Zombie Fish Tank Review

This is a weird title. For one, I would not have thought that fish collecting would be a genre in mobile games. But it seems like the amazing success of Ridiculous Fishing is already starting to spawn a school of like-minded titles. Chillingo's Zombie Fish Tank would seem to be one of those games, only with, you know.. zombies. This wacky game is full of arcade-like action and plenty of aquatic critters to add to your growing collection.

At the start of Zombie Fish Tank, you are a little bugger in a tank that's full of bigger, badder undead fishies. So you have to start small before you can upgrade. Munching on tiny fish incrementally, not to mention some toxic waste every now and then, is the formula for growing your fish.

Once you've eaten your way through enough enemies of a certain size, you will be able to upgrade to larger prey. In a weird, roundabout way, this kind of reminded me of certain levels of Osmos, where you had to slowly grow your little space cell by absorbing smaller ones before you could take on the big bad guy.

For the controls, Chillingo has programmed in some accelerometer mechanics. In order to move around, you will have to tilt your iOS device of choice in the direction you want your fish to swim. This makes sense, I guess. But often, I found myself having to re-calibrate the controls and didn't ever feel like I could truly make my zombie fish go where I wanted it to go.

Fortunately, re-calibrating is not the awkward "figure eight" nonsense you have to go through when your compass stops working. Instead you must have to center the game and double-tap the middle of the screen. There is an option for a virtual joystick, but that might even be worse and offers little in the way of precision.

Really though, you don't need to be all that surgical in order to devour fish smaller than you. Enough lurching around the level and you will kind of accomplish that on your own. As you eat more fish, which is pretty much what this game boils down to, you will occasionally get special power boosts, such as magnets or lasers. But you can also hit snake eyes and end up with a power-down as well.

The in-game currency of Zombie Fish Tank is something called "Zomboils" which you can use to buy more fish and different items to spruce up your tank with, such as treasure chests and plants. The max amount of fish you can have in the tank at one time is eight, but you can have lots more in storage. There's also the option to stockpile a few power-ups to help you when you need them. Progression depends on completing tasks, with every level giving you three of them to accomplish.

This is a pretty casual game and it was more fun than I thought it would be. I love the absurdity of a game dedicated to collecting zombie fish. The controls are a bit of an issue and it's not as feverishly addictive as something like Ridiculous Fishing, but I found myself coming back to this little title for more than a few rounds.

App Store Link: Zombie Fish Tank for iPhone & iPad | By Chillingo | Price: $0.99 | Version: 1.0.1 | 248 MB | Rating 12+