Angry Fish (XBLIG): "Fishy Feline Fray"

If you have ever played Angry Birds, or games from the Fish Craft XBLIG series then you'll definitely be familiar with this game. Angry Fish is actually a sequel to the Fish Craft series, and was developed by Frozen Software. In this game you take on the role of some fish who are tired of the cats crapping all over their volleyball court. Actually that's what I interpreted from the visual intro (Lol! ^.^). I came to this conclusion, because there were piles of squat littering the the beach that fishes were playing volleyball on. The cat in the intro picture also had a mischievious grin on his face which further supports my hypothesis. Angry Fish features 2 levels with 21 stages each that involve epic kitty smiting. Each level has a different background theme with a night, and day version. There is also an epic orchestral tune playing as you're trying to take out the furry fiends. Your objective in the game is to launch fish from a cannon, and take out the barriers (boards, stone, glass ...) that are housing your feline foes ultimately annihilating them. How quickly/efficiently you take out the structures, and cats will determine your ranking (1-3 stars) and score for each stage.

Controls in Angry Fish are quite simple to learn. Your main focus will be on aiming/firing the cannon, and using the fish's abilities appropriately. To aim the cannon you will use the (Left Thumbstick). To fire the cannon you will use the (A) button. You can change the velocity/speed that the cannon fires as well by using up, and down on the (D.Pad). The (Right & Left Bumper) buttons are used to reset the camera's position on the screen. You can also use the (Right Thumbstick) to move the camera, and take a look at where everything is positioned on the cat's side of the field. If you ever want to retry/reset a stage simply press 'start', and then the (Y) button.

Scoring in Angry Fish is determined by how you take out the cats' stronghold. The structures that the cats hide behind are composed of wooden boards, stone structures, and glass pieces. There are also boxes of TNT on certain stages that can be used to clear out large areas. The points you get are determined by the objects/cats you destroy. Each level/stage in the game keeps track of your highest score, and ranking individually. As you play Angry Fish you'll find that certain fish are better at taking out certain structure types. At the beginning of the game you start off with a red fish that has no special abilities. It is best used to topple over standing wooden planks. The yellow triangle fish has the extra ability to pass through objects at high speed when you press the (Y) button, and is also good for shattering glass structures. The brown spiny/puffer fish has the ability to cause a sonic blast when you press (Y) after launching it. It is best used for destroying the stone blocks. There is also a blue fish, and a black fish that have an explosive ability. The blue fish will drop a bomb that explodes where you drop it. The black fish will explode when the (Y) button is pressed. The last type of fish is the bowl of guppies. It contains 3 tiny guppies that fly out of the bowl at high velocity when you press the (Y) button. It's actually best to press (Y) at a good distance before the fish bowl strikes the cat's stronghold.

After playing through both levels, and all the stages in Angry Fish I was a bit puzzled. I found the experience to be somewhat flawed. For the most part the game was what you would expect it to be, but some of the physics had a severe delay, or random reaction. There were also moments when the cats would just spontaneously combust for no apparent reason. I'm not sure if it was a delayed response to the fish, the explosives, or the falling of the structures that the cats were under/on. It was very odd though. At times even the boards, and structure pieces would fly about wildly. I also found issues with the camera. The camera is more complicated to control than it should be in my opinion. Resetting the camera's position also presents problems on occassion. If Frozen Software (the developer) can fix these issues with a patch then this game would definitely be worth the 80 msp ($1).