Hooked on breeding fish (Fish Tycoon)

Member Name: solamarie

Product:	Fish Tycoon
Date:	09/03/07 (1632 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Can forget about it for hours so long as you pop in and feed the fish every so often

Disadvantages: Addictive

This review appears on ciao as well with little adjustment.

Just in case anyone is interested in what I have been doing with my time lately I thought I would write a review to tell them.
I have been working, having fun and breeding virtual fish! I have been playing Fish Tycoon.

++What's Fish Tycoon?++

Ah, well, it is a downloadable game where you have virtual fish tanks and breed and sell fish.

End of review!

No not really, there is a lot more to it than that.

++Where did I get it from?++

My son was playing this game online which is a cut down version and asked me if I would download it. It only cost £12.99 and as I couldn't think of an excuse not to I did a Google search and paid the money and downloaded the game.

This gives me 5 free downloads, that means if the computer crashes and I lose everything I can download it again without paying for it again. I was sent an email with a license number which I printed and put in the drawer if ever I needed it and away we went.

There are several different download sites that will come up on a google search so take your pick; I do think the price is standard though.

++What did I get for the money?++

Fish, fish and more fish! At the start of the game there are two tanks, a trophy tank and a selling tank and you can click between the two. The controls are very simple; all click with the mouse and drag and drop things around. The game starts with a clutch of fish eggs which you drag into the tank, some food, and some hormone growth liquid which makes your new baby fish grow a bit faster. You also start with £300 so you can buy some more eggs and drop those in the tank as well. Under the supplies button there are all sorts of things that enhance the health of your fish and beauty of the tanks. Do remember to keep some money for medicine though because these fish do get sick sometimes.
Once you have some adult fish you can drag them into the selling tank and click the sell fish button. The screen is a shop and as you watch customers will come into your shop and buy your fish. Once you have sold enough fish there are all sorts of things you can do with the money. You can do research, buy things for the tanks and even buy another tank so you can breed extra fish.

As well as buying eggs to get fish you can breed fish, either two of the same or two different ones which gives new breeds.

Beware! If you cross breed before doing the research the baby fish might die! And once that happens you have to put them in the bin! Shock, horror!

++The point of all this?++

Ah, well, there are a couple of points. First to make money and run your business. Similar to all the tycoon games. To be successful at what you have chosen to do. But the real point is that the river Isola has lost all of its fish and needs seven magic fish to restore the balance. You can get a magic fish from eggs but not very often, the best way to get magic fish is to breed and cross breed the fish you buy from eggs. Each magic fish has a purpose, e.g. the magic fish of health, the magic fish of fertility etc. but beware because if you manage to breed the magic fish of mutation then when you breed fish in that tank you won't always get what you are expecting.

++Who makes this game?++

AOL. Well on my pc it is under aol games and I don't have anything else that is aol because I have tried to keep this company off the pc. I have never seen it in any shops though so maybe it is only downloadable from the internet.

++Graphics++

Very pretty, the fish are quite realistic looking if you disregard the bright colours. There isn't huge depth to them or the plants in the tank but they are pretty enough to want to go back and see what you have bred.

++Sound++

Irritatingly repetitive! Glugs from the water pump, splashes when you move fish from tank to tank, the jingle of money as you sell fish and some really simple repetitive music when you are in the shop screen.

++Addictiveness?++

Terribly addictive. This is a real time game so you can set it up, put your eggs in the tank and shut it down again; they grow as time passes whether you are there or not. Be careful to remember to feed the fish before you go off for several hours or a couple of days or you will come home to find them all dead and then you have to put them in the trash can and believe me, you feel guilty that you neglected them. You start the game once and then play until you decide to uninstall and reinstall. I haven't found a way to play two games simultaneously which is difficult if two of you want to play but play differently. I just sort of took over from my son and wanted to start my own game so one day I just reinstalled it and started again. My son was a bit miffed but he had moved on to something much more exciting by then so it didn't matter.

This isn't a game you sit for hours over, more a game you can pop back to and check the progress of now and then while you are doing other things.

You need lots of patience too, it can take ages to breed fish and when you are hoping for new breeds and get exactly the same as you already have it can be tiresome. The only thing to do then is sell them and buy more eggs.


++Hints and tips++

A google search once again will bring loads of pages of tips and cheats. There is a way of speeding up time if you can't be bothered to wait for your fish to grow and there are tips as to which fish breed which magic fish. You just have to have the right fish in the first place and I have found that just breeding randomly eventually gets you the seven magic fish.

There is a screen saver button so if you are leaving the pc for a while you can have one of the fish tanks as a pretty screen saver, it is nice if you are doing something else to pop back every so often to see how much they have grown.

++Options++

Not many options to change the way you play although you can have this game full screen or smaller, you can make the time 2 x time, real time, half time. Can't really change the graphics much and although we have a super graphics card I don't think you need anything special to be able to play this game.
The prices of the fish can be changed, and I do believe however high you put the prices they still sell but I rather like the challenge of selling the fish at their original prices and saving the money to buy other things.

For something so simple this is a game that will hook you. I have been playing it on and off for three months now and still can't resist going back to see how my fish are getting on as soon as I get home from work.

End of review.

Thanks for reading.

Sue

Summary: Great game for non gamers to play