The developers of Big Pharma, Twice Circled are at it again bringing us a new building simulator with a fishy kind of theme. Yes, this game is exactly what the title suggests but how much fun is it? Let me give you some insight with our Megaquarium review.
Becoming An Aquarium Tycoon
Jumping straight into the first thing available we find a straightforward tutorial with convenient tooltips begins your pixel aquarium building career helping you adjust to its building style. Like any good simulator it’s figuring out placement methods, turning items, scaling and the perimeters of where you can build that you zoom in on. Then comes the what, what items will I have to place in this simulated world?
Megaquarium is of course all about the fish. All kinds of sizes, shapes, and colors as you would expect but unless you have your own aquarium, work in this profession or have an avid interest you perhaps have never considered the special diets, water temperatures or filtering.
Sandbox Or Campaign?
This is where I found starting in Campaign mode came in handy as you start with zero gold have a step by step quests unlocking items as you go as well as knowledge. Additionally, you are rewarded upon finished tasks while visitors who pay a surcharge grow in numbers adding to your money value so you may purchase any items.
Without doing Campaign mode, you might fumble a lot more figuring out the process of this game. Never fear though, just start a new game like I did often shaking my head at things I hadn’t considered, like walls. My first half a dozen builds had no walls until I became horrified at how ugly the filters and heaters looked as visitors walked around. How do I hide those?
Then it dawned on me! There’s that humor of building simulators creeping up again making you kick yourself in the shins over small things that you might not grasp immediately, yet become critical to your process.
In Sandbox mode you start with 20,000 gold have a choice of what rank you want to start at and if you want access to every item or not. This is a lot of fun. A challenge to create the most well laid out, enjoyable and spectacular city for the fishes!
Scales Vs Scale
Something I feel I’ve only scratched the surface of in the time allocated to bring this review to you is how fish grow, cross cultivating fish in tanks and onto the more larger and deeper tanks. That is endgame and what keeps you curious playing Megaquarium however what reels you in with Megaquarium is seeing how many visitors you can squeeze across the floor, which staff member is first on the chopping block as you choose carefully who you want tending your tanks and what catastrophe’s wait to send everyone in a fishy flurry!
