Tropical Nightmare
Nov 22, 2008 | Game Reviews, RaleighI recently got the chance to beta Tropical Dream: Underwater Odyssey by Digital Chocolate. I usually love betatesting new games, I get a sneak preview and the chance to run my mouth to the developers. Before I say anything else, I should make it clear that I played the beta, and things may change for the final version.
I thought the premise of Underwater Odyssey was perfect: Young Megan leaves her boring job for expat adventures in exotic locations! But things are not quite as advertised, and she must rely on her wits and creativity to survive! Could it be any better?
At the end of the introductory sequence, Megan decides to become an underwater photographer, which is when the game starts to go downhill.
It’s about as fun as watching the old Windows fishtank screensaver, and taking a screen capture of pretty fish. No, really. That’s the game. If you get it right, the fish smile at you. Then you come up for air. If you got the right fishy photos, you can hang up your best pictures in your house, and then do it all over again. I almost cried when I saw space on my wall for seventy-odd photos. If you didn’t get the right photos before you ran out of air, you go back down and try again. (You can’t drown yourself. I tried.)
I started to think it was a joke, like you play this repetitive “game” for a few moments and then you surface and realize that aliens have landed! And Megan has to save the world!
But that didn’t happen. The break in the fish-photo action was a Bejeweled-type minigame with Roman and Chinese coins. Sounds like a recipe for an awesome Meggish minigame, but it was completely overdone which went from cute to annoying in about three musically-accompanied, over-animated clicks.
I’d been wondering what I’d do if I played a game I really didn’t like. Not write about it? Take, for once in my life, the old advice about what to do if you can’t say anything nice? Say something politely bland about it not being quite my style? And then I remembered that I’m the editor and publisher here, so I assigned myself to write an honest editorial. Simpson’s Paradox: Your source for hard-hitting journalism in the world of casual games.
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November 23rd, 2008 at 7:40 am
“Tropical Dream: Underwater Odyssey by Digital Chocolate”
That sounds pornographic on every conceivable level.
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:26 pm
You only said that to see what happens to my Google ads when you add “porn” to the search text.
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:34 pm
[…] Simpson’s Paradox on Tropical Nightmare I recently got the chance to beta Tropical Dream: Underwater Odyssey by Digital Chocolate. I […]
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:43 pm
[…] Simpson’s Paradox talks about Tropical Nightmare. Here’s a quick except of SP on a bad new game: I thought the premise of Underwater Odyssey was perfect: Young Megan leaves her boring job for expat adventures in exotic locations! But things are not quite as advertised, and she must rely on her wits and creativity to survive! Could it be any better? […]
November 29th, 2008 at 6:49 am
[…] Tropical Nightmare I recently got the chance to beta Tropical Dream: Underwater Odyssey by Digital Chocolate. I usually love betatesting new games, I get a sneak preview and the chance to run my mouth to the developers. Before I say anything else, I should make it clear that I played the beta, and things may change … […]
November 29th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
[…] Tropical Nightmare … minigame with Roman and Chinese coins. Sounds like a recipe for an awesome Meggish minigame, but it was completely overdone which went from cute to annoying in about three musically-accompanied, over-animated clicks. I’d been wondering what I’d do if I played a game I really didn’t like. Not write … […]
November 29th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
[…] Tropical Nightmare … minigame with Roman and Chinese coins. Sounds like a recipe for an awesome Meggish minigame, but it was completely overdone which went from cute to annoying in about three musically-accompanied, over-animated clicks. I’d been wondering what I’d do if I played a game I really didn’t like. Not write … […]
December 4th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
I also played the Tropical Dream beta, I’m astounded it actually was considered good enough to make it as far as a crappy beta. Painfully, painfully tedious game. As in “My God…I could keel over from playing this…” Glad someone shared my distress.
December 5th, 2008 at 8:43 am
I really liked about the game. It’s not just taking photos, there is two minigames and hidden item logics mixed too and idea is original. If you compare that game to usual casual games, I think it’s not fair to say that there is enough variety. Sure, beta was rough around edges, but I personally I am sick of time management etc. games that all pretty much all same. Also graphics were pretty amazing.
December 5th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
@Shiva Could not agree more w/ your description as painfully tedious. Even the rewards were tedious. Ooh, now I have a diving suit of +1, I can do the same repetitive dives better!!
@Sheena Glad you liked it, but I don’t think that a pretty fish makes a good game.
This game is only salvagable if you use actual fish in their natural habitats and make it an edu game.
February 11th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
[…] of your hep cat friend wearing each new accessory. (Much like the annoying rewards screen in Tropical Dream and others) Oh no. When you buy accessories, your new livestock appears wearing the Chucks and […]
May 28th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Hey very nice blog!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your blog and take the feeds also…
June 24th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
[…] of my problems with the last game I bashed, the disasterous Tropical Dream, was that the reward system was an image of an empty room, to which you could add images of reward […]