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Aquaria Review with Screenshot links -Partial Draft- by Mischief Maker 3D 01/01/2008, 6:41pm PST Aquaria just came out a few weeks ago and it's hands down one of the best indie games in years. In a nutshell, it's a cross between Metroid and Ecco the Dolphin with incredibly beautiful production values and designed to be playable with the mouse alone. Even if you don't like indie games, if amazing art direction can make you enjoy a game, give the demo a try. The premise is that you're a white haired not-quite-mermaid with amnesia named Naija. Two guesses what your initial motivation is. And so you go off to explore a huge underwater world with spooky caverns, giant sea monsters, and sunken cities liberally peppered with tempting passageways you can't enter and tantalizing items juuuust out of reach until you gain the proper tool later on. The tools in this game are songs that you activate with a mechanic that's a hybrid of Black and White's gesture spells and Zelda 64's Ocarina. Spells do everything from lift boulders to turning you into a beast that swallows enemies whole and steals their attacks for yourself. I am impressed by the sheer amount of content in this game, both in terms of the gameworld, the art assets, and the optional asides. This would be a fantastic product if it came out of a professional studio. The fact that it's the product of 2 guys is amazing. The graphics are watercolor-style with liberal use of paralax and Image links and captions http://bit-blot.com/aquaria/images/aq-screen01.jpg "Ooh! Pretty!" http://bit-blot.com/aquaria/images/aq-screen02.jpg "Assertive Fishing" http://bit-blot.com/aquaria/images/aq-screen05.jpg "This is what happens when you don't clean the tank" http://bit-blot.com/aquaria/images/aq-screen11.jpg "Goddammit, you bitch! You never backed away from anything in your life! Now fight!" http://bit-blot.com/aquaria/images/aq-screen04.jpg "Did I mention this game has hidden optional boss fights?"

Aquaria Review with Screenshot links -Partial Draft- by Mischief Maker 3D 01/01/2008, 6:41pm PST     Re: Aquaria Review with Screenshot links -Rough Draft- by Mischief Maker 3D 01/02/2008, 9:08am PST         You fucker. by The Happiness Engine 01/03/2008, 6:48pm PST         I tried this by Bananadine 02/09/2011, 3:48pm PST