Review: Insaniquarium, the Insane Aquarium

Posted by: dgoldring on Oct 27 2006

 

Insaniquarium: Never has there been a more aptly named game.  So, here we are.  Another quiet day in the aquarium.  The guppies are swimming, eating, growing, and dropping coins throughout the tank for you to collect.  Yes, just a quiet, ordinary day in the fish tank.  When suddenly…ALIENS ATTACK!! 

Quick.  Grab your laser.  Aim.  Fire.  Keep firing.  Kill that alien predator before he eats all of your fish.  Such is life in the insane aquarium world of Insaniquarium.

 

Installation and Registration: Insaniquarium is easily installed from your desktop computer via Activesync.  Without registering, you will be able to play a limited number of levels.  Once registered, however, you can access all of the levels and friends, including a secret fishtank friend at the end.

Overview and Gameplay: Insaniquarium is the perfect combination of a relaxing day at the beach and an action-shooter-alien invasion game.

Let’s start with the day at the beach.  All of the action takes place in a single screen, aquarium.  You start with two guppies growing in your aquarium.  Grow your guppies by feeding them fish food.  As guppies grow, they begin to drop variously valued coins into the tank.  Use these coins to buy more guppies, better food, or other useful tools.  Ultimately, you will earn enough money to begin buying pieces of an egg.  Buy all three egg pieces and you will solve the level and free a fish tank friend who can help you in future levels.  Be warned, however, if you fail to feed your fish enough food, they will become sick and die.

As you progress, you will also be introduced to additional varieties of fish which you must feed and grow.  Carnivores, for example, will give you more money, but they also eat baby guppies.  Stareaters offer a large payoff, but they are difficult to care for.  In order to feed a stareater, you must first purchase a special potion which you will feed to a medium or large guppy.  This potion turns the guppy into a yellow, star throwing guppy.  When these stars are caught by stareaters, they the stareater will drop a diamond. 

Periodically, your quiet fish tank will be invaded by aliens.  An alarm sounds as the aliens approach.  Arm your laser and fire.  Keep firing at the aliens (some aliens in higher levels are impervious to lasers) until you destroy them.  Be careful, though, aliens love to eat fish.  If all of your fish die or get eaten by aliens, then your game is over.

Gameplay Modes:  There are three frantic and frenetic gameplay modes to Insaniquarium.  The first is "Quest".  This is the main playing mode for the game.  You progress through various action-packed fish tanks of increasing difficulty, searching for egg pieces to unlock your fish tank friends.  As you progress to different fish tanks, you’ll meet new friends, new alien enemies, and learn just how much 1/3 of an egg can actually cost.  In higher levels, you may also find that your fish become hungrier faster.

Time trial mode consists of a single fish tank and timer.  Find out how much money you can earn before time runs out.

Challenge mode dares you to earn points by finding all of the egg pieces.  Watch out, though, every time an alien attacks, prices will rise and your fish will crave more food.

Fish tank Friends: Every time you complete one of the ten levels in Quest Mode, you will unlock a fish tank friend (pet).  Complete all of the levels and you will be able to unlock a secret eleventh friend.  On any level, you may use any three of your unlocked friends to help you out.  Each friend possesses a special talent.  Some produce food for your fish, some help create or gather coins, others help grow or protect baby guppies, and some will help you fight aliens.  In the higher levels, you must decide which of these friends will help you the most.

Enemies and Aliens: There are four aliens who periodically attack your fish tank.  The first two: Sylvester and Balrog are relatively straightforward; you kill them by shooting your laser until they die.  You’ll earn a diamond for each time you kill an alien.  As you progress, however, the aliens become more difficult to kill.  Gus is immune to laser fire and can only be killed by overfeeding him with baby guppies.  Destructor will fire missiles at your fish, killing them from afar. 

Graphics: Like most Astraware games, the graphics display like a colorful cartoon.  The graphics are cute and fun, with a real attention to detail.  The tank is remarkably drawn, right down to the toy castle and plants.  Each variety of fish, friend, and alien is drawn with a unique personality.  This game is as much fun to look at as it is to watch.

Conclusions: Well, what can I say about this game.  You grow fish.  You fight aliens.  You collect coins dropped throughout the tank.  All at the same time.  Frankly, it can become a little frenzied…a little, well…insane.  Like I said, Insaniquarium is the most aptly named game available for the Pocket PC today. 

Insaniquarium is available for the Pocket PC from the clickgamer store, and from Astraware.  The registered version costs $ 19.95.

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