The default mouse setup is probably the best option, sporting several different actions that can all be performed with simple clicks. Holding the left button down will cause Naija to swim in a direction toward the mouse cursor, and she will move slightly faster or slower depending on how close or far the cursor is from her. A second click of the left button will cause her to shoot forward in a quick burst of speed if the cursor is far away, and if she runs into a wall or large object while doing this, she’ll latch onto it with her hands and feet. From there, another click of the mouse will send her speeding off in an even longer, faster leap, or if you simply click her body, she’ll let go of the wall and remain stationary. Players will likely find themselves using these different methods in concert as they explore environments, leading to a very playful sense of movement.

The right mouse button takes care of the rest of the controls, being used primarily for attacking and singing (yes, singing -- but we’ll get to that a bit later), and players can use the keyboard in conjunction with the mouse if they prefer a more traditional setup. There’s gamepad support too; and while these auxiliary options might not take full advantage of some features that seem designed around using the mouse by itself, the game plays just fine and feels great no matter how you choose to control it.

Most of the basic concepts are introduced through an initial tutorial area, which is tied nicely to story elements so that it doesn’t get boring, and Naija will then return to her central home cave where she can begin exploring the world as she pleases. There’s an awful lot to see, and in the true style of many great action/adventures, much of it can be accessed early in the game for those bold enough to push the envelope, while smaller sections feature obstacles that cannot be overcome until certain powers are earned as the player progresses.

To make use of many such pathways, you’ll have to remember where various environmental facets are located in the areas that you’ve visited, and it can be a little difficult to remember just where that strange red plant was growing, or where you saw that tiny fissure in the wall. The problem is exacerbated somewhat by a map that doesn’t always detail what you have and haven’t explored in quite the way that you’d like it to. While backtracking to find some of these branching areas might also be a little wearisome for some players, the game has methods of fast travel that once unlocked will cut such treks down to easily manageable levels (though you can certainly swim the whole way yourself if you like). Some may also take issue with the fact that saving their game progress can only be handled in specific locations, occasionally meaning that death will force them to make a decently sized trip over again. But save points pop up pretty regularly if you keep your eyes open, and since so much of this stuff is par for the course where similar games are concerned, fans of the genre won’t have trouble adapting. In fact, while Aquaria is a PC and Mac-only game as of this writing, its inspirations seem to largely come from the elder days of console development, so a lot of fans would probably feel the design was substandard if too much tweaking to these well-established formulas had been done.

Fortunately, Aquaria is far from formulaic. While it sticks to a few fundamental traditions for good or ill, the feeling of life within the world itself is very different from most games of its ilk. Not only do the world and its inhabitants move with vibrant color and expressive -- if occasionally stiff -- animation, there are fun relationships between certain entities, and some of them will interact with Naija in interesting (not always violent or entirely obvious) ways. There’s a disparate array of creatures both friend and foe, and while they all look different, a good portion of them also act in ways unique to their species or subspecies. Now, you won’t find any excessively deep artificial intelligence or life simulation here, but that isn’t the point. The little details, visual and otherwise, exist to bring attention to themselves and draw the player further into the world, making everything interesting to look at and experiment with. Few games of this kind are so fun to just mess around with. This feeling of freedom and experimentation even leads to occasional instances of emergent gameplay (or “discovered” gameplay, if you prefer), and when combined with the cooking system, which converts collectable ingredients into usable items, the costumes and treasures that can be brought back to Naija’s home, the food recipes that can be discovered, the helpful pets that can be hatched, and the optional bosses that can be fought, there are an awful lot of things to do that remain engaging without forcing any immediate goals on the player.

-- --

The cooking offers the most utility of these diversions, and it will become a central concept quickly for most players. While cooking underwater may sound a bit strange, it works great here in what really boils down to an RPG-style alchemy system. Players will find recipes for foods that increase the potency of Naija’s powers, heal her, or offer a bevy of other bonuses in an array of combinations, and they can then hunt for the required ingredients wherever they know them to be found. Two items can be cooked together on the fly at any time, whereas recipes that require three ingredients need to be cooked in one of several kitchens found in the world. There are also many consumable food items which can be improved or changed by adding further ingredients to them. For instance, you might find yourself using two ingredients to make a “sea cake” that will heal you when you eat it, but you could go a step further and use the freshly-baked cake with another ingredient to double its healing potential or give it defensive properties. Not every food combination works, but players are welcome to try what they like, sans recipe, just to see if something happens. Failed experiments will net you a not-so-useful “sea loaf”, but playful experimentation is encouraged as much here as it is in many elements of Aquaria’s gameplay.

The story itself is mostly linear (though the exploration and earning of powers is not), but players are still afforded some options in that department as well. That may or may not surprise them, but what likely will catch them off guard is that the story is so good. It isn’t necessarily told in any groundbreaking ways, nor is it the best part of the game, but it’s a good deal deeper and better presented than what you usually get with titles of this kind. Featuring a fully voiced script and competent writing that can only be knocked for being slightly convoluted, this is the kind of stuff that makes you want to keep playing not only because the game is fun, but because you truly want to know what’s going to happen next. There are mysteries here that demand to be solved.

Helping to keep the emotional pace up is an excellent original score written by Bit Blot’s resident programmer-musician, Alec Holowka. The same refreshing earnestness that permeates the story and the acting is present in the tracked music, and it will be small wonder for many to discover that Holowka has admitted to physically emotional moments during his work on the soundtrack. There’s a quiet, comfortable melancholy sleeping at the base of Aquaria’s oft-referenced main theme, and there are several takes on this used in the “Open Waters” area of the game. This main zone links together many of the more unique, dungeon-like locations, which, along with some boss fights, have more driving tunes that convey feelings of danger or urgency. The game sometimes even opts for total silence when it really wants you to hold your breath, giving no score but the sway of the boundless ocean.