Casual games and family-friendly titles go hand in hand. Especially in the new game by Alien Octopus Studio, Noms The Fish. The game is quite original and deserves praise for not just being another Bejewelled clone or whatever. In this game, it is all simple and easy to understand (although, there is a help screen). You start as a newly born fish (Noms). You eat smaller fish to grow him and get points. Once he eats enough, you go to the next level where you can eat a slightly bigger type of fish as well. You have to avoid any fish you can’t eat or else you lose a life and eventually die. Beat the target time and you get a score bonus.
I also had a very, very small chat with a member of the studio, Brian Turner. I asked him where the premise came from.
“As Ray from the Ghostbusters said, “It just popped in there”. We wanted to make something simple, fun, and appropriate for all ages; this is what we came up with. I don’t have any fish myself, but I am a rather passionate angler.”
The presentation is quite professional yet laidback. The graphics are cute but are nothing special, as are the mostly just passable sound effects. The music, however, is pretty much guaranteed to stick in your head and make you hum, whether you want it to or not. I don’t know if that is good or bad.
There is 20 short levels, which suits the casual crowd well. It can be quite repetitive and sometimes kind of boring, but power-ups, changes in levels, score multipliers and more keep it from getting too “blah”. The achievements only make things more addictive and add to the value, making you want to replay levels, as does…
The aquariums! One of the most interesting parts of the game as well as one of the most complicated. The aquariums are unlocked as you play and you are able to sell your fish for clams (you earn fish through play) which in turn lets you decorate them and more. This is fun and probably even more fun for kids, especially if they can’t have real fish. This will certainly make an incentive to keep playing. Thankfully, there is no micro transactions either, so you don’t have to worry about your kids mortgaging your house for fish food.
When I asked about the genesis of the aquarium idea, he replied:
“Jon Stewart had some influence there. On his show they did a piece on a mobile aquarium game that charged a family thousands of dollars in microtransactions. We decided that we could integrate virtual aquariums in the game and not charge the player a ridiculous amount of money (we do not have microtransactions). I’m working on the Android version right now, and we will release for the iOS and Mac following that.”
I don’t have much else left to say besides the fact that it is a PC game and that there is a demo to try as well as a full version for $4. So, do I recommend it? If you are a kid yourself, have little kids, or you just like simple games like this. If you’re the type of person that plays Skyrim or Call of Duty all day, this probably isn’t for you.
Rating: 7/10
BOTTOM LINE: Enjoyable casual game for the young or young at heart. Only.
Link: http://www.alienoctopusstudio.com/games/noms-the-fish/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nathan. He prefers his last name not to be known. He’s probably a high-class superspy, but we don’t mind. He is the editor of Indiegraph. He’s our point man for interviews, and occasionally he takes a blowtorch to a game to see whether it measures up to his standards.
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