PN Review: Evofish

Evofish is a game that started out life on mobile platforms before making its way onto the Wii U.  I wasn’t sure what to expect from Evofish when I initially heard about the game but I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the downloadable title but disappointed by its replayability.  The game centers around trying to evolve or level up by eating ‘smaller’ fish while avoid being eaten be ‘larger’ ones.  Evofish nails this concept quite well and adds in power ups in an attempt to keep things interesting.  Three multiplayer modes and two single player modes are available from the start, which is nice rather than having to unlock them.  There are elements of Evofish that work quite well but there are a few pieces of the game that drag the experience down.

The single player gameplay in Evofish is where this game shines but there is little incentive for anyone to play through Evofish more than once.  There are some unlockable fish for single player mode.  Each new fish has a unique set of stats but the core gameplay for Evofish remains the same.  This will likely get quite boring for most by the time they get around to unlocking the last fish.  The basic concept is interesting and easy to grasp which makes Evofish easy to pick up and play.  Shortly after beginning the game and getting a quick graphical tutorial, players will find themselves gobbling up fish left and right.  While the tutorial teaches you to eat smaller fish while avoid being ‘eaten’ by larger ones, none of the fish in the game really have any difference in size.  This lack of size difference leaves players to determine which fish to eat and which ones to avoid by looks alone.  Fortunately, the large fish and small fish do change color to red or green respectively when approached so this helps avoid confusion between the two.  They are further distinguished by their behavior and the larger fish will give chase while the smaller fish run away.

Gameplay is supplemented with the ability to use power ups to give the player’s growing fish a leg up over their enemies.  These power ups not only pop up at random in the play field but can also be purchased in the shop using shells that players can earn.  The currency or shells are earned by completing the missions that appear on the GamePad.  Power ups are used by tapping the GamePad touchscreen or two power ups of the player’s choosing can by assigned to the left and right trigger buttons.  The GamePad controls are quite nice and very tight but to pause the game is not a simple press of the start button but rather an icon on the touchscreen, which I felt was an odd design choice.  Additionally, the information on the GamePad is not really explained during the tutorial so when first starting to play some of the information, such as the missions, on the GamePad are learned as players progress further in the game.

The graphics and sound are not anything to write home about but are adequate for the game.  Evofish looks great and the graphics fit the game quite well.  On the other hand the sound effects and music could have used a little more variety.  The sound effects can get quite repetitive after playing for a long period of time.  The music is not too bad in early in the game because the levels’ advance quite quickly and it changes once players reach a certain level.  As the game progresses though evolutionary stages are longer and with the lack of musical variety, I found my self turning down the volume after some time with the game.  One point to make is that the music isn’t bad, in fact it is very fun and bouncy later on in the game, but more variety would have been nice.

There are a variety of game modes available in Evofish.  Normal and Survival modes are the available single player modes.  If playing with a group, 1 VS 4, Last Fish Standing, and God of Swarm are the available multiplayer options.  In Normal Mode, the goal is to eat smaller fish to evolve or level up.  Survival Mode retains the same goal as Normal Mode but adds a play clock and eating smaller fish adds time to the play clock while getting bitten reduces the time.  The multiplayer modes are a lot of fun and add some interesting asymmetric gameplay experiences.  1 VS 4 allows players with Wii Remotes to act as the larger fish chasing after the player with the GamePad.  The interesting part of 1 VS 4 mode is when the GamePad player evolves, the other players with Wii Remotes are vulnerable to being eaten by the player with the GamePad, for a short period of time, while their fish evolve.  Last Fish Standing is the survival mode for multiple players and whoever can last the longest wins the round.  Time is added to each player’s timer by eating smaller fish but there is no way to lose time because there are no larger fish present and players can’t attack each other.  God of Swarm is one of the more interesting game modes where the player with the GamePad commands a group of larger fish with the goal of catching the players with the GamePad.  While the God of Swarm mode is interesting, the touch screen controls are not that great and bring the experience of this mode down with it.  The multiplayer modes can be fun but like other aspects of the game, the modes become repetitive and lose their ‘fun factor’ after playing a few times.

Evofish is simple addictive fun and it is hard to put down.  The game experience is most interesting during the initial play through but loses its luster after playing it multiple times.  More advance gamers will not enjoy this game as much as a more casual game player will.  This is not surprising since the title initially started out as a mobile game.  Younger gamers will likely enjoy the multiplayer modes and early levels of single player but the game can get quite difficult in later stages of the single player experience.  Overall, Evofish would be a good game for someone interested in casual gaming or some multiplayer fun with a younger group of gamers but will unlikely be of any value for an older or more experienced gamer.