Alright. Here's what we're gonna do. First you're going out in a fishing boat at the crack of dawn. Then I'm going to slap you around a lot. After that, you're going to walk around checking for traps for me. Then, we're going to go for a cup of coffee... where you'll probably get shot a whole bunch. Sound good?
Man Eats Fish - In seven days, I shotgunned the entirety of Psych off Netflix. In that same time, Supermoof created a queerly addictive, if repetitive, fishing business simulation for the Fishing Jam. Each day, you putter out in your boat gathering fish to sell at your restaurant, where the type and tastiness of fish determines your customer ratings, struggling to earn enough money for upgrades. It's painfully slow and lacks a save/load function, as well as some streamlining that could have made certain aspects more palatable and yet... I keep coming back to it. Maybe, deep down inside me, there's a salty, scruffy, bearded fisherman in galoshes yearning to return to the sea. Or maybe this is just a great idea that needs further development. You decide.
Rose & Camellia 2 - We've covered it before, but with a new translation and no need to play through the original game to see the content, Nigoro's ridiculous arcade-y smack-em-up deserves another mention. You play the spiteful Saori, bitter after being ousted by her competition, an insolent young woman, and must engage in a number of, uh, stately slap-fights with various other characters to claw your way back for revenge. The premise may be ridiculous, but the haughty, fantastic style and writing makes this a simple campy pleasure.
The Ladder of Kali - Like roguelikes? Then give Benjamin Soule's oh-so-pretty and yet itty-bitty one a try, as you descend through ten levels of tricks, trap, treasure, and monsters. You're going after Kali, who is ticked at humanity and cursed everyone, but since you've been cursed to age rapidly, you might die of old age before you reach her. The game suffers a bit from having a ton of keys and some unexpectedly in-depth mechanics, which would normally be a good thing, except none of them are really that intuitive or explained very well in the game itself. But it looks fantastic and plays surprisingly well once you get the hang of it, and roguelike fans will definitely enjoy sinking their teeth into this one.
Coffee Mafia - Take the frenetic, one hit KO violence of Hotline Miami, strip out the story and the, uh, more creative killing, as well as the randomness, and you'd have something like JMickle's swanky arcade game about storming what appears to be a coffee house filled with thugs on each level and wiping them out before they can do the same to you. The game's best feature might be its incredibly catchy old-school soundtrack, but the fast-paced twitch action isn't bad either if you don't mind how very simplified it is.
If the Man Eats Fish guy is around... fishermen tend to fish at night and early morning. The catch comes in at sunrise. It's the dudes with traps who can afford to set out in the daytime.
Fishing game: If I could at least browse on other tabs while that never ending shop part happens but no, it pauses, so I don't lose any of that exciting animation of people coming in, paying 4 bucks and leaving, while the sun and moon moves across the sky.
Other than that, I'm having fun.
Amen Diego. I rage quit after 14 days because it felt glacial waiting for customers to come and go. That and the speed of the first fishing boat.
Coffee Mafia is pretty well done, nearly exactly the right length for a frantic button-masher, and the combined graphics and soundtrack work really well.
However, it gave me a 'title screen cheat' or such like upon finishing, which I can't find a use for, since pressing any key starts the game....
About the cheat codes:
You have to type them real quick on the title screen. REAL quick...
Phew. Took me a while but I finished the fishing game. Besides the auto pause feature, it's a very good management game, very rewarding.
That Rose and Camellia game, man is it physically impossible. I've never been more angered by a mouse-driven timed button-clicking slap-fight before.
Rose and Camellia is BRUTAL! my hand is soar from playing this. I moved my keyboard and cleaned my desk to play this thing and I still get a pounding every time LOL
@Voodoo Smile: thanks for the tip, but that makes it even less fun
I keep on typing "disatant" D:
Does anybody know how to use the romance tank in man eats fish? I think I'm supposed to be able to breed fish or something? Not sure, I bought the tank and put fish in it, but...
@Troy:
That's how it works. I don't think it works with only one fish (I know in real life it doesn't :P) but the more fish of one species the more they reproduce. My tip is to always leave it almost full with one species and every day you remove the same amount it generated, picking the worst of the bunch (you can see the "flavor gene" there) eventually there will be left only 10 10 10 specimens. With a large romance tank you don't even need to go out to fish anymore, I won the game with this tank full of 10 10 10 crayman.
As a slow game player, I really like this game.
It took me a few minutes to realise that scrolling down under the game window reveals some useful help text in lieu of a tutorial.
The rustic fishing village scene is beautiful despite such simple blocky graphics.
I also admire the attention to temporal detail; although they are not of planet earth, there are tides [with a seaweed high tide mark] and even phases of the moon!
The night-time dialogue, cute, and a nice touch.
Tracks to listen to while playing?
"Sitting on the Dock of the Bay", by Otis Redding and
"Fish Heads" by Barnes and Barnes.
The latter song inspired me to scrub the customers' faces with the sardine cursor as I waited for the shop to close.
If this game is ever developed further I would love to know. =)
I think, like Dora, I'm going to be strangely drawn - back to "Man Eats Fish".
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