Aquaventura
| Developer: Psygnosis | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Psygnosis | Sound: |
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| Year: 1992 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Shoot’em up | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
5/10 | |
I’ve never been a Psygnosis fanatic. Sure, they had a knack for crafting unparalleled worlds—sometimes fantastical and gloomy, sometimes coldly sci-fi—clearly inspired by Roger Dean’s work, whose illustrations adorned many of their most iconic game boxes: Shadow of the Beast, Barbarian, Obliterator, and Terrorpods (the latter being a prime example of artistic chaos that defies comprehension). But beneath the lavish presentation (and equally stellar soundtracks), you’d often find dull games—lacking inspiration or even basic “recreational” qualities like pace, variety, or usability.
Aquaventura is no exception. A stunning intro and atmospheric music weave a mysterious vibe … yet beneath the polish lies a mediocre 3D shooter: slow, repetitive, and interrupted by inter-level segments in 3D tunnels, which are interesting enough, though the core gameplay remains, to me, basic and boring.
Note: “F1” to “F10” adjust speed, “S” displays the reticle, “Right Shift” locks onto a target (won’t work if your emulator maps the keyboard arrows to the joystick), “Enter” fires a missile, and “Space” activates an electric arc that destroys nearby enemies at the cost of a small amount of energy.
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