Tap Fish: Raise beautiful baby Clown Fish, feed them to see them grow, and decorate your tanks with exotic tropical plants and sea reefs.
Gameplay: Have you ever wanted to own an aquarium but have been put off with the amount of work and effort involved? Tap Fish may be the answer for you, offering you the opportunity to satisfy your natural human desire to nurture with this popular virtual aquarium simulation.
The basic aim of the game is to buy, grow and sell fish. Through this process you earn gold coins, which allows you to buy and grow more expensive and exotic fish, simple.
The good: The good thing is that it is that simple, however Tap Fish offers you a lot more. Where the simulation really comes into its own is that you are able to breed different types of fish to discover new varieties. It can be fun to fulfil your curiosity and experiment breeding say a blowfish with a clownfish or a Piranha and a Yellow Longnose.
Another cool feature of Tap Fish is that you are able to make the aquarium your phone wallpaper, turning your usual static background image into a colourful array of moving ocean life.
You are also given the option of decorating your aquarium with various accessories such as various ocean plants and coral reefs, allowing you to customise your aquarium as you want, whilst keeping your fish happy. Be a good friend and care for your neighbour’s fish with Tap Fish’s social gaming features, by doing so you will be rewarded more experience points which unlocks more fish varieties.
The bad: The graphics could be better. For me, the purpose of breeding exotic fish is to sit back, relax and just look at the beauty of your fish, swimming around the tank looking stupid and forget your worries. You don’t get that feeling with this simulator. Most of the fish have a very limited number of animation frames and so the movement just looks awkward.
The best fish can only be unlocked with “fish bucks” which unsurprisingly can only really be obtained with real money. Although I understand the developer’s desire to be paid, there should be a better way to obtain more fish bucks without constantly reaching for your wallet. The sound effects are also annoying after a short while, so much so that the game is more enjoyable with the sound off.
Verdict: 3/5 Tap Fish offers a good variety of fish and accessories for you to experiment with and can be rewarding for those willing to put in the time and effort to do so. However ultimately the game falls down on its presentation as it isn’t pretty enough to act as a substitute for the real thing.
Tap Fish QR Code
(Click on the image below or scan the barcode with your Android phone to goto the Android Market)
Developers: Gameview Studios
