Here's a link to The Infinite Cat Project: The Infinite Cat Project
7.5 excellent
Christmas fish (ones that swim around your aquarium dressed in Santa hats and scarves) are much like Siamese fighting fish in that they become confused in the presence of a mirror. In the case of Christmas fish, instead of fighting their reflection, they attempt to give it presents. They can be trained to give presents on command and live about three years in captivity. They shouldn't be put in the same tank as goldfish because the goldfish will bite their presents!
Fishdom: Frosty Splash, from Playrix Entertainment, is yet another Fishdom match-3 venture... this time dressed up with holiday colors, icicles, teddy bears, sacks of presents, and pseudo-Christmas tunes. Besides the Christmas theme and new level sets, this game is just Fishdom business as usual, with nothing much of substance added to distinguish it from its predecessors. Once again you use your match-3 skills to purchase upgrades for your aquarium, including Christmas trees and Christmas fish.
Like all match-3 games, the game board is a grid filled with various aquatic and Christmas-based game pieces. Snowmen, gift bags, squid, crabs, anchors, shells, seasonal bells, etc. Your actions are limited to swapping two adjacent pieces, in hopes of making a match of three or more like pieces horizontally or vertically. Do so and the group of pieces you've lined up will be removed from the board, with more falling down from the top to fill the gap they leave behind. The goal is to remove all the gold tiles from the board - each time you make a match on a square containing a tile, it's removed from the board and you earn $1 toward your aquarium-pimping budget.
Some pieces are locked in place with chains and need to be matched indirectly. Some pieces have multiple tiles behind them (silver and gold). And so on.
Often chain reaction matches will result from new pieces falling into groups of three or more as the board refills. Even though my brain isn't nearly hale enough to plan ahead and determine which matches will result in chain reactions, it's very satisfying when a little swap at the bottom of the game board snowballs into half the pieces onscreen being removed as chain reaction after chain reaction detonate.
Fishdom hints: like all match-3 games, always start at the bottom. Matches are harder to make near the edges, and falling pieces forming new chance matches will do most of the work at the top of the game board while you focus on getting the tricky outliers at the bottom.
The usual explosive powerups have returned. Wimpy little firecrackers appear when a chain reaction with five or more pieces results from one of your matches. When you yourself make a match of five pieces, you get a depth bomb capable of blowing up all pieces in a two piece radius. A six piece match earns you a bundle of dynamite capable of destroying a three piece radius. Match seven or more pieces and a warhead is dropped onto the game board. And so on. If you can manage to use seven of these explosives on a single level you'll achieve a lightning powerup.
Between levels you get to shop for upgrades for your aquarium. As in the previous games, there are three different types of purchases: Fish, Beauty, and Comfort. Each purchase from one of these three categories affects your score in that category; when your fish tank is finally judged you'll receive either a bronze, silver, or gold trophy depending on how well you've outfitted your fish's home. Until you win at least a bronze trophy you won't be able to start working on another tank. (However you can still use your fish tank as a Windows screensaver.)
Unless you're a diehard fan of Fishdom or match-3 games... or you don't own any of the previous Fishdom titles... there's not too much to recommend here. I'm sure more effort went into this holiday-themed Fishdom release than is apparent from the player's point of view, but it still seems rather uninspired. The colorful graphics behave exactly the same; I still notice a slight stutter and jerkiness when new pieces are falling onto the gameboard.
I must confess the main reason I downloaded Fishdom: Frosty Splash was to hear some Christmas music. However while the background soundtrack is nice and occasionally plays what almost might be a Christmas melody, it never quite gets there. Perhaps for copyright/royalty reasons? Who knows, but it was a bit disappointing.
Download Fishdom: Frosty Splash