For Nintendo WiiWare Service
| Pros: | Cons: |
| Charming art style and tons of content | Music is repetitive and plain |
| Realistic water effect is unique idea | Some control issues and lack of variety |
| Some amazing ideas and levels | Hidden areas are sometimes painfully hidden |
Fluidity is a water-based puzzle-platformer that has a lot of outstanding qualities mirrored by a lot of bad qualities. I mostly enjoyed my playthrough of Fluidity but was often maddened by the design choices that were displayed. Fluidity is a great game that I had a blast playing, but I only wish it’s poor aspects had been noticed during development.
Fluidity’s visuals are storybook like and are pleasant to look at for the most part. Although I feel the visuals could have been enhanced to look something like a Paper Mario game, I felt that the game looked good enough with the exception of some low-resolution objects and lack of visual variety. The water physics work well and perform realistically which is a very important quality in a game where water is the star, but I could do without the stereotypical cloud design. There aren’t many enemies in the game and the few that are present feel pretty undetailed and boring, and I often found myself wondering what certain objects were as the art design in the game wasn’t exactly great.
The sounds that enhance the water splashing compliment it greatly and for that matter most of the game’s sound effects sound good and help the game feel more real. The music on the other hand is pretty basic only going as far as to provide gentle music that one can tap their foot to. There really isn’t any themed songs and most of the songs aren’t even notable with the exception of the Chapter 3 theme which I thought was great. In a game like this music isn’t too important so this isn’t a huge ordeal, but better tunes should’ve been included.
The main gameplay of Fluidity is incredibly unique and works relatively well. The water physics gives the opportunity for tons of upgrades as you can later freeze or evaporate the water to take on different forms. The level designs are well-done and utilize creative ideas however I wish the ideas weren’t re-used quite so often (ex. Carrying gears with water, transporting fish to their fish bowl, etc.). The game pulls you in and makes you want to accomplish your goal of collecting every last rainbow drop which can be quite a difficult task thanks to painfully hard to find hidden passages and rooms. I wish some of the rainbow drop locations and rainbow flowers were in more obvious locations as I was forced to find their locations online. Another issue I had was when collecting a rainbow drop it remains at the same spot for the duration of the game, but clear. This means you can still accidentally collect it and therefore it becomes an annoying obstacle for players because of its tendency to exit you out of the stage. There are some areas and segments of the game that are annoyingly difficult and tedious to play and made my liking of the game drop, but these are minute in comparison to the game’s high points. For the most part the game is unique and contains some addictive gameplay that I’ve had a great job enjoying.
With four chapters total, you might think this game is light on content, but that’s not really true. Sure, I would’ve enjoyed a fifth chapter but with around 20 rainbow drops per chapter there’s enough to last you a good deal of time. Plus throw in collectible puzzle pieces that unlock minigames and you’ve got a complete package of long-lasting fun.
Probably the worst aspect of the game is the controls, unsurprisingly. The basic way of tilting the controller to move the water works well enough as well as the other most basic controls with the exception of jumping which is done by shaking the remote and can become extremely tedious. The main problem that I had with the controls came later in the game when new abilities became unlocked, some of these issues included controlling the cloud form, sticking to walls as ice, and holding “1” to bring the water together, but this resulted in an unexpected explosion that sent my water hurdling in opposing directions. All of these control issues can become extremely frustrating especially later in the game and detract from my overall happiness of the game. In other words, the basic controls work well while the more advanced controls do not.
Fluidity offers plenty of fun and addictive gameplay for a really good value which makes it a definite recommendation. The moderately charming visuals and adequate sound make for a presentation that is nothing special but the unique gameplay when it’s not annoying can be a blast to play around with. For a downloadable title Fluidity offers quite a lot of fun and even more so than a lot of $50 games ever do. I full-heartedly recommend you purchasing Fluidity if you can put aside its many flaws, and if you can I’m sure you’ll be pleased with one of the greatest downloadable games available.
| Graphics: Charming art style, but with lack of visual variety, great water animation 8.5 |
| Audio: Descent sound effects but relatively boring music, suitable for this type of game 8.0 |
| Gameplay: Fun and intuitive gameplay with realistic water effects, some annoying areas 8.5 |
| Gameplay Amount: For a downloadable game tons of content, minigames extend game 9.5 |
| Controls: Basic controls work well but jumping and advanced controls do not 7.0 |
| Overall: A great game with fresh concepts and a unique idea, great art style, bad controls 8.5 |
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