The bare-bones presentation in English Country Tune constantly teases you with questions: What’s up with that name? What’s with the retro-glitchy sounds? Why are these balls called larva? And, most importantly how the hell do I clear this level?
ECT challenges you to move objects on the playfield from one point to another. It’s that simple. But the solutions that you’ll use to do so are maddeningly complex. Players control a flip-flopping square that adheres to the levels’ three-dimensional surfaces, using it to push along globes or cubes to specific points. Later levels introduce the concept of a shrub trail that you leave behind and that you’ll need to use to cover specific areas.
You don’t have a time limit and there are no instructions. So, even though a hint says that gravity is relative to the way you’re pushing a ball, it’ll take a few tries for you to understand how the concept works. Created by indie dev studio Increpare, English Country Tune feels like an intelligence test created by extraterrestrials. It’ll force you to think of physical space and what you see when you move through the world in a totally different way.
English Country Tune [$4.99, iTunes]