Total randomizer pick, this time selected from the other gigantic Itch.io bundle to come out recently (the Palestinian Aid one). Those two bundles are going to keep this feature well supplied for another year at least. Another Perspective is also another deeply nostalgic pick: not in the usual Indie sense that we're hearkening back to our misspent youths playing 2D platformers on 8-bit/16-bit systems but in the specific, Braid-inspired sense that this 2D platformer is an emotionally-charged deconstruction of the genre that asks probing questions about why we play video games at all. (Though speaking of misspent youth, it is odd to think the current generation of kids will have played more ironic meta 2D platformer deconstructions than actual ones by the time they mature.)

Another Perspective puts you in the shoes of a nameless though oddly familiar scruffy protagonist as he hops on platforms and collects keys to unlock doors to subsequent levels. Eventually, you'll start meeting other versions of yourself: the game's primary mechanic is to switch between these other versions to make further progress. Your doppelgangers aren't perfect copies like in The Swapper, however: each one sees the world differently, and may be the only one who can access keys or the door. It's the job of the other clones at that point to assist the one iteration who can actually finish the level. You quickly get into the practice of using yourself as a platform: you can stand on your other self, jump, switch over, jump again so you're directly under your mid-air clone, and switch back to land on yourself - who becomes solid in their inactive state - with a higher vantage point. Easier to understand in practice, I assure you. Some of your clones might have inverted gravity, or be a different size, and you have to take those differences into account also. All the while, you're seeing little messages pop up on the screen that are ostensibly the protagonist's scattered and troubled thoughts, but the game gets a little more meta with the commentary as it proceeds.

Another Perspective really sent me flying back in time to about ten years ago when this sort of game was everywhere. (The game isn't deliberately invoking that era as a throwback, incidentally, since it came out in 2014 - around the end of this specific trend of thinky puzzle-platformers.) It has it all: the searching questions about the nature of this very limited version of reality, where the only things that exist are platforms, doors, and keys; calling out the player for their role in this little theatre; and the unusually sad music that accompanies your jumpy puzzles throughout, as if the game is secretly meant to be an analogy for processing grief or something. I'll always have an affection for games of this type - even if I've never been able to take them too seriously, even the renowned award-winning ones like Journey and Braid - because they were the first games that were specifically Indie: there weren't a whole lot of big AAA-budgeted games going for big emotional revelations just yet (though there certainly are more now) so all these games with their deep ruminations and soulful presentations built around some moderately clever platforming puzzles will always be "The First Wave" as far as this particular tier of game development goes, followed by many other waves like "everything is run-based because it's a cheap and easy way to extend longevity" and "Metroid sure was cool, huh?" and "hope you like getting punched in the 'deck,' because every RPG has card-based combat now." Indie games have definitely woven a vivid and fascinating tapestry over the years, and carved out a niche that continues to expand in intriguing ways. And, as the bigger publishers continue to self-destruct with obnoxious F2P mechanics and sexual misconduct charges, it'll be the little Indies that will keep the lights on here at Giant Bomb (well, along with Weezer album reviews and discussions about that one meme of a frog on a unicycle).

Anyhoo, getting back to Another Perspective, the game is a bit on the short side, doesn't really go as far as it could with the mechanical trickery if it's trying to be all twisty and meta, the dark and muted aesthetic is Drab City, and there's some harsh collision rules where you'll often have to restart the current level because one of your guys clipped a few pixels into a platform and will no longer budge, so that's not so fun. Each level (which are only a single screen each) is over so quick that restarts are scarcely an issue, however. Once you're done with the story there's a Mystery mode which gives you a handful of more difficult levels - and possibly more story, even if the game insists there isn't - if you're still looking for a challenge. The whole meta narrative thing is mildly and drily witty, as many British games tend to be, though I fear being this far out from that whole "what is game?" phase of Indie navel-gazing makes much of it come off as a little rote. It's possible Lair of the Clockwork God may have ruined these thinky, empathetic platformers for me forever - that game's satire was brutal - but it's always a little treat whenever I find one of these I'd missed out on originally.

Rating: 3 out of 5.