Welcome to The Derek Yu Fanclub! Ahem, I mean The Backlog Review

So I realized I forgot to do one of these introductory posts for this one! I am Carl Smith (aka Judgegrumble) a third year journalism student.  I made this blog for a digital journalism class, so it will be a side project to my main blog (The Plot Branch).  I thought it would be fun to review somewhat under the radar games as opposed to big triple A releases that most people cover.  That said, I swear it was a coincidence that the first two games I reviewed were by Derek Yu.  I just thought, "hey why don't I review Aquaria and Spelunky?"  I only remembered that they were made by the same guy halfway through writing the Aquaria review.  I swear next post will be about a game made by a different guy.

Spelunky Review

Spelunky is owned by Mossmouth and Derek Yu

I watch my tiny adventurer descend down the passage.  My fingers tighten up and sweat starts to form on my brow.  I think to myself, "THIS time I will get it for sure..."  The game starts and I quickly analyze my surroundings.  A pit with a couple cavemen, A few snakes wandering about, and some gems down a deserted passageway. Not too bad.  I grab the gems and try to sneak up on the cavemen.  I leap down only to miss his head by a few pixels, crashing to the ground and stunning myself.  The caveman sees me and goes nuts crashing into me, reducing my precious life by another point, and stunning me again.  I manage to get up before the caveman turns around and make a flying leap off the nearest ledge, hoping for the best.  The screen scrolls down to reveal a spike pit directly below, but it is too late to avoid it. I land with a dull thud, my remaining life instantly extinguished.  I grunt in frustration and return to the title screen.  As I send my adventurer down into the pit I think to myself, "THIS time I will get it for sure..."
The Spelunky experience is a frustrating and addicting one.  You play as an Indiana Jones style adventurer searching a cave for treasure.  Each cave is randomly generated, so nothing is ever what you expect or hope it to be.  If you plan to play Spelunky, be prepared to die.  A lot.  Everything in this game wants to kill you or will kill you at the slightest provocation.  There are many one hit kills and ridiculously devilish traps just waiting to take a chunk out of your precious health.  Despite this, Spelunky is an utter blast to play.  You have just enough tools to make you think with every scenario.  Risk the snakes in order to get to a treasure chest or supply crate?  Or take the safe route straight to the exit?  It is an intense and rewarding experience that will always have you coming back for one more try. The difficulty curve might be a bit high for some, but I encourage all those who wish to play to stick with it.  Spelunky has been for the best platforming experiences I've ever had, and I can't wait to do it again when the game comes out on Xbox Live.

Aquaria review

Aquaria owned by bit blot

The problem with Steam is that so many great games get completely drowned out in sea of mediocre games.  When a truly great game gets released it is easy to miss it as it gets swept under the tide . Aquaria is the pearl at the bottom of the sea of uninspired shooters and banal puzzle games (expect a lot of ocean-related puns on this one).
Aquaria was developed by Bit Blot, a two person company of Alec Holowka and Derek Yu. The game was released in 2008 on PC computers.  This is the only game released by the developers so far and it is currently being ported to ipad.  A sequel has been hinted at but thus far no development has taken place.
Aquaria is a game about exploration.  There are powerups and bad guys and all that other great stuff that we play video games for, but at its core this game is about swimming to a new area and being taken aback by the beauty of it.  The style of the game is similar to that of a 90's screensaver of an aquarium.  despite that the game looks fantastic in motion.  The protagonist of Aquaria is some sort of human-fish hybrid that leaves her home in order to explore the ocean and recover her memories lost to plot convenient amnesia.  Gameplay can be done with a mouse only but I HIGHLY recommend plugging in a controller if you have one.
The game takes place under the ocean in a fantasy world filled with fish and bizarre creatures both hostile and tame.  Exploration is the main theme over combat and a good portion of the game is spent swimming around looking at all the pretty fish.  When combat is a priority the game handles flawlessly, just swimming in some of the more hostile zones can put you in serious danger of moving down a few rungs on the food chain. Each dungeon has its own feel and puzzles that are sure to challenge.  Some fish shoot enough lasers to make a Touhou blush.  The game is also paced extraordinarily well for an exploration game; just when there is nothing left to do in one area, a new area with a completely different style pops up.
Aquaria's weaknesses are few and far between.  In the introduction paragraph I hinted that the plot is not exactly what some would call "strong."  While the plot works enough to be watchable Aquaria won't be winning any awards for writing anytime soon.  Another problem is that the game plays great with a controller, the menu system becomes completely unnavigable without a mouse.  Changing forms requires street fighter-esque  inputs that can be absurdly sensitive.  Changing forms in a harrowing situation becomes a trial of patience.
Overall I cannot recommend this game enough.  Aquaria is everything I love about video games and more.  With the industry focusing on shooters truly great games of the platforming genre and few and far between.  Aquaria is a reminder that old-school gaming is far from dead.