Aquaria is a masterpiece.

http://www.bit-blot.com/aquaria/

Try the demo, love it, buy it. Aquaria is a 2D side-scroller set under water. It's hard to describe in few words, but I'll try: you swim in a big, non-linear underwater world, encounter a ton of different friends and foes, get new abilities and magical powers, solve puzzles, etc. You also get to ride sea horses, cook your own powerups from ingredients that you find throughout the world, find the numerous hidden objects, etc. It's played entirely with the mouse (though I think that you can also use a gamepad).

This game pretty is the whole package. Creative gameplay, interesting exploration, big, fairly non-linear world, fun puzzles, awesome, challenging combat where the primary skill is movement (a rarity these days), interesting story with great visual storytelling, tons of content, beautiful art s t y l e* and music in a polished game with tons of attention to detail. This game quite simply is a masterpiece, and deserves much more attention than it currently receives. I personally can't believe that I waited almost a year before playing it.

Aquaria was made by two guys, and it's the first time in a long, long time that I was actually amazed by a gaming experience.

*Gamespot doesn't let you use the word "s t y l e" without spacing anymore. Conspiracy to keep us from praising artistic games!

Yeah, I got it back in April. It's an amazing game. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece - Castlevania Symphony of the Night is a masterpiece - but Aquaria certainly is magnificent.

Beautiful art, beautiful music and fun (and uncommon) gameplay. Definitely a game people should be playing.

By the way, for styIe, just use a capital i. Looks like a lowercase L with the default font.

Yeah, I got it back in April. It's an amazing game. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece - Castlevania Symphony of the Night is a masterpiece - but Aquaria certainly is magnificent.

Beautiful art, beautiful music and fun (and uncommon) gameplay. Definitely a game people should be playing.

By the way, for styIe, just use a capital i. Looks like a lowercase L with the default font.

fatshodan

Yeah, I got it back in April. It's an amazing game. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece - Castlevania Symphony of the Night is a masterpiece - but Aquaria certainly is magnificent.

Beautiful art, beautiful music and fun (and uncommon) gameplay. Definitely a game people should be playing.

By the way, for styIe, just use a capital i. Looks like a lowercase L with the default font.

fatshodan

I don't know about that. It's been a while since I played Symphony of the Night, but I think that Aquaria might be a bit better overall. It sure is more artistic (graphically, musically, and storytelling-wise).

Thanks, I'll have to give it a go.

I 'm playing the demo right now I find it hard but fun. hard because you have to figure what to do and where to go. you have really think. I must say I like it.blackdreamhunk

Yeah, exploration is a really big part of Aquaria's gameplay.

I so agree with the OP. When I first saw this game last Winter, I thought I had to play it. Boy, was I happy I made that purchase.

Anyone who likes side scrollers, HAS TO get this game.

Reminds me of Ecco The DolphinTreflis

That's pretty much what it is. Splice Ecco with Metroid or Symphony of the Night and you've got Aquaria.

It's not Gamespot's fault - well, it would be really hard to correct at any rate. The reason you can't say stuff like s t y l e or c l a s s is that they're programming keywords which could lead to this site getting haxor3d.

Aquaria looks *really good* . . .