This weekend I was digging through old bookmarks and dug up an old reference to a game called Aquaria. I first heard of Aquaria when it won the IGF2007 Grand Prize, but it wasn't available for download at the time. Now, they have a good 60M Demo of the game (good for 2 hours or so of playtime), and for $30 you can get the full 250M version. I've been playing it all weekend, and after 6 hours of playtime (according to my savegame) I'm still finding new stuff and continually being astounded by the game.The graphics are simply beautiful. The entire game is a side-scroller basically, but with lots of little bells and whistles. Seaweed and flowers flow as you swim by, matching your movements. Schools of fish following true flocking behavior swimming around. The environment changed from lush green landscapes, to barren castle hallways, to eerie organic fleshly tunnels, and all done seamlessly. The music is even more impressive. An eerie lonely tune that adds to the mystery of "Who am I?", with fast-paced music added for boss fights and action scenes. The cut-scenes are great, and the british accent voiceovers are a perfect match.
At it's heart, Aquaria is a puzzle game with a little bit of combat. Primarily you're searching for new "forms" (spells) to give you new abilities, but usually each form comes with solving a puzzle. Boss fights are there, but are usually puzzle-based. Eg. The boss has only a single special weakness that you have to discover and exploit.
The game is a blast, and I'm catching myself humming the theme music constantly. I look forward to seeing how the story plays out, and seeing what other fantastic environment there are for me to explore.