Halfbrick Studios, as any avid gamer could tell you, is the brains behind the popular mobile franchises like Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride. Not content with resting on its laurels, the Queensland, Australia-headquartered developer has released its brand new iOS game, Fish Out of Water, which wants to become your new favorite time-killer. The premise in Fish Out of Water couldn’t be simpler.
Billed as “an adventure across the sun, sand and surf,” the game, as the name suggests, plays a bit like Tiny Wings in that you’re controlling a fish which wants to get airborne and soar above the ocean for as long as possible…
From release notes:
To help them get airborne, players simply throw their fish of choice right out of the water and watch as it flies through the clouds and skips merrily along the waves.
Each player gets three throws and can compete against each other via daily league score competitions via Game Center leaderboards and achievements.
The controls are easy to grasp:  after picking a fish of your choice (there are six feisty fish at your disposal), just fling the damn thing upwards and outwards and watch the judges determine your score.
Advancing through the game and completing different objectives will unlock charms that can be used to unleash bonus powers at the start of each game.
Adding to the fun factor, gameplay involves the elements like icebergs and tsunamis, the weather that changes hourly and other obstacles, including a jellyfish swarm.
TouchArchade spent some quality hands-on time with the game and came away pretty impressed with the overall quality.
The publication thinks Fish Out of Water is more interesting than meets the eye:
Getting familiar with how your fish handle calm seas is just the starting point. After that, you need to learn how they handle each type of weather you come across. Some of the fish are decent in calm, but shine in snow or storms. If you have a handle on that you’ll be able to score well no matter the weather of the hour.
There is one other hook, aside from the competition: leveling. The game always gives you a mission, like “skip 50 times with Finlay” or “Fly through each of the rings” — rings that only show up when you’re on that mission, mind.
Once you’ve completed three of those missions, you gain a new level. This unlocks a cute bit of art featuring the game’s adorable cast, and it gives you a handful of gems.
Here’s a nice behind the scenes clip.
And another one.
You can also purchase additional gems in-app and put them together to craft charms, which can give your fish all sorts of extra abilities.
Luckily, content purchases just enhance the experience so don’t worry, you won’t have to spend cash just to advance through the game.
Fish Out of Water, a 99-cent universal download, supports all your iDevices natively.