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It's a fish eat fish world out there, or so it seems in Fishtank-Manager, a new arcade style iPhone game from Cellular Games GmbH. The object of this game is to grab fish as they float by in the stream at the top of the screen, and sort them into fish tanks. You put the little fishies in tanks in such a way that they don't eat each other or multiply too fast until you can sell them to buyers who are looking to purchase a specific type of fish.
Sound interesting to you? Well, I thought so when I first saw the screen shots before I ever downloaded the game. The main menu features a cute cartoon of some friendly fish that led me to believe this game would be fun and exciting. After forcing myself to play Fishtank-Manager long enough to feel competent to write this review, I can honestly say ‘fun' and ‘exciting' are not two adjectives I would use to describe my experience.
It all started with a very bad ‘tutorial' that left me so confused I almost shut down the game. I did a little research and found out that the developer of Fishtank-Manager is based in Germany (which explains the non-standard use of a hyphen in the title). I'm not sure if it is because the developer wanted to create a tutorial that would be understood by anyone regardless of language, but there are no words at all in the instructions portion of the game. So, figuring out how to play the game is completely trial and error. A bit frustrating and out of the ordinary for casual gamers who are used to clear tutorials and level designs that start out easy and gradually increase over the course of a game.
At first I thought that maybe I was missing something. Maybe I'm the problem? Maybe the developer designed Fishtank-Manager for young children who cannot read? But then, I kept trying to figure out the various symbols and actions of the game and I realized that it is simply a case of developers who did not test their game with people outside of their development team. This is a common problem in game development.
By the time the team gets ready to launch a game, all of the people involved in the game are so familiar with the game that they forget what it is like for a completely new person to play the game. Unfortunately, the end result can be overlooking and forgetting to put in place essential elements of getting players comfortable with the game.
I will say that the graphics are fair and the sound and music are okay (not horrible). And, as you work through the various levels, you do get to see a wide variety of fish that interact differently with each other. You also get lots more fish to manage, so you have to think more quickly as you get higher in the game. It's not a very forgiving game design. If you kill too many fish by putting too many in a tank, missing them as they float by, or by delivering the wrong tank to a customer, etc. then it is "Game Over." Needless to say, I saw the "Game Over" sign appear many, many times as I was struggling to learn the game.
In the end, I only kept playing because I knew I had to write this review. I feel I owe it to the readers to play through the obstacles to try and get a fair evaluation of the experience. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend Fishtank-Manager at any price, so at $1.99 it is two dollars I would rather keep in my wallet. Or use to buy a real goldfish at my local pet store. In fact, maybe I'll get two of those fighting fish so I can see them duke it out. Even that sounds more exciting than playing another round of Fishtank-Manager.
Download Fishtank-Mangaer through iTunes for your iPhone or iPod Touch.
