Indie games often take a retro or old school approach in their gameplay and presentational designs. The I of It does as well, but not in the way you might think. Rather than looking and sounding like a game from the NES era, The I of It mimics a 1980s edutainment program.
In The I of It, you play as the letter “I,” and it’s your job to search for the letter “T,” which has run off somewhere. The game offers single-screen puzzles that start simply enough but become progressively harder. None of the puzzles are ever frustrating and are certainly not punishing, but as you advance further into the game, you get a sense of the escalating challenge.
The I of It is a fairly slow-paced game, and the puzzles lend themselves to this calculated speed. As you go from puzzle to puzzle, the game’s narrator gives you little factoids, teaching you how to play or saying something like, “Hit me baby one more time” when you die. The narrator’s voice is especially old school, and sounds like he was taken straight out of an educational TV show for kids about counting and learning the alphabet. The music has the same quirky style, and if you grew up watching shows like Reading Rainbow and Sesame Street, you’ll be left with a nice feeling of nostalgia.
The I of It isn’t an particularly long game, but its puzzles are engaging and make you think. If you want an indie game that differs from the usual round of side-scrolling platformers or shoot ’em ups, you’ll probably get a good deal of enjoyment from this free browser-based puzzler. Check out The I of It for some quick brain teasers.
