Published by: 3DO Developed by: Zed Two Players: 2 Duel Shock: Yes Da Introduction: No these aren't Tele Tubbies, although a quick glance at the box may have you thinking otherwise. These are Aquas, little colorful people that bring life to a lifeless surface in a game called Aqua Aqua. Like Wetrix for the N64, Aqua Aqua is a 3D puzzler based on Tetris that forces you to be quick on the draw. By placing falling pieces appropriately on a 3D map, the main idea is to prevent too much water from spilling over the side and lasting as long as you can. But the task is easier said than done. Da Graphics: Although Aqua Aqua certainly won't test the full capabilities of your P2S's hardware, it's still a good-looking title for a puzzle game. The game in rendered in 3D, with clean visuals, no jaggies and rich vibrant colors. Animals that form in your lakes, although small, are recognizable as what they're suppose to be, mountains are detailed with bumpy surfaces and the water, looks like water. There are some nice effects and animations as well, such as crater forming bombs that rip into the earth, fire balls that spill from the sky, and pools that slosh with moving H2O. And hey, the Aquas are pretty darn cute to boot. Da Sound: There's not a lot to say about the game's sound, although it is extremely busy with sound effects due to the nature of the game. Objects are constantly hitting the surface of your map creating noise, whether it's the notification sound of a land piece striking the surface, a bomb crashing down from the sky, or water splashing around, there's certainly enough audio here to keep your ears perky. Even the Aquas speak from time to time in cute high voices informing you about your progress. The music in the game is well-suited fast paced techno fair, fitting the sci-fi or otherworldly theme of the game. It can actually be quite hypnotic, pulling you into a mesmerizing gamer's trance along with the quick pace of the game. Unfortunately after a lengthy gaming session you may have to turn the sound off, it is somewhat repetitive. Da Gameplay: Here's the deal. Objects fall quickly to the surface of your map, and you must rotate and place them in proper spots using your quick judgment. Land builders, or Uppers, which appear as red arrows, are what you use to create walls. The more you stack, the higher the walls, which are essentially mountains. You want to build walls to enclose areas and prevent water, which comes down often, from spilling over the sides. If water spills over the side due to overflow from cracks in your walls, a rain bucket on the right hand side of the screen begins to fill, and if the bucket becomes full it's game over (noted by the faint cries of a drowning Aqua inside the bucket). Fireballs allow you to evaporate water from your lakes and bucket, keeping you in the game longer, but they are rare. The types of Uppers you are given to play with vary in shape; they're either L shaped, straight, T shaped or square as per Tetris. But not only do Uppers fall from the heavens, you also have to place Downers, green arrowed pieces, to remove land. This can be either good or bad, depending upon whether you need to destroy sections of miss built mountains or not. They're also good for preventing earthquakes that happen if your land is over built, and earthquakes are nasty because they wipe out large areas hampering your progress. Then there are objects of complete misfortune, like ice cubes which slow you down and bombs which utterly destroy the surface creating holes in your map. All of this happens very swiftly, so you see, you need to be on your toes, and the longer you last, the more points you score. The game is very challenging, and the difficulty level is definitely up there. Quick Puzzle is a continuous game that gets you right into the action, where you try to survive for as long as you can while going for the highest score, yet you can only play the first level area until more are unlocked in Story Puzzle. In Story Puzzle you face more challenges by unlocking different worlds, which is only done after you achieve a certain score that gets you by the boss of that level. VS Puzzle mode lets you play unlocked levels head to head with another person where the challenge is trying to outlast your opponent. But in order to get to the Story Puzzle and Vs Puzzle you need to first complete all 8 lessons in the Training mode. This isn't easy, especially for a beginner. I suppose it keeps the replay value up but this depends on your level of patience. The game is tough enough due to the amount of things happening on your screen. But when technical issues come in to hamper the play even more, it can make things tedious. The problem is the camera angles in the game are lacking. You basically have a fixed camera, which is zoomable, but fairly useless other than that. It doesn't matter how close or far you can zoom into your map, this is of no help. A rotating camera is needed, because it can be difficult to see where water is actually leaking from when you misplace a piece. And the fact that pieces are misplaced so easily has to do with the tricky 3D view perspective you are given. Sure there is a grid which helps guide where your piece is going to go, but it's still pretty tough getting it exactly where you want it. More often than not I built gapping holes in my walls thinking the piece that I just placed was initially in a good position before it landed. Still, aside from these problems the gameplay is fast, fun and addictive. There's definitely a bucket full of warranted challenges here such as the game's fast pacing and the visual awareness you require, that make this game worth playing. Da Conclusion: Aside for the difficult perceptive due to the lack of a better camera system, Aqua Aqua deserves more good points than bad. The game is fast, as well as challenging, and the atmosphere created by the nice graphics and appropriate music are enveloping. The Joystick is up for Aqua Aqua. Joystick up Da Graphics: 7.5 Da Sound: 7.5 Da Gameplay: 7 Da Tilt: 8 Overall: 7.5 Aqua Aqua was reviewed by DAGAMEBOYZ Drakaland