A Quick Look At: AudioSurf

Hello!  I'm taking another Quick Look at one of those games on my Steam list that has no ending.  This is AudioSurf, a rhythm puzzle game that runs on your music.  It's sort of like if Klax and Rock Band had nasty sex and this was their illegitimate love baby.  What I normally do for these Quick Looks is play the game for an hour and report back, but that wouldn't do anybody any good for this game, so I recorded three songs worth of gametime for you to enjoy!











So, yeah, I don't know how long those are gonna stay up due to copyrights and all, so check them out asap.  Also, buy AudioSurf, it's fucking great.

See you tomorrow!

Aquaria Day 11 and 12 and 13: FIN (get it)

Well, I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with my blog.  Things have been kind of crazy.  I also took the weekend off from playing, which I feel bad about, but it was my birthday and I had guests. So today, I got back into the game, and I'm happy to say I have defeated it.  I am not, however, happy to say that I forgot to load Fraps, so there are no pictures of the final boss.  I am an idiot.  Basically I had to enter a giant monster body, and then fight a big monster.  And in true old-school tradition, I had to beat it four times.  I died a lot and it wasn't fun!  But I finally got 'im.  But I didn't get the true ending because I didn't get all the lost souls or memories or whatever?  Fuckin' bullshit.

Anyway, my final thoughts on Aquaria is that it is a truly old-school game.  It makes no apologies for its difficulty or save points or somewhat clunky controls and mechanics.  But man, by the 6th or 7th hour I just wished the game would fucking end already.  I was never that invested in the story and none of the new powers I gained over the course of the game made much of a difference.  It's a fun enough game, but I'm betting most people will put it down long before they see the end.

Final Grade: C+

Aquaria Day 9 AND 10: Nobody Knows The Bubbles I've Seen

Shit.  No pictures today, friends.  I beat a Sun Worm and now I can glow in the dark.  Which is good, because I had to go into a dark cave full of spiky walls and skittering crab things and giant lantern fish.  It wasn't fun.  Then I got to an ice cave.  There's a big evil shrimp at the top of it, and I have to fight it.  It's hard.  So tired.  Tomorrow.

Aquaria Day 8: Waterlogged

Bleh.  Nothing worth capturing in image form today, just me flailing about a confusing temple and dying a lot.  Bleh.  More progress tomorrow!

Aquaria Day 7: Skinny Dippin' In A Sea Of Li

Hello!  I'm back from my rage and ready for another slippery-when-wet update on Aquaria!  So, uh, in the Dark Times, I did make some progress.

First, I beat up that face and got a new form.

Nature Form lets me shoot out seeds that can block in enemies and open special plant bulbs that act as doorways to different areas.  It's alright, I guess.

Then I beat up a fish in a robot suit and got a pet piranha.  I named him Jim.

Jim is rad.  He's not as big as a regular piranha but he doesn't even give a fuck.  He'll bite whatever.  Good ol' Jim.

So after all that hulabaloo, I decided to do some explorin'.  I decided to see how high up I could get.

Then I had a mini-freakout about the sun.  So I kept going up and then...

AAAAH HOLY SHIT LAND HO BITCHES

That was a bit of a surprise.  Also I can totally breathe on land, which is weird.  I spent some time hopping around with the monkeys and then headed to the other side of the rock.

Turtle Cave, huh?  I wonder why they call it th--

HOLY ASS THAT'S A BIG TURTLE.  Fortunately they don't seem to have any beef with me.  I found an egg for my fish apartment and then I left.

Then I met this guy...

He was in scuba gear but I took it off and then when he started dying I made out with him until magic came out of us.  Then he could breathe water and decided to follow me around.  So now I have two buddies!

I even learned a song in case his doofy lookin' ass got lost.  So, with Jim and Li in tow, I made my way to this funky lookin' place:

The Sun Temple.  Home of crazy mechanical fish, and, thank the various gods, a Save Point.

Tomorrow I'll have a proper look around, and I'll no doubt have to fight some sort of enormous monster.  See you then!

