I’ve always enjoyed aquariums, from the museum-sized exhibits to the little 5 gallon tanks that people have in their living rooms. There’s something I find relaxing about watching the fish meander between the plants and rocks, or dart around the tank in satisfying synchronization. Fish tanks are great.
I was initially drawn to Megaquarium as a fan of aquariums in general and of the Tycoon games of the late ’90s. Rollercoaster Tycoon and then Zoo Tycoon were staples of my Saturday morning gaming lineup for years. Since then, I’ve not quite found a game that is as entertaining and challenging, as those two games were.
Megaquarium, favors a more challenging experience, rather than an entertaining one. The fish’s interactions are limited, the guest’s reactions are limited, and once you’ve seen a worker feed a fish tank or fix a filter, you’ll know exactly how it looks every time they do it again. While Megaquarium is light on visually satisfying elements, players who enjoy the business management side of things will get more mileage out of the game.
Setting up a fish tank is a mini-puzzle. Some fish prefer to live in groups, other fish prefer to live alone. The smaller the tank the less excited guests are to view it, so generally, if your budget allows, building a big tank with an assortment of fish species is ideal. Bigger tanks require stronger heaters and filters, along with the certain types of food that the fish in those tanks require. Guests don’t want to see heaters or filters, so players must stash them away, out of view.
All of these elements, and more, present players with micro challenges that develop each time it’s necessary to build a new tank.
Megaquarium requires a self-movtivated player. The game isn’t very pleasant to look at and once the aquarium gets to a certain size and the crowds start filling the aquarium up, I noticed some dips in the game’s performance. The performance issues didn’t make much sence to me considering the fish are generally stagnant or just floating around, the guests walk around like lifeless mannequins and all the exhibits are squares or rectangles.
I didn’t know what was causing the framerate to drop suddenly because there was never anything elaborate going on. Maybe the Nintendo Switch port of the game is poorly optimized, but I can’t really speak to that because it was the only version I played.
The aquarium itself is floating in front of a static background, so it wasn’t like there was a lot going on in the background. The performance drops were more evident when examining the aquarium in first-person mode, but even when the camera was pulled back, the game chugged when the crowds rose.
Megaquarium is a tough game for me to recommend. I couldn’t find much to get excited about. What it does well (mini puzzles for each exhibit) I’ve been doing since Zoo Tycoon came out, so it’s nothing new. Once I built six or seven fish tanks, I found myself ready to put Megaquarium down in favor of playing another game.
Megaquarium was reviewed using a retail code provided by the publisher.
