One of my favorite recent indie games was Fez. I know that might bring up a lot of hate and controversy regarding Phil Fish, but the game was really good. The game masquerades as a puzzle platformer, and as you puzzle-platform around the world, you begin to notice strange things, patterns, things slightly out of place. Eventually, you discover the real game: a set of much harder, thinking puzzles, instead of puzzle-platforming.

The game reminded me of Myst, the way exploring the world gradually yields enough information to find and solve the puzzles. The game's retro aesthetics brought back memories of my days platforming on the SNES. It was a perfect mix of nostalgia and puzzles, combining elements of two of my favourite eras of gaming.

I finished the game in about a week, a few friends and I played and brainstormed together to solve the harder puzzles, and it was some of the best time I've ever spent with them.

At one point, recording sound from the game into Audacity and reversing/slowing down/otherwise manipulating the sound sounded reasonable. That's how tough some puzzles were.