I find it so weird that this game was able to translate the Freddi Fish artstyle to the DS so well, but then didn't even attempt to make even a semblance of a story like the originals had. Like, I know that sounds absolutely wild, but it's true. I've only played the fifth one, it's the one I grew up on, and I've heard it's the weakest, yet it's still so much more entertaining and fun than this was. Like, it was amusing to play both as a child and as an adult. And I know it's not entirely nostalgia because I was never able to beat it as a kid, and the parts I never got to play back then were fun to me for the first time all those years later.

Instead, this is just a minigames collection. And at the risk of sounding even more insane, these minigames do not hold up to the ones presented on PC. For some reason, they decided to prioritize mini"games" that had you doing the exact same simple motion over and over, instead of anything actually engaging or fun. This is where I think Jump Start Deep Sea Escape has an edge over this one, because although its games were confusing, they were at least games. Also, that game had a motive. It's a weak motive, but it's still a motive. This game, as far as I can tell, has nothing. There's one screen you can move from one side to the other, and like, five or six games that give you way too much time to do what you need to do over and over again. It's both a let down as a Freddi Fish fan AND as a step down from the gameplay and storytelling the previous games had.

Reviewed on Dec 31, 2023


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