Aquaria Day 6: RAAAARGH

What happened today was I spent 45 minutes doing the same thing over and over again because I kept dying and there were no save points and I'M SO MAD NO PICTURES TODAY SEE YOU TOMORROW

Aquaria Day 5: Keep Fishin'

It's time for another moist entry on the continuing adventures of Naija.  Last time I just got a sweet new beast form.  Then I met up with this guy again:

Apparently he just showed up to say hey.  Anyways, I'm movin' along, I find out that if I eat things in beast form I gain their powers.  So if a fish shoots lasers and I eat it, I shoot lasers too.  Awesome.  I found another turtle, too!

So that's cool.  Then I made my way to a new area.

Oh man, it's super pretty I can't wait to see WHAT THE FUCK

AAAAAH KILL IT

I flee in terror to the Fish Cave, which, guess what, is full of fish.

I have to do a puzzle here that involves singing to fish and making them go into caves, I won't bore you with the details, but then this happens:

That's me in the middle, if you couldn't tell.  I can turn into a fish now!  It's useful for traveling faster and swimming into tiny cracks.

Like this one!  Alright, back to the Kelp Forest.

oh god don't eat me

Finally I make my way to the boss of this area, a big face.

In the tradition of all Aquaria bosses, it kicked my ass.  I will fight it again tomorrow!  See you then!

Aquaria Day 4: Ocean Madness Is No Excuse For Ocean Rudeness

Hello!  It's time for another soggy recap of Aquaria!

So, yeah, remember that thing that beat me up last time?  I killed it.

That's it exploding, which led to one of the tentacles falling off this scary door.

Hmm, there are still two... which means...

Yep, had to fight two more of those things.

Hooray, time to go into the scary monster mouth!

Currents!  Whooooosh!

This is fun, wheeee OH FUCK

This guy was a total jerk.  He'd spit a zombie out at me, and I'd have to get it to chase me into those green vent things, where it would suck up a bunch of poison gas, THEN I had to bind the guy to me, and put it near the monster, and then shoot at it until it sucked the zombie up.  I had to do this THREE TIMES and I died a lot.  But finally, I succeeded.

Then I had another one of those crazy flashbacks.  It seems the people who lived here were free of any turmoil, and then some of them were assholes and decided to find the secret of eternal life by chaining up their god and feeding him their fellow fishpeople.  Eventually the god went crazy and that's where all the red shit came from.  That's the guy I just beat up.  There was a prince who figured everything out and tried to stop it but nobody knows what happened to him.

Then the dying god dude says I'm special and I'll unite Aquaria and find love and then he gives me a SPECIAL POWER

BEAST MODE

Now I can swim against currents and eat fish!  Useful AND disgusting!

Then I madly dashed for a save point.

That's all for today!  More tomorrow!  Exclamation points!!!!!!!!

Aquaria Day 3: Blood Ocean

Hello again!  Welcome to another day of Aquaria, the game that proves it's not always better down where it's wetter!  I took pictures this time!  While exploring outside my house I found a big ass turtle!

Apparently these guys are the fast travel system, but since I've only found this one, I can't really do anything with it.  He's rad lookin', though.

Then I found a pearl.  I no doubt need to find a slot to plug it into, so I do that!

That opens the door, and I find myself in a new area!  I got an achievement and everything!

There's only one thing to do when you reach a new area in a game like this, and that's run for the first save point you see.

Ah, safe.  Now, to explore!

Looks like some shit went down round here.

More unfriendly crustaceans!  Still no accusations!

Then I find this crazy official lookin' place.  I head on in...

It's a lost city!  Full of aqua-gazebos!

Some of the gazebos have turd monsters!  They act like Chain Chomps if you get too close.

I found this little guy in one of the gazebos, he latched onto me when I sang at him and now he's pumpin' me full of health!  You're awesome, little guy.

OH GOD AMNESIA FLASHBACKS NO NO NO NO NO

ew ew gross ew

At some point I found a disc, but I guess I didn't record that historic event.  The disc went into that middle throne there.

Also there's a save point here!  SAFE

Think I'll chill here for a bit WAIT A DOOR OPENED

CHUUUUURCH

Oh god more red shit please don't make me drill into a guy's head

AAAAAH FUCK LASER BEHOLDER THING FROM BEYOND THE STARS

This thing murdered my face off.  I will try and fight it tomorrow, with no doubt hilarious results.  See you then!