Natsume, the leader in cute and friendly hit games, has brought another loveable and fun game for Playstation 2 owners to enjoy. Finny the Fish and the Seven Waters follows a very capable fish as he jumps up waterfalls, roughs up piranhas, and saves a baby otter’s life. Finny’s childhood appeal is somewhat misleading, as this game can be enjoyed by anyone and may even be a little too difficult for the kids.

Floating Island is in trouble, and the wise turtle Mr. Kappa needs assistance. He calls out to the Chosen One for assistance. Enter Finny, a loveable and seemingly normal fish that hears this call. Being the Chosen One he is now assigned the task of retrieving the master statues that will save the Floating Island from impending doom. To signify his loyalty to Mr. Kappa, Finny is given a ring that all Kappa’s followers have. As you progress through the game you meet other creatures with the same ring that are willing to help you acquire all the missing statues.

The world of Finny the Fish and the Seven Waters is divided into seven levels and the Floating Island. The Floating Island is where you can reach Mr. Kappa to get game hints or some bonus items for completing certain tasks. This is also where you deliver each master statue. The other seven areas are very different from each other, not only in content and puzzles but in the predators, prey and setting. Each level looks very different from the last, ranging from underwater temple ruins to underneath human theme parks.

Placed in each level are scales and save points. Scales will sometimes be hidden, or awarded for completing a task, but they will increase certain stats for you. There are four different stat scales, each a different color and affecting a different stat. There’s a scale for your max health capacity, max tummy capacity, hearing level, and jaw level. Your hearing level determines how far away Finny will be able to detect prey and your jaw level determines how quickly you can chew and swallow the larger prey.

Save points take the form of red stones in the Seven Waters. You’ll have to search for them when entering an area for the first time, but once you activate one it will show up on your mini map for good. Just strike it with your tail and you can save your game.

You’ll begin the game in Home Waters, the first level. Here you will be given a tour of how to play the game and interact with your surroundings. Mr. Kappa doesn’t throw everything at you all at once, just the very basics such as moving, jumping, eating, and using your tail to strike things.

Finny is very easy to learn how to play; to swim forward you press and hold X, or tap it to swim quickly. Locking on to interactive objects is done by holding L1. To strike it with your tail you press circle, or to eat it you press square. If it’s too big to eat in one bite you’ll have to chew it by wiggling both joysticks. Mr. Kappa didn’t really explain this too well, but I found through experimentation that moving each alternately up and down got the job done just fine.

Eating is very important to Finny; as he stays active he becomes hungry. On the left side of the screen resides Finny’s tummy meter which shows how full his tummy is. It will constantly go down, and since your health slowly drains while it’s empty you’ll want to make sure you keep it full. To fill Finny’s tummy you’ll want to eat whatever you can get your fins on. Each consumable animal has its own nutrition value, so while some fish will fill most of your stomach others may not fill much at all.

While eating all these fish you’re bound to accidentally snag a fisherman’s lure. When this happens you need to fight your hardest to keep from being caught. When snagged, the fishing line appears. As you swim in different directions the line changes color, and your goal is to pull it in the direction that makes it red and tug by lashing your tail with the circle button. If the line shows yellow marks on top of the red that means you’ll do maximum damage. Some may require multiple good tugs while others may snap right away. You can also escape being caught by jumping out of the water and pressing square to unhook the lure. This is easier than fighting the line, but then you won’t get to keep the lure…

Building up a collection of prey and lures is probably the best part of Finny the Fish. Each level has its own set of prey that lives there, and the game keeps track of which ones you’ve eaten. In the pause menu you can review what you’ve eaten from each level, including a 3D model of the prey and its stats. Lures are collected in the same fashion; when you successfully snap the line of a lure you get to keep it and it’s added to your archive in the pause menu.

Sometimes eating a lure can be very frustrating when it happens in a small area. Without any camera control, sometimes the camera will hit objects in the area or bump walls. This caused it to get too close to Finny many times, making seeing the fishing line impossible. Without seeing the line there’s no way to know which way to pull. In these cases I’d just have to keep hitting the circle button and pray for the best. I was never captured in these instances, but it was still very annoying.

While eating and escaping capture play a large role in Finny, there are still many different things you must do. Each level will present a challenge that must be completed to earn the master statue. This challenge will lead you through the whole level and usually requires puzzle solving.

Finny the Fish and the Seven Waters is a very entertaining game, although very short. My final game clock read 3 hours and 59 minutes, but I was able to save the clear data and return to the waters to collect the remaining prey and lures. Even with its short length and low replay value I found myself getting small Finny cravings, causing me to turn my Playstation 2 on just to swim around and explore. I never found the controls to be poor, and the bad camera only messed me up on a few occasions, but I still think some goals would be hard for younger children to accomplish. I bet older audiences would be surprised by how much fun they could have with this one.

Gameplay: 7.0
The gameplay is severely hurt at times due to the bad camera; mostly when you’re either fighting a lure or running from an enemy in tight areas where the camera hits walls and objects. Otherwise Finny is an entertaining and easy to play game.

Graphics: 8.0 
Finny isn’t going for a realistic look, and it nails the cartoony yet detailed graphic style it seemed to be aiming for. Each lure and prey is distinctly detailed, and each main character portrays great emotion in their expressions and actions.

Sound: 7.5
A great soundtrack backs up each level and the sound effects are appropriate for the actions on screen. The only downside is the voice acting, which seems to pause at the wrong time and overall feels unnatural.

Difficulty: Medium
Each stage has its own difficulty level, yet sometimes doesn’t seem to flow at all. I had a really hard time with the 2^nd level while some of the later levels gave me the “it’s over already?” feeling. The camera can also sometimes contribute to the difficulty, making certain levels harder than they should be.

Concept: 8.5 
Finny feels like the many web-based fish “sims” out there, where your sole purpose is to live by feeding off smaller fish and avoiding larger ones. Of course Finny is a lot deeper than that, but the basic idea is still in place.

Overall: 7.3
I had a great time with Finny the Fish, and I think other gamers can to. Its camera system and length certainly hold it back from getting a better score, but the gameplay itself is a lot of fun. It may seem like it’s meant for younger audiences, but the more complicated controls and puzzle solving lead Finny towards an older audience than originally intended.