I’m about as hardcore as it gets when it comes to gaming.
I’ve competed in tournaments. It was, for a while, my job to be good at video games. (Last night’s game of League of Legends had me with 20 kills and two deaths with Rengar). However, I do realize that not everyone takes gaming so seriously.
Some people do just enjoy a game that eats up time and makes them giggle or make the success baby face on the train ride home from work. So I’m going to make a valiant effort to include some more casual reviews and grab some solid titles for an audience that I may not necessarily belong to.
Today’s review is all about skipping fish. Like rocks. Now I’m going to admit I honestly enjoyed playing this game, though, for those who read my reviews for solid games that require hours of play, move along. That’s not to say that this game isn’t solid, because it very much is – just not in the way I generally talk about. The graphics are fantastic, and it plays off a very old genre of games, though I’m not sure it has an official title. You know the one. You throw or kick, or fling something a long distance, and it bounces a good 20 times, and you try and get the best distance. That’s what you have here. Except it’s fish. And you can skip them on water for points (this is where I expect you should have a very bored facial expression).
I sighed to myself as I started Fish Out of Water up the first time, but then realized the clock kept spinning and I managed to sink a good 45 minutes into this one before the need for sleep rudely knocked me over the head (of course in the morning I pretty much had this reaction to it being time to wake up). So you get six different kinds of fish and each of them bounces on the water a bit differently, (including one that doesn’t bounce on the water and just goes under and back out.) You get to throw three of these fish, and you are graded on your total distance, number of skips against the water and other factors, and you are rated by … six crabs that each look at something different when giving you a score.
As you progress through the game you will be given certain challenges as well as earning bonus crystals, which you use to craft different gems that give your next throw a perk. You can also use the crystals to craft costumes for your fish, but from what I saw there was only a small handful of them, and for me, that seems like a severe waste of a pretty neat mechanic. While I realize flinging fish like some sort of rubber band doesn’t seem appealing. The games addictiveness is clearly there, as I struggled to stop playing.
Graphics: 
For a game in this genre, the developers clearly kept their try-pants on, as they did not fall into the trap of simple game, simple graphics, simple effort, simple return on investment. The graphics are great and should be a benchmark for others making games in this genre.
Casual Gameplay: 
I’ve renamed this category so that my scores here are not taken out of context. I’m judging this game in a separate world, that of casual gaming, and should not be compared to the scores of other hardcore titles that I’ve reviewed. That being said Fish Out of Water! does a great job making a fun and entertaining title.
Audio: 
Not a whole lot of audio here, as the amount of things happening in the game are limited, however, what they do have is done fairly well.
Innovation: 
Not…so much, no. This is a pretty old genre, and while the game does add a few new things, they are really just reflavors of things other games have done in the past.
Overall:
A great casual game to start us off on casual corner, and one that I wont be uninstalling any time soon. This game does a fantastic job of filling the niche of “gaming while I’m waiting for someone else to finish doing something”. Perhaps in line at Walmart, or while I’m waiting for the incredibly slow gentleman at the local sandwich selling shop to figure out what I mean by “yes, toasted, but with just the cheese on it”, as in, I would still like my salami cold. Till next week gamers, have a great weekend!
What didn’t make it this week:
Honor Bound: Seems decent? But I honestly couldn’t get passed the animation that resembled what I made in high school with flash. Score: 2/5
Crunchyroll: I’m not going to dedicate a review to crunchy roll, but if you enjoy watching anime. For free (with commercials) this app is for you. Sadly I noticed that some titles on the service, show up on my android phone… and not on my iPad. Weird. Score: 3/5
