Explore a beautiful, mysterious world, and feel like a lady while doing it.
You wake up (gasp!) after the opening cutscene on the sea floor feeling a little blue, alone in your world among the jellyfish and coral. You are Naija, you're wearing a bathing suit, you have that slightly gangrenous hue to your skin that usually screams 'Zombie!' or 'Pan-Asian Dessert!', but you're cute as a dumpling. Naija's prerogative is simple at this point, to just explore. This is a big word in Aquaria, as the bulk of your time, and the best moments in this game, take place navigating through the humongous underwater world, uncovering sundry secrets and treasures. The many environments you'll uncover in your journey are all beautiful and have that painterly magic that only 2D games can take advantage of, multiplied by the fact that you are underwater, and not subject to the same obligatory desert/jungle/underground combination that quickly becomes tiring. Lush underwater kelp forests, brimming with ancient stone creatures hooded in moss, a ruined city cocooned in the bilious viscera of the monstrosity that dwells within it, and a sun temple inhabited by archaic, mechanical wonders are just a few of the locales that you'll discover. As you move through the sparse and very spare narrative, exploration still takes priority over whatever imperative Naija may or may not be pursuing; the story is noncommittal and vague enough to encourage this, and avoids the usual urgency and impending doom of similar games.
Controls are simple, and can be either executed by mouse alone, a combination of both mouse and keyboard, or a gamepad. Mouse/keyboard is the most rewarding if you opt to turn off the auto-aim function in the options menu, which is desirable given that the combat is, for the most part, for more sensitive folk. Naija essentially can move around in the water in all directions, lunging in free-water and off walls, and that's about the extent of the underwater acrobatics to be had. Naija possesses a special affinity with 'the Verse', the life force flowing through Aquaria, and can sing various songs that are essentially spells, or allow her to assume different forms that augment combat or puzzle-solving. This can only be done in her original form. Holding the appropriate button brings up a wheel of symbols, each corresponding with a musical note, and bringing the mouse over them makes Naija sing. As you progress through the game, different sequences of notes are unlocked, and switching between your various forms in this manner can be an engaging and unique experience. The score is very charming in it's own 16-bit way, and is entirely composed in the same key as Naija's sing-song.
Aquaria is essentially one humongous, interconnected map, which automatically evokes references to Metroid or Castlevania incarnations. Aquaria plays very similarly to these, with new abilities allowing you to surmount the obstacle blocking a certain area, the platforming replaced by shooter mechanics resembling the top-down shooters of old. The sheer size of the world can be at times confusing, and though the entirety of the map is displayed when you enter a certain area (the unexplored parts grayed over), as you exit one area to the next, the former is completely grayed over again until you click on it in the map screen. As you discover more and more areas finding unexplored parts of the maps can get frustrating. A marker system is available to help remedy this, but proves tedious; placing down a marker and typing in its description every time you pass by an obstacle or unattainable treasure gets old, fast. Furthermore, the portal system via dubiously gemmed turtles does little to lighten the burden of getting from one far corner of the world to another, as they are spaced much too far apart from each other. Save-points also suffer from this affliction, so on the rare occasion of your untimely demise, you are back at square one, doomed to travel slowly in increasingly outlandish spandex.
Luckily, this doesn't happen often. Enemies are abundant but generally harmless; between your choice combat forms and the buffing/healing items provided through the collection and combination of various underwater ingredients, as well as different pets and a surprise companion, travelling through Aquaria is relatively safe. The boss fights will be the only time you really need to empty your inventory, as they are both huge and totally awesome. Among these you'll find gigantic squid, an underwater tree goddess, and other screen filling monstrosities in the likeness of many of my favorite types of seafood. After each boss fight a new thread of Aquaria's history is revealed, hinting at a sinister evil veiled beneath the tides, through badly animated cinematics. One has to remember that this an independent game, issuing forth from only two wombs, and certain concessions should be made… but considering how great the game looks, a little more care could be put into how these wonderful pictures move. The story itself is engaging despite the skeletal means it which it unfolds, and holds a handful of surprises for those willing to journey to its completion.
Despite these minor setbacks, Aquaria still manages to capture the magic and wonder one would imagine unfolding whilst exploring beneath the great blue yonder. Though moving through these gorgeous worlds can be sometimes laborious, and the hostile encounters somewhat uninspired and dated, the world itself is worth a playthrough, and is one more to add to an increasingly impressive roster of new independent games. At times you'll feel like a blushing dairymaid, but it has just enough darkness and mystery to sate most of us introverts' limited testosterone. Think of it this way: if you give a man with a gun a dress, does it make him any less lethal? That depends entirely on the tightness of the dress. Terrible analogy.