Sea Life Safari
Score: 78% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Sierra Developer: Wanako Games Media: Download/1 Players: 1 Genre: Simulation/ Edutainment
Graphics & Sound: Sea Life Safari does a pretty good job conveying a rich assortment of sea life in a small compact game. This game, which can be easily summed up as "underwater Pokemon Snap", displays five very different submersed environments where you will view everything from simple crabs, moray eels and porcupine puffers to hammerhead sharks, angler fish and even mermaids and krakens. Based on the fish that I am familiar with (because there were quite a few in this game I had not seen before), it looks like all the sea life very closely resembles their real-world counterparts, with some cartoonish flair added to make the game more approachable. However, the only real issue I had with this game was its occasional framerate drops, especially while in the Deep Sea level. While not so bad as to keep you from playing, I'm sure I missed a couple of good shots because of it. As for the audio quality of Sea Life Safari, the various underwater sound effects (mostly bubbling of various sorts) came through loud and clear and the game's music offered various relaxing instrumentals that all had a semi-nautical feel to them.
Gameplay: I've already compared Sea Life Safari to Pokemon Snap, but for those readers who aren't familiar with the classic N64 game, here is the basic premise. In this game, you are put in a submarine that is controlled by your boss on the surface. All you have to do is move the camera around and take pictures of the sea life around you. The game is on rails, and besides a few places where you can deviate from your path (like go into a cave or sunken ship), each level is very linear. The only other object in your arsenal (besides your camera, of course), are objects called Gizmos. There is a different one for each level, but they are all basically the same. They are used to induce a reaction out of the creatures around you. In one level, this could be a simple ball, while another one will have you throwing glow sticks or sonic emitters. Basically, you are trying to get the most interesting photos of each of the fish in the level. Interesting, as defined by this game, means centered, zoomed in and in the middle of some action. The better the photo, the more stars you earn. The more stars you earn, the more levels you unlock. It's not very complex, but it is enjoyable. The game is divided into five different dives: Coral Reef, Ship Graveyard, Deep Sea, Abyss and Volcano. Each one has a variety of fish from giant starfish and dolphins to jellyfish, coelacanth and even a variety of "special items" like Moai Heads and Poseidon's Trident. Each level also has 10 hidden shells that are there just for the sake of collecting and are nabbed by throwing your Gizmo at them. One of the things that sort of bothered me about this game was the sheer amount of sea life in each level that isn't supposed to be photographed. The first time I went into each level, I always quickly ran through my 24 photos because I would take pictures of everything and get frequent "Not exactly what I'm looking for" statements during the evaluation.
Difficulty: Sea Life Safari has an odd difficulty gradient. In order to unlock the next level, you have to have earned a certain number of stars across all of the previous ones. For instance, in order to open up Abyss, you have to have earned 90 stars across the previous three levels. I found myself easily opening up the first three levels and plowing through them in relatively no time, but then unlocking Abyss and then Volcano were really hard. Basically, by the time I got to needing to unlock Abyss, there were so few stars left to earn that I just had to go through the previous levels over and over again, hoping to get just a little better at one or two pictures and hope it was enough. When that was done, getting the Volcano level was even tougher since it required getting almost all of the stars from the first four in order to unlock it. Outside of the need to unlock levels, Sea Life Safari isn't hard. You just ride around, looking at everything and trying to get zoomed-in, centered pictures of the animals. After the brief tutorial in the first level, you should have no problem taking pictures, and if you aren't sure which ones you need to improve on in order to get more stars, the professor that analyzes your photos will give you some hints when he has gone through your pictures.
Game Mechanics: Sea Life Safari takes very little time to both learn and master. The first level starts off with a tutorial that will tell you how to do everything from zoom (LT), to throw your Gizmo (B) to take the picture (RT). In fact, besides moving the camera, that's all you have to do. Since the game is on rails, you won't have to worry about roaming around in a massive 3D world hoping to line up the perfect shot. In fact, the shots come to you. With the ability to change the behavior of the creatures around you with the Gizmos, each level is little more than throwing them out to attract the attention of a fish, zooming in and nabbing a pic. After the level, you will get some advice on what to change and it's just a matter of repeating the process. There isn't anything complex or mysterious about Sea Life Safari, what you see is what you get. Considering Sea Life Safari's casual nature, it isn't all that bad. While a little short, it is really packed with a variety of fish, so much in fact, that you absolutely have to replay levels in order to get all the photos you will need. Besides the occasional framerate drop and frustration with unlocking the last few levels, this game has a lot going for it. In fact, the only thing that is really hurting it is the fact that it might be seen as dated, but since it is a casual game, that really shouldn't hurt it too much.
-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer
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