FISH TYCOON

 

Title: Fish Tycoon

Media: Video Game

Genre: Simulation

Rating: E

Creator: Last Day of Work

Edition Reviewed: v1.01 for PC (Steam)

 

Ah, Fish Tycoon. I remember the days in high school when I would play the free version online during computer science, racing against my friends to see who could get a million dollars first. We always wondered what the full version was like, with its seahorses and researching and what not. When I finally earned enough to buy the full game, I was ecstatic. The mysteries would soon be solved!

Sadly, I only played it for five minutes before I rage-quit due to frustration and boredom.

And so, for the first time in years, I boot up the game in order to review it. Is it still an aggravating grind-fest? Or is it a genuinely enjoyable virtual aquarium?

Yes.

 

Fish Tycoon is a fish-raising business-oriented simulation game. The player's main goal is to find the Seven Magic Fish of Isola and return the island to its former glory. To do this, the player is given a handful of fish that they must breed to create new hybrids. But to sustain the more fragile hybrids, the player must research their tank environment. But to do the research, the player needs to sell fish to raise funds. But to raise funds, the player must breed valuable species of fish.

And thus the cycle continues.

 

 

Like most sims, Fish Tycoon is not for the impatient. When playing on the game's fastest speed, it takes two hours for your fish to give birth and then to have those babies reach full size. And when I say “two hours,” I don't mean a sped-up in-game version of hours. I mean, quite literally, two hours. The game runs on real time.

Which means that you can trick the game by setting the clock on your computer ahead two hours every time your fish are ready to give birth, but you didn't hear that from me.

Now to give everyone a biology lesson, combined with just a dash of nitpicking.

Did you notice how I kept referring to fish giving birth? Every fish in the game gives live birth. Every fish. Even the fish you just used to impregnate one of the other fish. In the context of the game, this is good. If there were defined genders for each of the fish, you could very well render the game unbeatable by having all males or all females in your tank.

But fish don't work that way. Yes, some fish give live birth: some members of the family Chondrichthyes (sharks & rays), and most members of the family Poeciliidae (guppies & mollies) reproduce by hatching their eggs internally and then popping the babies out (this is called ovoviviparous reproduction, for anyone who is curious). And yes, some fish can change gender at will: for example, some male clownfish will turn female if there is a dramatic shift in the male/female ratio.

But gender-swapping fish are not ovoviviparous, and ovoviviparous fish do not gender-swap.

And this has bugged me ever since I first played the game.

(Of course, this is all a moot point when you realize most of the fish in the game do not exist at all. It's all pretend, with a fantasy island that operates by its own set of rules. Rendering this reality-based vent invalid. Oh well. At least you got to learn some cool stuff about fish reproduction.)

But enough of that: back to the game itself. Besides the length and slow pace, it is also difficult to raise money. In the free version of the game, one could set the price of every fish to $1000 and become rich in minutes. However, the shoppers in the full-length release will not buy your fish if you price them too high. Which, in my experience, includes raising the fish's default price by one dollar. Seeing as how most fish are priced at four bucks, you can see how difficult it is to gain money at the beginning of the game.

 

But that's just how sim games work. Lots of padding and lots of grinding, so that the player can get their money's worth. The point of the game is not to win; the point of the game is to enjoy your virtual fish tank.

I suppose the bottom line is this: is Fish Tycoon worth your money? Sure, if you like aquarium sims; the fish are very pretty, the game is relaxing to watch, and you never have to clean the tank. It' all of the benefits of owning a fish tank with none of the downsides (except one: these virtual fish will never have the quirks and personalities that real fish have). If you have no patience for simulation games but feel that you absolutely must play this game, then I would suggest sticking with the free online version and its faster/easier gameplay.

As for me, personally? I prefer taking care of real fish.