Price: £29.99

Players: 1

In the beginning was the word... and the word was Tetris and it was good. Well, I say 'beginning', but it was more like the beginning of the 1990s rather than creation itself and it has gone on to spawn many a variant on just about every platform available, the latest offspring being Aqua Aqua, the sequel to the water-based Wetrix. For this brain-teasing game, you must save the Aquas in a number of different timezones by building mud blocks, constructed from Tetris-style shapes, into lake surrounds which will then be filled with water. Be careful though because under no circumstances must you leave gaps in the walls otherwise water will leak out and you will have failed your task.

If that wasn't enough, bombs will appear to break up the land, wreaking havoc unless you can plug the gaps with more mud blocks and fireballs can be directed to dry out parts of the land which have become too waterlogged or are leaking. You'll need to hang on during earthquakes and you will encounter the only type of uppers and downers that are not prescribed by a doctor, i.e. those blocks which build land up and those which decrease the height, the latter allowing you to blend lakes together when necessary.

The graphics are extremely colourful and fun, which aid the fast pace of the game. As the blocks fall into place, or the other elements drop down, the isometric 3D square piece of land reacts by tilting slightly in the required direction, as if the Earth really was flat and Christopher Columbus was wrong after all. Whatever touches base, it causes the joypad to rumble appropriately. An ethereal ambient soundtrack beats along in the background, accompanied by not-so-subtle "crash bang wallop" effects - best heard with a surround sound system, while a squeaky Japanese-like voice screams 'Game on', 'Game Over' and other words that make Joe Pasquale sound like Mr. Deep-Voice. It has to be said though, that while the above AV presentation suits the game, it doesn't exactly push the PS2 to the limits.

Overall, fans of the original Wetrix will certainly want to take a look at Aqua Aqua on the new console. I never played the first game, so coming to this one as a 'Wetrix virgin', I was confused to say the least. I can see that the more water that drips out causes a meter to rise and once it's full then the game has ended, but, personally, I don't really have the patience because it's so frustrating. On the other hand, between the time when this game arrived and me writing this review, my other half has barely stopped playing it. She told me that she scored a million points. My highest score? Well, let's not talk about that :)

GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ORIGINALITY ENJOYMENT
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2001.