Aqua Rush

released on Oct 01, 1999
by Namco

An upside down Tetris-style game, where you can elongate any of the 3 xxx points separately on a block to connect that certain block without any gaps. The game is quite addictive but gets very tough after the first few levels.


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eschewing high scores for fast times leads the design of Aqua Rush into smooth-sanded celerity. on the (still-extant!) website i show in the video, the designers specifically highlight wanting everyone to have the thrill of getting a long combo -- perhaps we can consider this game a response to highly technical chain puzzlers in the Puyo Puyo tradition. in any case, i hope viewing the game upside down helped make it clear that yes, this is a block go down / ochimono game (no matter what my chat says). this is the first proper Time Attack stacker i've encounters; even TGM's robust RTA scene requires meeting certain score thresholds. Aqua Rush designed a racing game into a puzzle stacker, with blooming playfields like courses ribboning out before you; but to also control the size of your block, giving yourself true, weird power -- i can't get enough, really. diving underwater feels like coming up for air. good. i hope they open up the website for more score submissions someday...

Fantastic game, even if I'm rubbish at it :-)

Excellent puzzle game!
Let's you be very creative with your placements and on the easier difficulty, it's actually quite easy to 1-credit. (not like im playing this on MAME or anything)
The visuals and the sound also complement the gameplay perfectly. I'm getting goosebumps from the underwater vibe.

the gameplay is pretty good: it's sort of like tetris, but instead of rotating, you change the piece's shape (and there's also some chaining in there). more interestingly for the genre, though, the atmosphere/aesthetic is quite strong; this game is an audio-visual treat! (sure, emeraldia and aquarium are both aquatic-oceanic-ish-y, but they aren't as delicious).