The game itself is a unique concept. It's a basejumping game (which is this kind of activity) that plays like a first person flying game. I keep thinking Star Fox when I look at it though there aren't any enemies or plot to speak of. You just start on top of a building and throw yourself off. Apparently in the world of AaaAAaA!, reality is some Jeff Minter-esque acid trip with floating buildings and inexplicable catwalks and spinning iron I-beams. It makes things very convenient for basejumpers by providing a a crazy obstacle course towards the ground to anyone who jumps off a building. The objective is to make it to the ground or landing pad while racking up points which one gets by "kissing" and "hugging" buildings (approaching and staying close to buildings), hitting plates that are worth points, spray-painting certain buildings, and engaging spectators by giving them thumbs up or flipping them off, depending on whether they're fans or protesters. Mostly it's just falling stylishly, though.
There are about 80 levels in the game and they manage to do some cool stuff with a wide variety of difficulty. You start off pretty basically just plunging down linear corridors of buildings. As you go they make you weave around a lot more but also expect you keep up with the other score mechanics to reach certain point plateaus. At some of the more advanced levels you're diving through extremely narrow needle-eyes of obstacles while appropriately gesturing to spectators and spraypainting the right buildings. If you can't keep all of these things up you'll probably smash into a building which will either kill you straight out or send you flying out of control.
Honestly, I'd really like to be able to describe this game but between the crazy visuals and sound and sense of humor it kind of has to be seen at the very least to be understood (so here's a video). This game has really got its hooks in me. I like games that have simple mechanics but are able to do complicated and challenging things with them. If you're flying through some of the tougher levels, looking for the right route that will take you next to the most buildings with the most spectators and score plates you end up feeling your way though with a lot of instinct and twitch reactions to what lies beyond the next corner.
All the mechanics are enough to make this game worthwhile but the sense of humor really adds a level to the character of it. In addition to unlocking levels you can unlock videos which are mainly just preplayed levels with the WEIRDEST voiceover. The level of bizarreness of these reminded me of some of the cut-scenes from Amped 3. There's one titled "Grandma" which has a woman's voice describing how to make cookies, which is normal enough until she tells you to add your sons ashes to the mix and some male voice starts freaking out in the background. There's also a video that helps you meditate and another that I guess is supposed to be a failed take on the meditation one that has the narrator tell you that there's NO REASON to think that there are insects crawling all over your head and crawling into your nose and mouth. It's a super dark and bizarre sense of humor but it's played over the top enough to really work for me.
The game is $10. I think that's a hell of a deal for what you get here. Unfortunately it is such a specific style and type of game it really helps to know what you're getting into.
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