is a puzzle video game developed by Zed Two, the studio of Ste and John Pickford, for the PlayStation 2. It was published in late 2000 by Imagineer in Japan, and by The 3DO Company in North America and SCi Games in Europe. It is the sequel to Wetrix (1998) and has very similar gameplay; the player, on a landscape, uses Uppers to create walls for enclosures that hold flying water bubbles, contending with hazards like rainstorms, bombs, and ice cubes in the process.
Imagineer commissioned a sequel to Wetrix following the predecessor's critical and commercial success. It was released in 2000 in Europe, North America and Japan as the third PlayStation 2 puzzle game after Fantavision and Super Bust-A-Move, selling 70,000+ copies in the West and 15,000+ in Japan. Aqua Aqua was generally well received by professional critics for its addictiveness, graphics and sound. Criticism was targeted at the steep learning curve, the short length of the Story mode, the fixed camera and loose controls causing imprecise piece placements, and how little advantage was taken with the console's hardware.
Game modes
thumb|A level in Aqua Aqua, where a fireball disintegrates the water of a long river, which is in-between two small lakes holding dinosaurs. On the bottom left is an icon indicating the amount of ground on the land, and on the bottom right is the amount of water.
Aqua Aquas gameplay remains largely unchanged from Wetrix (1998). Described by Electronic Gaming Monthlys Chris Johnston as a combination of Tetris and Civilization, it is a 3D isometric puzzle game where the player builds paddocks on land to prevent falling water bubbles from dripping off the landscape. The enclosures are created by dropping L-shaped, T-shaped and square pieces that raise a part of the landscape named Uppers; there are also Downers that do the opposite, decrease the height of a wall. However, there are also hazards such as bombs that create holes on the ground, ice cubes that freeze water, rainstorms that occur in the later stages, and earthquakes triggered when a wall is too high that ruin nearly all of the architecture.
Modes include a single-game Quick mode, an eight-level Tutorial, a two-player Versus mode and a four-level Story Mode; the Tutorial must be completed to unlock the Story and Versus modes. Wetrix and Taz Express were published by Ocean Software out of a two-game deal signed a week before the publisher merged with Infogrames. The game's Nintendo 64 release sold 105,000+ copies in the west and 12,000+ in Japan. On August 27, Zed Two revealed they planned to release it by March 2000. This had been moved to summer 2000 by the time the sequel was presented at the 2000 Tokyo Game Show, where its name, Aqua Aqua, was revealed. Timothy Horst reported that the demo at the Tokyo Game Show appeared to be "pretty much done", and that the game would basically be its predecessor with improved visuals. before it was delayed further to November 2, 2000. The 3DO Company published Aqua Aqua in North America on December 29, 2000, while SCi Games published it in Europe the month before. It was the third puzzle game released for the console after Fantavision and Super Bust-A-Move.
| GameRev = C+ Containing gameplay and graphics identical to Wetrix, it received the same praises and critiques. "Aqua Aqua has its problems, but it's still the best puzzle game yet to grace the PlayStation 2," wrote GameSpots Shane Satterfield. Its difficulty and fast pace was also of frequent note, as well as the steep learning curve that critics suggested could turn off those not very experienced in puzzle games. Much criticism was directed at how needlessly tricky it was to place pieces accurately, caused by loose control and a fixed, nonadjustable camera angle; German magazine Video Games reported having to start over the first level several times. More positively, the Versus mode was lauded by several reviewers for its addictiveness and challenge,