Aquaria

[Thrik]

I noticed miffy mentioned this in the backlog thread, and having looked into it further it looks really nice -- especially for what is seemingly an indie game. I've also noticed some guys in another forum I visit raving about it a bit.

I don't have the time for it now, but it'll be going on my backlog if it plays as good as it looks.

Have some

and

. Also perhaps some Wikipedia.

It's clear that the original art and music really stands out, which is really drawing me towards it being the superficial tosser that I am.

It is kind of sucky when slightly special games fly under the radar. My radar, anyway! And that's what really matters.

[Jake]

Haven't played Aquaria yet, but the arist on Aquaria, Derek Yu, runs a great great great blog on indie games and gaming called TIGSource ("the independent gaming source"). You can find a zillion awesome games there every week, as well as some great discussion (and some pretentious -- but avoidable, and fortunately discouraged rather than enabled by the mods -- indie snobbery) in their comments and forums.

Fun Fact: Derek Yu was on my short list of artists to harass into doing work for Thumbs back in early 2004 when we were starting the site, but I never really made contact with him. This fact makes me more sad with every passing month . Fortunately he's doing awesome things.

[DanJW]

Yeah, I've not seen this before either. It reminds me slightly of Ecco the Dolphin. That is by no means a bad thing.

[Noyb]

I think that was me who had it in the backlog thread. The demo had a slow start, but was very fun. The demo has about 2 hours of gameplay, including a combat heavy-section and fun boss at the end that dispelled any doubts of this being a simple casual game. I really liked Derek Yu's older game Eternal Daughter (insane difficulty curve notwithstanding), and from the demo, this seems to be living up to my expectations. The art and music are absolutely lovely, and the mouse-oriented gameplay feels really smooth. Still, until I get caught up on all the other games, it's in the backlog.

[Tanukitsune]

I'm waiting for me to have time to play the game before purchasing it, because I loved the demo!

[Nick]

It reminds me slightly of Ecco the Dolphin. That is by no means a bad thing.

I get that as well, but also I'm reminded of Castlevania.

[twmac]

Eurogamer just posted a review:

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=89548

Looks thoroughly charming.

[Wrestlevania]

I liked the demo. Very polished.

Not my sort of game though.

[Drath]

I don't know about the rules about resurrecting pretty old threads, but I thought I would give this game some new light without starting a new post.

I got this game as part of the Humble Indie Bundle and this has been by far my favourite of the 5-6 games. In fact, I would say this is probably one of my favourite indie games of all time... wait, actually, one of my favourite games period.

It truly is a Zelda meets Metroid meets Ecco the Dolphin type of game for me. The adventuring, the item collection, the power-ups, the boss battles, the huge exploration of the world. There's something there that just clicks for me. I'm about 6+ hours in and I am rewarded anew each and every hour with new things I find, new bits and pieces of story, exploring... I love the exploration. The world is so open, new and exciting... but yet confined to tunnels and passages and maze-like structure of the underwater.

Anyways, if you haven't tried this yet, you should! This contends with any triple A game in terms of gameplay, even three years later.

[Asembo]

I got this game as part of the Humble Indie Bundle and this has been by far my favourite of the 5-6 games. In fact, I would say this is probably one of my favourite indie games of all time... wait, actually, one of my favourite games period.

I also got this via the Humble Indie sale, but I'm stuck and don't know what to do . I try to play it every now and then, but I have no idea how to get past those stones with star symbols on them and I know that I probably have to do something really simple. I would really appreciate it if someone would help me out with this one.

Edited August 18, 2010 by Asembo

[Drath]

I'm not sure if it's what you are talking about, but if you are talking about the stones with the starfish on them, you need to levitate/push/move them using the bind song (I think you get it pretty early on?).

[Erkki]

I played it for maybe 10 hours over a period of a month or so, but I stopped when I had no idea what I needed to do next and going back and forth to find if I missed something got boring.

[Drath]

I played it for maybe 10 hours over a period of a month or so, but I stopped when I had no idea what I needed to do next and going back and forth to find if I missed something got boring.

This is something I nipped pretty quickly in the game when I first found an instance of backtracking - which is probably why they added map marker labels. About two hours in I started marking points of interest or blockades, or things I couldn't interact with yet. It has already saved me a couple times.