|| REVIEW || I Am Fish (Xbox One)
I Am Fish
Developed By : Bossa Studios Published By : Curve Games
Category : Adventure, Physics-Based, Puzzle
Release Date : September 15, 2021
Playing games as long as I have, I've gotten to the point where I look for the weird ones. I've played the sports games, played the music games, even dabbled in the Souls genre, but I always find my comfort zone in the puzzle genre. I even find myself a little bit more comfortable So when I was re-stocking myself on Game Pass games and saw I Am Fish I figured it would be right up my alley. And having played the studio's previous game, I Am Bread I was excited going into it.
The game starts off simple enough, putting you in a fish tank as a goldfish with a few other fish friends. After swimming around in the tank for a bit, getting used to the controls, your fish catches a glimpse of the ocean far away out the pet store shop. Before you can enjoy the view and a dream for too long, you're netted out of the tank and sold off to a small family and plopped into a round fish bowl. Over the course of the game's levels, you'll need to guide each fish from it's new home, to the home it wants in the ocean.
Each fish has three levels you'll need to complete, and other than the goldfish, each has a unique ability to help them on their journey. As the piranha fish you'll be able to bite objects, the puffer fish can puff itself up and turn into a ball that rolls, and the winged fish can spread its fins out like wings and glide over distances. Yes, the realism hits deep.
You won't be navigating through the world in just a fishbowl either. The game's controls allow you to swim vertically as well, so each fish can hop out of their fishbowl into various other objects. You'll get to swim in natural water, sewers, mop buckets, drinking glasses, and some other things that are better left to be experienced for themselves.
Guidance through the levels is pretty straightforward for the most part. Every so often, you'll trigger a checkpoint which is marked by a giant orange fan, so if you get stuck these are generally pretty easy to spot to find your way.
Through the level you'll be tracked on how long you take, how many times you die or manually respawn yourself, and there are five pieces of bread that can be found as collectibles. The bread will usually require a bit of extra work, since it's not required to collect any of them, so if you're a perfectionist and an achievement hunter, you'll have your work cut out for you.
If the base game seems simple enough, there are some difficulty options to step your game up a bit. These include an Iron Fish mode which removes checkpoints from all of the levels, and a Bossa control mode that requires you to wiggle the right joystick from side to side. I tried this out in the earlier levels just to get a feel for it, and it would definitely be a work in some of the later level puzzles.
As weird as it was initially I Am Fish was an absolutely amazing game. It didn't take long to beat it, just a few sessions over a couple of days, and my kids absolutely loved watching the fish swimming and jumping around while I played. It was very easy to get hooked on this game (fish pun not intended) and it's one I'll definitely play again. If you like your games a little weird, and especially if you have access to Game Pass, give this one a shot, you will not regret.
