The Ninth Life: And Yet I Got Further Than Neil / Aquaria s'alright

Its a double bill! And Yet It Moves and Aquaria! Mainly because I've been a bit slack recently (wow its really over a month?!!) but also because I only lasted 6 minutes in And Yet It Moves...

Though that is still 3 minutes more than Neil did. I'm so pro.

Like Neil, I got both of these titles in one of the awesome humble bundle deals. However, I wasn't just after a specific title in the bundle - It's just that I'm a sucker for both indie games and deals, be it Steam or otherwise.

So what happened...

And Yet It Moves
So I really didn't mind AYIM too much. It's a pretty simple platformer; it's main gimmick being the ability to rotate the world with the arrow keys. I'd played it a few times after I bought it in the bundle, so the mechanics of the game were pretty familiar, though I had only spent about 5mins or so with it.

The story is thus: you are a paper man (who sorta looks like Fido Dido), living in a paper world. I think you'll agree, as plots go, it's pretty heavy material. You make your way through a network of brown paper tunnels, avoiding the traditional cave bad guys - rocks and gaps.

I had no trouble with the first challenge - the boulder.

Paper beats rock

Though I having taken that screenshot, I noticed that he does seem to be holding his paper 'junk' whenever you are not moving...

What the game doesn't tell you (or perhaps it does later on...) is that you can also press Up and Down on the arrow keys to rotate the world 180 degrees. I found this little trick particularly useful when traversing the paper landscape. Boulders and stones couldn't break my paper bones.

Instead, my undoing would be the second type of cave bad guy. The gap.

Seems harmless enough...

I saw the gap in front of the 'shadow me' (also holding his paper chap) and it looked pretty simple to solve. Just rotate the world to the right and I would fall down through it - then probably have to switch back so I didn't break my paper shins. Thanks handy survival note!

So I rotated the right - and then to the left. I think I was perhaps a little too eager with the switch back.

Right.....

I clipped my head on the 'ceiling' of the gap and exploded into many pieces. I'm not sure why.

And So It Ended.

STATS!

Playthrough: 11/12/2012
Difficulty: Crêpe Paper (I dunno, didn't see any option!)
Time until death: 6 mins
Biggest Success: Getting further than Neil!
Biggest Failure: Only getting further than Neil by 3 minutes!
Note to Developers: Breathing/Humming songs in Menus isn't cool guys...

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Aquaria
I believe I got Aquaria in the very same humble bundle as AYIM. However unlike the latter, I hadn't even installed it after I bought it.

Yeah, so it's got a pretty baffling introduction, and the lead character keeps going on about the verse and how her story is mine, and how mine will become hers...yada yada yada...but I think I've got its number, after spending about 10 minutes with it. It seems to be a cross between Ecco the Dolphin and Metroid. Which in my book is a good thing!

Though there is a lot of singing.

You sing to plants to get goodies. You sing to shield yourself from attacks. You sing to help you lift heavy rocks. Later on I'll probably be singing to defeat enemies, singing to open doors and singing to set up standing orders.