A few weeks ago, I had the distinct pleasure of picking up the Humble Indie Bundle, a limited time offer of five excellent independently produced games at a pay-what-you-want price and you chose how much of your contribution went straight to the developers or to charity. Each of these games had its own charm in its own right, but one of the games that impressed me right off the bat was Aquaria, an action-adventure exploration game by Bit Blot.

In Aquaria, you play as underwater nymph Naija in search of her family in a vast grotto of water and adventure. Naija has the power of the Verse, which allows her to sing simple tunes to cast a number of different spells to affect her environment and solve puzzles. Simple songs allow Naija to pick up objects or cast a temporary shield around herself. More powerful tunes turn Naija into a fireblasting powerhouse who can destroy enemies with the click of a mouse. It's up to you how to most effectively use these abilities to progress through the game.

However, the bulk of Aquaria is exploration of Naija's world - and what a world it is. The environments of this game are vast and absolutely gorgeously rendered. In fact, most all of the environments were hand-painted. You start in hidden caves with only hints of the light to come as you begin your exploration, but slowly, Naija expands her travels to beautiful sunlit oases. I was constantly impressed by how much time and effort went into the environments alone. The developers really polished the graphics on this game, making them easy on the eyes and creating a relaxing play experience, despite the fact that Aquaria can at times be pretty frenetic.

There seem to be two different ways to play Aquaria. One is exploration, the other is combat. Much like an underwater Legend of Zelda, each area has an unspoken objective that requires you to use each of your abilities affectively to reach your goal and move on to the next area. Exploring Naija's world is imperative to your success in this game. Luckily, everything is controlled by the mouse. No need for a keyboard at all in this game. Everything from swimming to saving is controlled by mouse movement or clicking. However, no action-adventure game would be complete without some form of combat - and combat is what makes Aquaria a bit harrowing at times.

The combat system involves Naija using a powerful song to transform into her energy form. This allows her to start shooting energy from her hands using the left click button. Additionally, she can charge up pearls to open up doors. In order to survive, you have to get a pretty good handle on combat - but trust me, this system is pretty difficult, especially for the casual player. I died multiple times in the beginning and the fact that the game uses save points instead of the save anywhere system was a source of constant frustration. Once you get used to the combat system, it's a little better, but if you're working off of a Mac, you should probably invest in a two-button mouse.

The other tweaks that Bit Blot brought to the game were welcome additions. They implemented a cooking system that allowed players to collect different ingredients and put them together for different effects, such as health regeneration. In your exploration of Naija's world, you come across special treasure to deck out her home. All of these little tweaks add a huge amount of depth to the game and those wishing to do everything in this underwater universe will find themselves scouring the map to make sure every single stone has been unturned.

While the gameplay is incredibly fun and the graphics are impressive, the most amazing aspect of this game is the sound design. The music is definitely a step up from almost every other game I've played this year, incorporating the three-note runs you learn throughout the game into a complex melodic structure. The game is also fully narrated in voice-over, so you get to hear Naija's voice as she explains her experiences with excellent voice-acting.

After the story proper is over, you can use Aquaria's level editor to create your own minigames or mods with the included software. It really stretches creative muscles and many existing mods are already available online on the Bit Blot forums. Some have even created new stories and prequels using only the mod-based software. It's quite impressive that Bit Blot gives players the option of continuing the story even after the narrative of Naija is over.

Should you choose to purchase Aquaria for full price, it will set you back $30. However, this is a game that is nothing less than a work of art and something that players of all kinds will get a huge amount of enjoyment out of. I highly recommend it to anybody wishing to experience a new adventure with some of the most gorgeous details I've ever seen.