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Aria Festa Di Gondola is based on the original manga by female mangaka Kozue Amano and anime franchise, "Aria" or "Aqua" (as it was originally titled), which started back in 2001 and through the aid of Enix and various other factions still enjoys a dedicated fanbase till this day, even getting some overseas attention. It has been praised for its calm pace, optimistic worldview and appreciation of the little things in life, beautiful artistry, and developed characters.

The general story takes place in the early 24th century on a terraformed version of Mars, where a young woman (Akari Mizunashi) aspires to be a great gondolier (where her title starts as "Pair" or "Apprentice, where she wairs two gloves to prevent calluses) and help people see the world through her eyes while learning many life lessons. As the story progresses, she becomes more skilled and meets many characters, some who pose as friends and others as rivals from other water-guide companies. Akari finds great joy and interest from simple things that most people find humdrum or ordinary. The bulk of what happens in the story revolves around Neo-Venezia and Mars has 24 months to its timeline. Someone would naturally want to make a doujin around the franchise.

Aria Festa Di Gondola is a racing doujin game that was developed by Algorithm, a small-time doujin group who also did a few other titles like "Angeling!!" and "Angeling!! With Fairies" (Based on Ragnarok Online). Being sold for a modest 210 yen, the game features over a dozen characters from the Aria franchise (including the legendary presidential cats), twelve stages, and a few different modes of play ranging from simply racing to win to collecting the most stars while racing to win, collect stars and stay within a certain distance of your opponent, etc.

The game has simple visuals with 2D sprite-based characters with a few slight 3D elements in the backgrounds. Different stages have different characteristics such as currents that push you in different directions, hills that speed you up or slow you down, chasm jumps, obstacles, etc. Collecting stars allows you to utilize quick bursts of speed and move faster as well. The game has simple, calm music for the different circuits you race. It's not a bad title. Enjoy.

Notes - You can find the game on melonbooks at:

http://www.melonbooks.com/item/goods/id_goods/IT0000125263

The version they have listed requires you to sign up to some ridiculous "Buddy" network or whatever. I won't pretend that I understand what it exactly entails, but I saw something about 30,000 Yen and I just stopped reading right there. Naturally, I didn't use the Buddy Launcher, so how did I play this game? Go to the creator's website and install their update. It's newer and you can overwrite your ARIA.exe with the update. Boomshakalaka-- no more Buddy Launcher. You can get the update at:

http://shiladango.web.fc2.com/game/aria/index.htm

I recommend downloading the .LZH file, as the other one (EXE) didn't work for me. Once you unzip the .LZH with an unzip tool, drag that ARIA.EXE and paste it over your old one. The Buddy prompt won't interrupt you anymore and the game should just run.