A Thinker in Space

Last week, I introduced a series called Deep Cuts – obscure games that most people probably haven’t played (or possibly even heard of). If you’d like more info about this series, take a look here! We’ll start here – this should help you expect the level of obscurity these games have. Believe it or not, this is one of the more mainstream-adjacent (not mainstream, but could have been mainstream) games on the list of Deep Cuts I plan to review, as it is made by the company PopCap of Plants vs. Zombies fame. There will certainly be ones more well known than this one, and a significant number less well known.

The Game

In all my years since playing Insaniquarium (released in 2001) for the first time on a Shockwave Unlimited subscription, I have never found a game quite like this one. Some games on this list I haven’t played in years, but this one I have returned to again and again.

The premise is simple. You are provided a fish tank, a fish and a single pellet you can feed it with. Your goal? Buy an egg (which will unlock a new “pet” for the next level – creatures you have in your tank that assist you in various ways). Fish have three sizes – small, medium, and large. Small fish do nothing except eat. Medium fish drop a silver coin. Large fish drop a golden coin.

As you collect money, you can buy more fish. Then, you can improve the food you feed your fish (better food means faster growth) and increase the number of pellets you can have in the tank at one time (crucial when the number of fish you have in your tank is increasing rapidly). As a level plays through, you continue to collect money in this fashion. Your only obstacle (besides fish dying of hunger if you are irresponsible) is that every few minutes an alien attacks your tank. If an alien gets close to your fish, no more fish. You have a gun (also upgradable) that you can use to blast this alien away and keep getting money to get fish to get money to get fish.

As the levels go on, the strategy you need to succeed changes. Some levels have carnivores that eat small fish, but drop a significant amount of money. Some have potions that turn large fish into translucent fish that drop stars.

You can have three pets in your tank each level, and as you start with a clean slate every time you can pick your pets at the beginning of the round. These pets do a variety of things, from keeping money from hitting the bottom of your tank, collecting some money for you, feeding your fish, electrocuting your whole tank to give you quick money, or singing a tune every few minutes that makes every normal and able fish drop three coins (there are plenty more – these are just a few of examples).

The entire game was about scaling exponentially. You end up going from making 10 shells every 10 seconds to making 10,000 shells every 10 seconds in the later levels, allowing you to purchase better fish and create an engine that produces more and more shells until you beat the level in spades. The worst part of the game is entering a new tank after a very good round, because you have to start back from scratch.

Another aspect which little me LOVED about this game is the Virtual Tank. I am a fan of games that don’t end. So much so that I have occasionally put down a game I was really enjoying because I didn’t want it to be over (I actually talk about this aspect of my personality in my article introducing my DC Series where I discussed my first experience reading an omnibus).

Because of that, as a child, the Virtual Tank was one of my favorite things about the game. You bought fish from a shop that reset daily, looking for the special ones. There were secrets to uncover (if you name a fish Santa, for instance, it would drop a high-end currency and play Christmas music at random times). And, in the age before everyone had a laptop and old desktop computers booted up screensavers when they weren’t being used (shoutout to the people still using desktops with screensavers), the Virtual Tank could be fully automated and left overnight. The tech wasn’t without its issues, though – sometimes there would be a glitch and you would make FAR less coinage than you should have. But this was a blast as a kid – I was always so excited to check the new day’s fish and look for unique ones (like ones that play music, or are huge carnivores, or one that is a literal soccer ball).

Insaniquarium also has a Time Trial mode, which I did not play much as a child but presents an interesting and enjoyable challenge alongside the rest of the content you have available to play through!

Does it hold up?

As I said at the beginning, I have never found a game that quite scratched the itch for Insaniquarium. It has fast-paced gameplay (especially later in levels) and some incredibly enjoyable engine-building. The feeling of going from a fantastic run to the beginning without any of the stuff you had purchased should be familiar to any Roguelike fan – it elicits the same emotions, so I can hardly call that a true criticism if it shares it with award-winning games like Hades.

The only part of this game that hasn’t aged well is the Virtual Tank, unfortunately. Nowadays, keeping a computer on with a program like Insaniquarium just sitting on the screen is much less doable, and the Virtual Tank is too slow to give satisfying results without leaving it on for hours at a time.

I had a blast replaying this game – I think it is truly an underrated game in the PopCap library.

Accessibility

This game is very, very easy to obtain and run on modern systems! It is currently only $5 on Steam, and goes on sale often.

Final Thoughts

I have spent hours playing this game. Throughout my lifetime, it is probably in my top 5 playtimes of any game, up there with Terraria, Minecraft, and No Man’s Sky. It is so much fun, and it is filled to the brim with nostalgia. It is a game I have returned to again and again, and that I will certainly replay. I highly recommend giving it a try, especially if the game system sounds like fun to you! It is cheap, easy to dive into, and well worth it.

If you know any games like this one, let me know in the comments below!! I’m always on the lookout for legitimate games with this style, as I enjoy it immensely. I also would love any recommendations for old games – not all of these Deep Cuts have to be from my childhood! I am more than willing to try out your favorite games as well. Until next time!

(Underrated Games #7)

Recommended for Younger Players?

Insaniquarium is a game I loved as a child, and on replaying, it holds up incredibly well. Kids will still have a blast with this game, even though it was made quite a long time ago! Its accessibility is of course a major plus, and the game would be a welcome edition to any library.

Verdict: Yes!

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