Review: Last Fish - Toxic Offender
by Allan Curtis
February 8, 2011
Overview
Last Fish is a unique, stylish game about a lone fish trying to survive in toxic waste infested water. Its eye catching graphics make it hard to miss.Features
Last Fish features a great visual style, unsettling ambient music, addictive gameplay that changes often and Game Centre integration.The Good
In Last Fish you are the last surviving fish, trapped in toxic water. Particles of toxins float in the currents, as do white particles of food. Your only chance of surviving is to avoid the black, toxic death and eat food to keep your strength up.
You do this by tilting to move your fish around the screen, hovering over food to eat it. The tilt controls are very solid and never slip up.
Last Fish mixes up its simple gameplay by giving you varied goals. Sometimes you just have to eat a certain amount of food to boost your health to a certain amount, but others you might have to survive for a certain time, or the level might be in deadly toxic water that causes you to constantly lose health and you must constantly eat to survive before the poison eats you. Some levels also feature Shadow Fish; black fish that actively chase you and whittle your health down quickly. Shadow Fish can’t be killed, so you have to frantically dodge the corrupted creatures, as you compete your goal.
Last Fish features interesting gameplay and it should keep you playing for a fair while, as it has Angry Birds style star ratings after each level and Game Centre support for earning achievements.
Last Fish looks great and artistic. Its stark black and white look is fresh and the dark background makes the globs of toxin suitably menacing. Shadow Fish also loom out of the darkness and your fish projects only a small circle of light around itself, outside of which the screen is nearly black. The game really pulls off its minimalist vibe well; it oozes style and will get anyone’s attention.
The sound is decent enough The quiet, drifting ambient music suits the game’s desolate feel and the sound effects are limited to a loud sucking sound when you touch toxin and a tinkling sound, as you heal from eating food. This small array of sound fuses well with the game’s similarly simple graphics. There is only two music tracks in the game however, the menu track and the gameplay track. More and varied songs would have made this game less repetitive.
