Okay, so I watched the segment about this game on this week’s episode of The 1up Show and I really liked what I saw. It’s an independent game developed by Bit Blot. So, I downloaded the demo, tried it out and wow… this game is really something special.

From a purely superficial standpoint, you might think this game looks like an Ecco the Dolphin clone… don’t be fooled. The game has far more in common with old-school 2-D Metroid exploration games. The gameplay integrates a beautiful music system in which your character sings different songs to interact with the world, or gain new abilities. The really impressive thing about this system is how it works with the background music of the game, they just blend together so it feels like you’re manipulating the game’s score.

I haven’t tried it out with a controller yet (it supports several controller types, including the Xbox 360 controller), but the click-to-move style is just crying for a release on the Wii or even the DS. Their F.A.Q. page vaguely hints at their attempts to get a console release. Hopefully some publisher sees the absolute genius in this game and has the good sense to get it out there on a console. After a little bit of digging around it looks like some people in the game’s community have already gotten the Wii-mote working with the game.

Download the demo and give it a shot. It ran beautifully on my PC, the music was incredible, the controls, the gameplay mechanics… I’m absolutely floored. I will definitely be buying the full version ($30 Download) on Tuesday with some Xmas money. It’s really inspiring to see something so polished developed by a couple of guys with such beautiful production.

Do yourself a favor over the holiday, check this game out. It’s the kind of game that will make you remember why you love video games in the first place.

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