fiu... just beacuse, if there's one thing I am not, that is a mainstream gamer! 
Damn, I just accidentaly wasted my reply :/ Why computers do have still one clipboard
Anyways, Ill try to rewrite everything I'd liked to say.
Anyway... the fact that this game might appeal only to a small group of people is yet to be seen. And you also have to count the fact that Aquaria probably has not the wide distribution as some mainstream x-box titles, and has not thousands of posters sticked on every game store wall. I think Aquaria could appeal to far more people than those who play it right now, if they only knew. Maybe one had to do iron out some wrinkles, work a bit on some details... but I don't think Aquaria is such a specific hardcore-gamers-only product.
It is very hard in some points, but that is all concentrated on the bosses I think, and as far as I have seen, it's all about the Mythalas and the Sun Temple boss. The rest is not so difficult.
We can say Aquaria would never be the same as a mainstream game, but I don't think it loses something because of that
. Maybe the only two problems are that authors just lose somewhat bigger profits because of this (let's be honest, it's every game's final point), and most of players who would be greatly appreciated to play Aquaria, will never know such a game ever existed. But it's just all about indie games are. But we rather love this, don't we? Because of this game is somewhat a bit special. I would personally call indie game developing rather a hobby, than a normal job (but the heck, it's a job
). but it's the greatest hobby ever meant to be created, no matter the cons...
Getting back to the hard stuff. Basically, Aquaria's just based on thinking in situations other games teached to shoot. I loved every single situation, where there was a "dead end" feeling, and I didn't knew what to do next. But I figured out fast there are a lots of clues set everywhere in the Aquaria's underwater world, and it isn't that hard to cope with them after all, so they became really helpful. Aquaria isn't that kind of a shitty game, where there's required nothing more than a quick trigger to finish the game. And because of this, some people might get dissapointed or even start to hate the game. It's normal
Hehe, and one more thing - We can say that Bioshock is a underdog. In fact, he is - he's an underdog mainstream game
