christopher williams 09 23 2002 CIS 487 assignment 2 game review Basic information Game title Insaniquarium Company PopCap games Author Jason Kapalka Brian Fiete Type of game simple internet puzzle game Price 0 for the web game and 19 99 for the deluxe guesstamate Minimum stated hardware requirements for web Free and easy All our games play right in your browser They re all 100 java so no downloads or plug ins are needed Minimum stated hardware requirements for delux anywhere from 1 5 4mb of hard drive space requires an IBM PC or 100 compatible computer with a Pentium II 200 Mhz or better processor Your computer must have at least 32 megabytes of RAM Operating System you must be utilizing Windows 95 98 2000 or ME with Direct X to Insaniquarium Deluxe on your system Controls a keyboard and a 100 Microsoft compatible mouse are required Sound you must have a Direct X certified sound card installed Video you must have your desktop set to 16bit or 32 bit Color 256 Colors will not work Actual hardware required web same as above except for no direct X needed Actual hardware requirements deluxe an IBM PC or 100 compatible computer with a Pentium II 300 Mhz or better processor Game summary Quick overview Feed fish Fight aliens It s the craziest fish tank you ve ever seen in this action strategy hit Story line None or at least none on the web version Players role take care of your fish and their environment and in doing so the fish give you money use money to buy more things for fish and you To defeat the level you have to spend X amount of money determined by the level on pieces of the egg for the quest games until you complete the egg ergo complete the level Then the rest of the money is used for score when you defeat the level Web Installation quite simple go to their site click on the game of your choice in this case Insaniquarium then a java window opens and starts downloading the game for you to play similar to how a FLASH game proceeds in starting with similar load screen Installation of Insaniquarium deluxe not quite sure but most of their games have a simple executable file that once run only asks for simple input like where you wish to install and what you want the icons User interface Both simple use of the mouse left mouse button mainly Only intermittent screens to let you choose the level and choose friends Game play simple click anywhere in the tank to drop food for the fish to eat or attack a monster if present Right click to tap on glass in case fish start to sleep Scoring This is the neat part as the fish grow older they drop bigger coins and for killing monsters you get diamonds The final score is tallied up when you complete the tank for or when your time runs out However none of these stats come up until you have actually beat all of the levels the first time through Artwork very simple even though 16 bit is recommended I bet it would still look fine under 256 colors The pictures are bright and happy even the monsters don t look too scary for young children The animations are not complicated either because of possible size or taste the animations consist of either a flip of the tail or a blink Sound and music music might have been nice on this game however you are usually a little too busy to worry about it The sound effects are cute and add to the overall fun of play however the coin collection noise gets a little tiresome since that is the thing you do most of all Special features as you proceed through each level you get more and more objects to play with not only do you have the option to buy more things there after each stage the egg that you have completed at the end of the stage breaks open to become another sea creature for your fish take which has some sort of special ability to help you along your quest However you can only pick 3 of them total Manual nothing too complicated here but than again it doesn t quite tell you everything you need to know The mummy maze guide was a little nicer than this one it actually had a tutorial In fact I still have yet to figure out what that little bottom walking squid does Here it is Bugs i have played the game threw at least as far as it will let you go and i have only found one little problem however i am not sure as to whether it is with the program itself or it is just a Microsoft problem The game every once in a while seems as though it stops for a couple of seconds the game screen stays still and there is no sound then a couple of seconds later it will pop back up But the game will have still been going on while you where only seeing a still picture Example if you were fighting a enemy and it pauses when it comes back you may have lost because it killed your last two fish during the pause i used 3 different computers at 4 different cpu speeds and it tended to do it in the same spots usually when you are fighting an enemy This error however usually only occurred about every other hour you play Game Review What is good fun about the game The game is kind of addictive just like most puzzle games it keeps you clicking There is no heavy plot line to keep you attached and there is no new great game play that keeps you coming back it just has the simplicity of a pac man type game It is almost a form of micro management however it has a running score and you defiantly can t leave the fish alone for any length of time The fun aspect comes in that there is only a little skill required to play the game What is bad about the game It s all good until you beat all the levels after that there isn t a whole lot to shoot for Or for other words there is no new levels you get for beating it there is not any more special characters not even a finishing movie This may however be rectified in the deluxe version of the game On top of that even though there is scoring it doesn t show up until you have beaten the game once threw so the whole way threw you have no idea if you did well or just average which would allow for the bragging rights The final pain is that there is only one skill level and it is playable for a 6 10 age How does it compare to similar games in the genre i personally haven t played to many online action type games but this one caught my eye because i …
View Full Document
Unlocking...