Venture into space! Exploring distant planets and solving their puzzles to change the way the world views you, become a hero!
— Edmund McMillen's description of the game.
Aether is a video game designed by Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel and published by website Armor Games. Released on September 3, 2008, it can be played for free online or downloaded for offline play. Players control a Heroic Mime boy and an octopus-squid-alien-Eldritch Abomination-thingy that the boy encounters on his travels, solving puzzles and the friendly (and not-so-friendly) inhabitants of different planets to restore them from monochrome to color. The two travel through space by swinging on clouds and asteroids with the monster's huge tongue.
It can be played here
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As of August 31, 2012, a remastered edition has been released in The Basement Collection, along with a few of Edmund's other old games.
This game provides examples of:
- A Boy and His X: The boy meets the monster and the two travel the galaxy together, with the monster providing the way of moving around.
- Baby Planet: It takes about 12 seconds to traverse the circumference of most of the planets. The moons are even smaller.
- Beautiful Void: 95% of the game world is asteroids and clouds. The other 5% is populated with creatures that are only really concerned with their own problems.
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: The boy and the creature can survive in the vacuum of space just fine.
- Company Cross-References: Isaac, Meat Boy, Steven and Spewer can be found in the void between the planets.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Until you start solving the planets' problems.
- Lighter and Softer: Easily one of Edmund's gentler games, containing practically none of his signature Black Comedy and Toilet Humour.
- Easter Egg: There are little moons near most, if not all the planets. Sometimes they have NPCs.
- Genius Loci: The planets and moons all have faces.
- Our Monsters Are Different: The monster is an alien octopus thing with an Overly Long Tongue.
- Overly Long Tongue: Your main method of transportation is to use the monster's tongue to grapple onto objects.
- Variable Mix: The main melody changes depending on what planet you've landed on.
