|
Fish Tycoon
for Palm OS5
Reviewed
by: Lianne
Reitter, August 2004, send
e-mail
Published
by: LDW
Software, go
to the web site
Requires: High
resolution color, Palm OS 5.0 or later; 1.3MB system
memory
MSRP: US$19.95
In the
continuing quest to re-establish the flora and fauna on
the legendary Island of Isola, LDW Software brings you
Fish Tycoon. Previously, we conquered the task of returning
the many species of plant life to the island in LDW's excellent Plant
Tycoon. The quest was to re-discover each extinct plant
species by cultivating the few rare seeds available, and
then nourish, breed and cross breed the successful plants
in order to reach the final goal of discovering the 7 magical
plants of Isola in order to win the game.
In this
installment, we let loose a few common Isola fish eggs
into an aquarium. Our task is to care for them: feed them,
medicate the sick and watch them grow and mature into the
lost species of the Island of Isola. As with Plant Tycoon’s
7 magical plants, the ultimate goal in Fish Tycoon is to
re-discover the 7 magical fish of Isola. The only way to
accomplish that is by breeding your fish stock and then
experimenting with some crafty cross-breeding as your stock
strengthens. These 7 aren't just any magical fish mind
you. One will keep the rest of your fish healthy, while
another can influence and mutate your eggs, giving you
very unpredictable offspring. These 7 magical fish can
also become instrumental in the success of your retail
fish store. Yes that’s right, re-establishing the
lost fish species of Isola is just part of this game, you
must also run a successful retail store, selling off your
precious Isola fish. The more successful your fish store,
the more exotic fish eggs you can purchase, thereby widening
the gene pool of your breeding program.
It’s
a bit of a challenge too as just selling offspring won't
get you far. You have to invest in advertising, additional
tanks and their subsequent beautification. Purchasing upgrades
to your aeration and filtration systems will help stave
off illnesses like the dreaded “Ick” and make
for a stronger healthier fish, ones you can ask a better
price for once they are fully matured.
What makes Fish Tycoon even more of a challenge is that
like Plant Tycoon it runs in real time even with your PDA
turned off. Seed your tank, feed the baby fish and then
get on with other business. But don't forget to check back
from time to time or you will find yourself with a tank
full of decomposing fish matter and a store devoid of paying
customers. Thankfully, you can pause the game timer if
you know you're going to be away from the game for a while.
Occasionally I would forget to pause the game when I turned
in for the night and was greeted the following morning
with a Tank of Death as I came to refer to it. Strangely
enough this only added to the fun as I frantically fussed
over and apologized to the survivors, feeding everyone
and medicating those in need.
Fish Tycoon is no first person shooter or multi-player
frag fest for your PDA. Fish Tycoon is as non-violent as
it sounds and will help you peacefully wile away the rest
of the summer hours as you tend to the task of re-establishing
the fish of the once great Island of Isola.
These real time games are a hoot and LDW has mastered
the genre on Palm OS. The game graphics are terrific and
take full advantage of the excellent screens on the Palm
Zire 71 and the Sony TH55 on which we played the game.
We look forward to new releases and updates for Fish Tycoon
as well as all new games from LDW and updates or ports
of these games to Pocket PC. Highly recommended.
Letters to the Editor are welcome and occasionally abused in public. Send e-mail to: whine@kickstartnews.com
|
