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Aquatic stages, as a rule, are stressful experiences, whether its the frantic search for air bubbles in Sonic the Hedgehog's Labyrinth Zone, or the timed underwater bomb-defusion in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. These are the levels that eat away at hoarded extra lives and continues, that turn bright-eyed boys to men of hardship.

Art Style: Aquia (or Aquario/Azurio, as it's known in Japan and Europe), though not a platformer or action game like the above examples, captures that same sense of aquatic anxiety, that dizzy madness you see in a deep sea diver's eyes, through the iron gate of his rusty helmet, as he realizes that his air line has been cut, and that he has descended much too far to be saved. That is the kind of puzzle game one must expect, when giving Nintendo 500 Points for this DSiWare download. 

Aquia is the first of developer Skip Ltd.'s (Chibi-Robo, bit Generations) unique DSiWare puzzlers to appear in the States, and while it is not as strong as some of the studio's Art Style releases in Japan like PiCOPiCT and HacoLife, it's still a top-shelf title for the new digital download platform. It's also the most replayable and content-packed game out of all the DSiWare launch titles.

Players have two gameplay modes to choose from -- Timed Dive and Free Dive. In the former, one chooses from a selection of calm blue levels, each with three difficulties. An Options screen for adjusting sound effects and music volume, as well as an Aquarium with 25 unlockable sealife scenes are also available through the main menu.

Each stage presents a narrow pillar, three puzzle pieces wide, spanning the top and bottom screen. Different colored blocks fill the long strip, challenging players to line up three or more like-colored squares.

In the easiest setting, players move up and down (using the directional pad, no touchscreen controls) either side of the strip with a 2x1 vertical piece, flipping the blocks and pushing them into the column, emerging on the opposite end with another 2x1 piece shoved out.

The two more difficult modes give players different pieces to work with, a 1x2 horizontal block group in the medium setting, and a 2x2 rotatable square in the hard mode. The distinct pieces require one to rethink how the square should be shifted and arranged.

Progress is shown on the right-hand side with the white silhouette of a diver, slowly swimming to the bottom of the touchscreen with each cleared set of blocks. Aquia's tension comes from a darkness that seeps over the playfield, obscuring your pieces from the top down. The black curtain can be temporarily abated by quickly matching groups in chained succession, or wiped clear by bringing together three glimmering pieces that materialize over time.

The game's soundtrack, though peaceful and pleasing for the most part, betrays a slight, worrisome buzz as the darkness begins to creep into the bottom screen. It increases in volume and becomes more insistent, hungry even, eventually overtaking the music while engulfing the entire stage.

Desperation grips the player when all but a few rows of squares remain uncovered by the shadow -- blocks are jammed into the column without any thought, random pieces are jostled behind the black cloud to feel out any obscured matches, and one can feel their lungs burning as they try to stave off the darkness just long enough for all three flickering squares to reappear.

The feeling of relief one feels when they manage to just escape the void's maw with those glinting pieces is intense, but the dread of knowing that the darkness will return, and that there are still hundreds of yards left to descend, stays. Though I'm sure Skip never intended to, they've unleashed a match-three puzzler that's just as much terrifying as it is addictive.