Feed And Grow Fish

Feed And Grow Fish is one of those games that feels like it has been in early access forever! Despite what that singing Rastafarian crab/lobster says, life under the sea is not all fun and games. It is hard, brutal and it is a constant struggle for survival. That is what I think this game is trying to get across.

Big, Fish, Little Fish, Cardboard Box

The whole premise of the game is that you start out as a small fish and you want to get bigger and survive. There is not any big story here at play, this is just about life under the sea and the hell that these sea creatures go through in order just to survive. There are “quests” that you are able to do, but do not expect much in the way of story development here!

It Is Better Down Where It Is Wetter

You know, now that I think about it that line from The Little Mermaid is kind of messed up! Anyway, Feed And Grow Fish has you starting off as a small fish and the idea of the game is that you need to take care of your hunger and stamina bars all the while trying to get bigger and avoid being killed. Everything seems to want you dead! The game is about evading predators and snacking on the other fish.

Click, Click, Boom!

The way that Feed And Grow Fish plays is that you swim around a lake or an ocean and you need to click the mouse at a million miles per hour to eat fish. This can get old pretty quickly! You swim around looking for fish to eat and when you do, you will grow, making it easier to eat larger sea creatures. The controls of the fish moving around are actually pretty responsive.

As you progress, you earn coins and these can be used to buy new fish. I got pretty invested in trying to unlock the King Crab as he is a crab who is wearing a crown and that is pretty damn awesome.

Smooth Swimming In Rough Seas

The presentation of the game is a real mixed bag. Feed And Grow Fish has some great-looking sea critters, but the animations can be really rough, a great example of this is when I was a smaller fish trying to munch on a shark.

It just started spinning around and it looked super weird. The water effects and the way the ocean and the lake look different is great, but it just the animations that are a little bit off.

Pros:

• Some of the fish have a ton of personality
• The water effects look cool
• I liked how you can choose between the ocean and a lake
• That king crab really is one awesome regal-looking dude!

Cons:

• This game can be fun, but it can also get old pretty quickly
• The grind to unlock stuff can get a bit much

Feed and Grow: Fish puts players in the shoes (or lack thereof) of hundreds of different kinds of fish. The goal of the game is for players to eat smaller fish in the attempt to grow as large as possible. With a similar style of gameplay to Agar.io, Feed and Grow continues to be popular despite still being in early access.

Bigger is Better

Players begin the game as a small guppy fish. As the smallest fish in a very big pond, players will need to quickly eat as much as they can in order to grow the size of their fish. Players can start runs with bigger fish by paying out in the in-game currency, however in order to rack up some dough players will have to level up their fish manually by eating food, debris, and of course, other fish.

Under the Sea

As players grow the size of their fish they’ll be able to fend off predators with much greater ease. As they reach higher and higher levels, players will also be able to do greater amounts of damage, meaning that once difficult enemies can be taken out in just a single bite. However, if the player happens to get eaten themselves, then it's back to the start.

This gameplay loop is very easy to understand and offers a lot of fun in shorter or longer bursts. This makes Feed And Grow: Fish an excellent game for younger gamers, especially those who are completely new to the hobby. This is also helped by the fact the game has a cutesy art style that is reminiscent of Epic Mickey or the now obsolete kids MMO, Toontown.

Teething Problems

All that said, Feed and Grow: Fish is not without its portions of problems. For example, the game is notoriously difficult to run on some computers. Put it down to poor optimization or whatever, but players may find that this seemingly simple fish simulator might ask a lot from their gaming PC.

Speaking of development, the updates for Feed and Grow: Fish are also problematic. The game first released in early access back in 2016, and has still yet to finish. It’s clear that the developers are only a small team, but updates and incredibly few and far between. To make things worse, key features like high quality sound effects and music were not part of the base game, but updates later down the line.

The issues also extend into gameplay too. The gameplay is very simplistic, and doesn’t really offer much in the way of variety. While players will initially find battling out in the ocean as an entertaining challenge, the novelty definitely wears off after a few runs.

PROS

• Cute and family-friendly art style
• Great for all ages
• Simple and addictive gameplay

CONS

• Still in early access after years of development
• Low level of quality and generally rough around the edges
• Glitchy and has poor optimization