Aquia is simple in concept, but its puzzles can be quite challenging. On the easiest settings players contend with pushing a pair of vertically oriented blocks into a tower composed of just a few different block colors, but on harder settings they'll be forced to deal with a four-by-four square of blocks, many more block colors, and a much faster moving tower shadow, all of which combine to make things far more difficult. Unfortunately, increased challenge doesn't necessarily equal increased longevity. Aquia can become tedious rather quickly, due mostly to the fact that there are no long term goals. For puzzler lovers, it's worth five dollars, but don't expect to get weeks of entertainment out of it.
Four new games are available for Club Nintendo members to spend their points on. Highlighting the bunch is the SNES classic, Super Mario RPG.
Gaming Target examines Nintendo's Art Style series, the latest attempt at bringing experimental and avant-garde game design to the downloadable realm. From the article:
"Nintendo is a company not above resting on its laurels. As games continue to rise in cost, new and unproven intellectual properties are the first games to get dropped. So it should come as no surprise that the company making the most profit is content to use its established brands for all they are worth in the console space. The relatively new downloadable game realm, on the other hand, is slightly different. Familiar faces still do well but with lower consequences for failure, even a company as conservative as Nintendo can afford to take some chances. Enter their newest series: Art Style, cheap experimental puzzles games for your internet-enabled Nintendo systems."
AQUITE is reminiscent of the underwater music game Electroplankton and has some kind of surreal feeling about it. Underneath this is a solid, though not ground-breaking, puzzle game. It won't last for ages but it is aquite nice experience while it lasts.
