Go Fish
Go Buy "Go Fish!"
By Ethan C. NoblesAugust 8, 2005
The Oklahoma Video Game Exhibition (OKGE),
which was held for the third year on June 18, 2005, is a wonderful
thing, indeed. In addition to meeting fellow Atari enthusiasts (there
aren’t that many of them in my neck of the woods, after all), the folks
from AtariAge.com are on hand with plenty of homebrewed games for sale.
This year, I was fortunate enough to pick up a copy of Go Fish!
by Bob Montgomery on the day AtariAge released it at the OKGE.
This eight kilobyte game sure packs a wallop and is a very unique
addition to any 2600 library. Now, the concept might not seem that great
on paper – the player starts off with a small fish and must eat fish
that are of equal size in order to grow while avoiding enemies. As the
game goes on and the fish grows, it can attack smaller fish, too.
That doesn’t sound all that great, does it? So, why do I love this game?
Simply put, the execution is everything here. Go Fish! is loosely
based on Shark! Shark!, a game for the Mattel Intellivision.
That’s important to note because Go Fish! plays like one of the
better Intellivision games in that subtle strategy and a unique concept
is more important than the rapid-fire gameplay which was common when the
2600 was in its prime.
Swimming around and eating fish while avoiding jellyfish, larger fish,
eels and that nasty ol’ shark might not seem like the makings of a great
game, but Montgomery has added enough fantastic elements to this title
to truly make it special. For one thing, inertia plays a heavy part in
this game. At first, that’s not that big of a deal – it’s not that
difficult to get a little fish to change directions and dart off here
and there. But, it becomes more of a challenge once the fish grows and
feels much “heavier” than it did in the beginning. That large fish
doesn’t accelerate from a dead stop as quickly, and it isn’t as easy to
reverse directions and avoid enemies, either.
And, on the subject of enemies, they become more common as the fish gets
larger. So, it’s not only harder to avoid them, there are more of them,
too. Oh, and grabbing smaller fish becomes more difficult after a time,
too, because they will dart away as soon as they spot the larger
beastie. The difficulty level ramps up very naturally, see, and makes
for a challenging and enjoyable game. This game, indeed, has that
coveted “I’ve got to play it just one more time” quality to it.
The control here is great and the use of physics, as I mentioned, is
implemented well. Similarly, the graphics are quite soothing – the
undersea environment was captured well by Montgomery, although the
single-colored enemies and the player’s own fish is nothing too
exciting. Animation is used well here as the fins flip around
convincingly when the player’s fish is swimming around the ocean.
The sound is better than most Atari games. Well, kind of. You get the
usual “blips” and “bloops” that are standard in Atari games, but there’s
a whimsical, musical ditty that plays throughout the game. I happen to
like it, but I could see how some people might get annoyed with it after
a time. It can be turned off with the “color / B-W” switch on a 2600 or
with the “pause” switch on an Atari 7800. This game also supports the
AtariVox – which is available through AtariAge – for some speech and to
save high scores. I don’t own an AtariVox, so I really can’t say much
about how well the game utilizes it.
There is a two-player mode here that’s worth mentioning. The players,
essentially, are on the screen at the same time and try to score points
against each other. Their fish can either grow or not depending on the
difficulty setting, and the player with the larger fish can eat his
opponent. According to the manual, two-player mode cannot be played with
the AtariVox, but that only makes sense because the speech-synthesis
unit plugs into the right controller port.
If there’s one flaw in this game, it’s that you only get one fish.
That’s right. Forget about the “extra lives” that arcade fans just love.
Once your fish is eaten, it’s time to start again. But, given the nature
of the game, the lack of extra lives is really no big deal. Protecting
that one fish just adds to the challenge of the game.
This game, like most recent homebrews, just screams quality. In addition
to the excellent program, you get a full color label designed by Renato
Brito and a fantastic manual by Tony Morse. The whole package looks
wonderful, and underlines the point that this game would have probably
been at least fairly successful had it been released back when Atari was
king.
This is one of those games that, in my mind, every serious 2600 fan
should purchase. It’s not only a great game, but programmers like
Montgomery should be encouraged to keep producing fantastic titles like
Go Fish! Top-notch homebrews like Go Fish! help keep the
Atari 2600 alive and kicking, and we fans of the system should all be
grateful for that.
Game Data |
Scores
|
| Title |
Go Fish |
Graphics |
85% |
| Publisher |
Atari Age |
Sound/Music |
90% |
| Genre |
Action |
Gameplay |
95% |
| System |
2600 |
Control |
95% |
|
|
Overall |
94% |
)
)
