Fish Out of Water splashes into our hearts on iOS
Halfbrick's latest mobile effort looks nothing like the developer's previous titles, but Fish Out of Water packs that same addictive punch that will see you saying "just one more game" over, and over... and over again.
Fish Out of Water is a simple game of flinging fish out of water, sending them flying into the air and bouncing across the water's surface until they eventually come to rest in the ocean's depths. There are multiple fish to fling, each with their own characteristics, and it's up to players to determine which set of three fish they'll use in each game to earn the most points. Flinging, as it might sound, is accomplished by simply tapping on a fish and literally flinging your finger across the screen to send them flying.
Points are earned in two main areas. The first tracks how far your fish have traveled in total, with length being measured from left to right, while the second tracks how many times your fish have skipped across the water's surface. Bouncing on water, or on the jellyfish that float on the water's surface will increase your overall distance, and some fish skip better than others.
Finlay the dolphin, for instance, will dive under the water rather than immediately bouncing back up into the air, which greatly decreases his speed. On the other hand, Errol the blowfish is full of air, making him light and allowing him to bounce tons of times before eventually deflating.
%VIRTUAL-Gallery-186378%
As we said before, though, accumulating skips is only one part of the game, as the other sees you sending fish as far as you can in terms of basic distance. Here, characters like the Micro the whale tend to perform well, as they fly through the air much farther than other critters after they bounce.
At the end of your three throws, a panel of five judges will score your jumps, just as you'd see in the Olympics. Some judges really love lots of skipping, while others like to watch long distance flying. There's even an angry crab that will hate basically everything you do, so there's a huge sense of satisfaction that comes when you finally get him to give you more than a 7.0.
Fish Out of Water may have an incredibly simple premise, but it's made more complex via the addition of missions that ask you to use a certain fish a specific number of times, complete a set amount of skips, and so on. In addition, a treasure chests contains gems that can be combined to activate power-ups during your games. These powers may give you an extra point on the end of your score, or may even make that very angry crab much more agreeable. These gems are earned randomly, or they can be purchased with real money, and it's then up to you to combine them in different combinations of red, yellow, and blue gems (as examples) to see what they really do.
There's a ton to love about Fish Out of Water. It takes less than five minutes to complete a full round, making the game great for playing while commuting or when you have just a few minutes to spare, but the replayability and desire to top your previous high score are definitely enough to warrant a marathon gameplay session. Putting it simply, Fish Out of Water is definitely worth the $0.99 price of admission, and you can now download the game on iTunes if you'd like to get in on the fun.
Download Fish Out of Water on iOS >
What do you think of Fish Out of Water? What's your high score in this fish flinging game? Sound off in the comments!
