its objectives.
While Echochrome has seemingly simple goals and uses black-and-white level designs to help players recognize each pathway, its levels inspired by M.C. Esher’s impossible architecture become more complex as the game progresses. To present the mannequin with the most efficient path forward, players must understand how to quickly and precisely adjust the camera while looking ahead to the next goal.
9 Perspective
Developed by a group of students at DigiPen in 2012, Perspective is a puzzle platformer that combines 2D and 3D aspects to help a figure avoid orange walkways and reach its goal. While moving the camera forward or backward can make obstacles easier to jump over, turning the camera can reveal new paths forward, making every camera angle beneficial throughout the game.
Moving both the figure at the camera at the same time makes for an immersive and, at times, disorienting experience, but the aptly named game pushes the best of first-person puzzlers and 2D platformers to their limits.
8 Fez
After a 3D hexahedron breaks apart in front of Gomez, he receives a fez that allows him to rotate the world and begins experiencing other sides of his 2D life. As he explores his home, he meets a dot from the fourth dimension that encourages him to collect pieces of the fragmented hexahedron to save the world from falling apart.
Fez is often considered an indie success story for its innovative gameplay and ability to add depth to a 2D world without 3D gameplay. However, the gameplay is not Fez’s only strength, as watching the world deteriorate before Gomez is a powerful motivator to encourage him to restore the world to its original beauty.
7 Superliminal
In Superliminal, players agree to undergo dream therapy to help them put the problems of their daily life in perspective. Once asleep, they begin orientation to learn how to change the sizes of chess pieces, soda cans, and signs by picking them up and dropping them. However, the lucid dream doesn’t seem as put together as the agreement first implied, encouraging players to take their experience into their own hands.
As players try to wake up, Superliminal shows them how perspective is reality while using environmental storytelling and voice clips to piece together why their experience in sleep therapy went off course.
6 Monument Valley
Monument Valley is a charming mobile game that follows Princess Ida on a journey to return the Sacred Geometry she stole while leaving her kingdom and people behind. As she tries to take back her mistakes, she navigates impossible architecture and avoids the troublesome crow people by rotating platforms and the world around her.
Along her quest, Princess Ida comes across a ghost from the civilizations who built the monuments, informing her of the consequences of her theft while encouraging her that she is worthy of forgiveness if she continues restoring the pieces of Sacred Geometry to their original homes. Altogether, Monument Valley’s story, design, and gameplay make it a creative and moving game.
5 Lost In Shadow
Severed from its original body, the shadow of a boy climbs a tower, seeking to reconnect with its owner. Although the path before it is long and filled with bridges, ladders, and rotating platforms, players can only move in the building’s shadow while avoiding otherwise invisible beasts and traps.
Early in the game, Lost In Shadow’s world feels like an optical illusion since some players often focus on the physical world rather than the one made of shadows. However, as the boy’s shadow approaches his body, he also learns to adjust the room’s lighting to cast longer or shorter shadows against the wall.
4 Gorogoa
Gorogoa is a point-and-click puzzle game with intricate designs that encourages players to create unlikely pathways to lead a boy toward an awe-inspiring and mysterious creature he sees from his window while collecting fruit. As players learn how to best navigate the world by stacking and sliding images in front of each other, the world unveils its diversity, beauty, and complexity.
Occasionally, the puzzles in Gorogoa can take a few moments to solve. However, by taking a step back and looking for similarities between each panel, players can often appreciate its attention to detail and use of depth.
3 Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Following Captain Toad on a journey to save Toadette from a giant bird named Wingo while gathering stars, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker leads Toad through worlds filled with secret passageways, hidden objectives, and movable platforms. As he overcomes each challenge, Toad must rotate the camera to his advantage and choose the most efficient way forward.
Uncovering every secret Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker takes determination to discover, but whether players space the adventure between multiple short sessions or complete it as quickly as possible, the game rewards players for their efforts.
2 The Legend Of Zelda: Link Between Worlds
In The Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds, a sorcerer named Yuga transforms the guards and priests of Hyrule Castle into paintings to help his efforts to resurrect Ganon. While Link charges forward to protect Zelda and Hyrule, he shares the same fate as the castle’s other staff until he receives a bracelet that allows him to shift between life as a painting and a Hylian.
Although Link Between Worlds is one of the series’ most underrated games, allowing its puzzles to feature both 2D and 3D challenges gives its players more options about how to approach each dungeon.
1 Super Paper Mario
Unlike the first two installments of the Paper Mario series, Super Paper Mario allows players to flip each level between 2D and 3D during Mario’s quest to find the Pure Hearts and save Princess Peach from Count Bleck.
While changing perspective may seem like a strange mechanic for a Paper Mario game at first, its creativity helps Mario discover hidden items, avoid enemies, and use walkways that seem like part of the background. Depending on which ally accompanies Mario on his journey, the game also offers players more secrets and abilities to enjoy.