iGame Radio

 

Episode 71 is live, featuring reviews of Spiderweb Software’s Geneforge 5: Overthrow, Aquaria by Ambrosia Software, and the Psyclops Dance Mixer iPhone App. Also, I do an interview with Gamerizon CEO Dominique Belanger.

Geneforge 5: Overthrow

The classic old-school RPG series of conflict between the magical Shapers and the Rebels draws to a close. But is there enough in the game to draw both old and new gamers alike?

Aquaria

Winner of the 2007 Seumas McNally Award, Aquaria blends beauty and exploration with a bit of destruction to cook up an underwater winner.

Psyclops Dance Mixer

Teens and pre-teens alike will love the ability to create a mini dance video right on their iPhone. But the interface is nothing to dance about.

Gamerizon

Gamerizon is moving into the Mac casual game scene with their first offering “QuantZ”, a bit of Action-Puzzler, Match-3 and Marble Popper all mixed into one.

I’ve been playing Ambrosia’s Aquaria for the Mac for the past few days. The visuals are stunning, the game world is extensive, there is no end to the number of baddies out there, and the game continues to drop new and interesting ones on you at every turn.

Not fond of the slog, though. The game has save points, and when you hit them, all the bad guys you killed show up again. I mean, when I kill the bad dude, I want him to remain dead, dammit! Also, I think they were going for kind of a 3D effect using 2D for the maps, but it ends up being a bit confusing.

I’ll give a lot more in the complete review next week.

I’ve been trying to play catchup on my gameplaying for reviews, and designated today as a gameplay day…I’m gonna spend most of the day playing games. One on my plate is Aquaria, which I hadn’t yet received my review copy of, so decided to download the trial version.

Went to Ambrosia’s website, but ran into some problems because apparently the download doesn’t come directly from any server at Ambrosia, but at Macgamefiles. When clicking on the link to the download, however, it doesn’t take you to the Macgamefiles page, but stays at Ambrosia, bringing up this nice, classy pop-up page. Then you start downloading, but you don’t get any info about how large the file is, and I’ve had it abort several times.

I finally got tired of it and just copy/pasted the link into a new webpage, which does redirect you to the Macgamefiles download page for Aquaria, and you get a nice download that specifies file size (and thus time remaining for download). I suggest if you want to download the trial, that you use that method.

 

Host Omaha Sternberg continues her Gaming Macworld 2009 series, covering Macworld Expo 2009 from a gamer’s perspective. Featuring an interview with John Champlin of Ambrosia Software about publishing Aquaria, their upcoming game Multiwinia, and new iPhone games on the horizon. Also, an interview with JJ of Aerielle, the company that produces the i2i Streaming device, allowing users to share music and other audio wirelessly. Can this be used for gamers tired of wired headphones getting in the way, and wireless headphones that don’t perform?

Check out the podcast by clicking the player above or downloading from the rss feed.

Ambrosia Software has released Aquaria for the Mac. This game has been in development for, like, ages. Well, since May of 2007. That’s when Ambrosia first announced the game for the Mac. This game was the 2007 IGF Seumas McNally Award winner and was released for the PC in December of that year. But Ambrosia had adopted the philosophy that “it’s not done until it’s done.” I just wish “done” was much earlier!

The last time I looked at the game, which was at Macworld of this year I believe (I don’t remember them having it at NME 2008), it looked awesome. Let me know what you think. I’m downloading my copy now.