Zombie Fish Tank Review

When putting a bunch of fish together in a small glass enclosure it's important to know ahead of time whether or not they'll get along. Woe be unto any fish that finds itself sharing a space with the little guy from Zombie Fish Tank, because he's like a tiny undead blender.

The hero of Zombie Fish Tank used to be a normal, everyday fish. He lived a full fish life and had a fish girlfriend, but then some jerk scientist stepped on her and hauled him off to be used as some kind of chemical test subject. The resulting experiment not only made him far more aggressive and far less alive, but even that won't stop him from exacting his revenge the only way a fish knows how: by eating everything in sight. Tilting the device will make him swim around, and when guided to any fish that are smaller than him he'll automatically devour them. Once enough fish have been made into a meal he'll get bigger, which allows him to eat even larger fish. And so the cycle continues until he either gets too close to a bigger set of teeth or totally cleans house.

The mechanics behind Zombie Fish Tank are familiar, as I've said, but there's more to it than just gorging on fish. Every so often a can of toxic goo will appear, and eating it can have various effects on how our hero performs. Some will draw smaller fish closer, others act as a lure to attract bigger fish, and still others can freeze everything in the tank. These power-ups (and power-downs) are only a part of it, though. It's also possible for players to save up their radioactive change to add fish to their personal tank, which can alter the speed of the gameplay or the duration of each level considerably. Plus it's just fun to look at a custom tank filled with monstrous creatures.

Normally I take issue with tilt controls but they work quite well in Zombie Fish Tank. So well, in fact, that I didn't even think to look for an alternative - which there is: a virtual stick that feels a lot less responsive). However, as much as I preferred the tilt controls recalibrating them isn't easy. In fact, as far as I can tell the only way to do it is to exit the game and open it up again. Pausing or even toggling between options in the menu doesn't do anything.

Having to jump through hoops to reset the tilt controls is a bit of a pain, but aside from that Zombie Fish Tank does a fantastic job of bringing an old genre back from the dead. The core mechanics are plenty of fun in their own right, and there's plenty of bonus content and additional levels to keep players occupied.