Acorn User


Fish!
By Rainbird
Archimedes A3000

 
Published in Acorn User #081

Fins Ahoy!

Fish!

Fish! is Magnetic Scrolls' fifth adventure, the second to be converted for the Archimedes and I was pleased to find that it is every bit as facetious as its early games - The Pawn, Guild Of Thieves and Jinxter - and unlike the more serious-minded Corporation.

You play an inter-dimensional espionage agent and must single-handedly foil the latest fiendish ploy of 'The Seven Deadly Fins'. The Fins have sabotaged 'The Machine' that prevents all the water evaporating from the Fish world.

The game starts belly-up in a goldfish bowl - what did you expect, oil lamps, bunches of keys and twisty passages?

The first section of the adventure involves swimming through the three warps the 'backroom boys' have constructed for you, and collecting the components for the focus wheel - a vital part of the sabotaged Machine.

This is fairly easy, and provides a very nice introduction. The second part is much harder, and involves exploring Hydropolis in the guise of Professor Roach, an eminent fish scientist. The other parts of the Machine are dotted about the city in various states of repair, and you have until 4pm to reassemble the missing stream regulator.

The game understands many words, and will accept long and complicated sentences. The location descriptions are very detailed and have lots of suitably awful pus on fish and the sea. In addition, about a third of the locations are beautifully illustrated; watch out for the particularly accurate rendition of Battersea power station!

Overall, I found the game great fun to play, the puzzles involving a fair amount of lateral thinking, but none totally insurmountable - so much so, that after four days of near-constant playing, I finished the game with a score of 491, 10 points off maximum.

To sum up? A very light-hearted adventure that's well worth the cash.

David Lawrence

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