My thoughts on Insaniquarium Deluxe

Astraware have yet again released a highly involved and addictive game. Insaniquarium Deluxe involves the user keeping a tank of fish alive and collecting the coins and jewels that they drop in order to collect points. Each level is ended when three eggs have been bought with the points that were collected. Along the way there are extra characters to unlock that help you through the levels in some way and also different ‘monsters’ to hinder your progress. You must ensure that you constantly feed the fish when needed (they change colour to highlight this) and this will make them grow bigger which in turn makes them release jewels worth more points. There are different options across the top of the screen and these range from buying more fish for your tank to buying a stronger laser with which to fight the monsters. The game is relatively straight forward throughout but as the number of points needed to progress increases, so does the need for proper planning. At one time I was using ten fish, all a substantial size and I was having difficulty keeping then fed. There are a lot of different little bits to the game but after going through the very good, in-depth tutorial on the game, everything became clear. I would definitely recommend doing the tutorial before you start the game.

When feeding the fish you should make sure you plan this. Dropping food does cost you points so only feed the fish when they change colour. Also, be aware that you can only drop one piece of food at a time. This little complication does make the game more fun and challenging.

With the name Insaniquarium Deluxe, you would expect that there would be some slightly over the top aspects to the game, and there is. With monsters appearing in the tank and one even shooting missiles at your fish, you are always kept surprised with what the game has in store. Insaniquarium Deluxe incorporates all these ‘wacky’ aspects very well and I was always ready for the different monsters that I came up against.

I found the game hard to put down and I could tell I was addicted when I stopped messing around with my one day old iPhone and was fixated on getting through the game. I told myself on several occasions that I would ‘stop after the next level’ and I have only stopped now so that I can write up this review! The graphics are very good and it is a suitable game for all ages. I would definitely recommend this game to all, just as long as you can afford to spare the time to feed the inevitable addiction! Insaniquarium Deluxe will be available from Astraware later today.