Customer Reviews

My Sim Aquarium

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I got this for my 4 year old son who is a fish and aquarium fanatic. Our apartment is too small for a real fishtank so I got this for my laptop computer and is a great way for me and my son to spend some time together.

I let him choose what kind of tank he wants, what kind of plants, rocks, decorations, etc. and place them where he wants in the "tank". It makes him happy to choose what he wants and then see it appear on the screen. Allows him to be creative and to sense accomplishment through cause and effect.

Then he goes to the fish "encyclopedia" where he chooses what kind of fish he likes, I tell him the fish's name, and then we go into the fish store and he scrolls through the various fish until he finds the same fish that matches the one he found in the "book". We "buy" the fish and then click on "My Aquarium" which puts the fish into the aquarium he designed and he gets to see his fish "swim" around. You can select a classic clownfish and tang which my son thinks are Nemo and Dory. You can then select a fish and click a "Follow" button which zooms in on the fish and follows it around your aquarium. My son repeats this over and over again until there are 1-2 dozen fish in the tank. A neat little trick is that you can "feed" the fish where you shake some food and watch the fish swim over and eat it. You don't get to see the different kinds of fish interact with each other (like the various animals in Zoo Tycoon) and the various fish aren't scaled properly in the tank (for example, a triggerfish is about the same size as a clown fish), but it does the trick for a child. There's not much else to this game. But it keeps my son mesmerized and it's a nice alternative to spend some quality time with him. Now he wakes me up at 6:30 AM and asks if we can play the fish game.

Graphics are nice and music gets annoying after awhile (you can turn it off thankfully) but it does the job.

It's a simple game. Create your fishtank and buy your fish. Feed them, they will survive. You can research your fish with the encyclopedia. I've had a good time with the game. Each fish has it's own personality. I've had no trouble saving my games as a previous review stated. If you take care of your fish, they will grow and breed. All in all, for the price, it's worth it. And much easier than owning my own aquarium! It's a relaxing simple thing in a sometimes too complex world. DEFINITELY TURN THE MUSIC UP!

I bought this to unwind after stressful days. Fish, watching them swim should be a perfect way of unwinding, but not through this program.

It is very realistic, the fish, the plants and other elements you can add to make your own marine aquarium.

The trouble is it doesn't offer much besides buying the fish and choosing ornaments and placing them wherever you like. It would be nice as a screensaver, but not much else.

I also have problems on my computer since installing it. I can't get straight to the internet without first having this pop up.

It's monotonous and boring. I can't really use it for more than five minutes without getting bored.

I can't recommend this.

This is an easy, mindless game that can be a lot of fun. It does, however, have a few problems.

1) No instructions. It's easy to figure most things out, but it took me nearly an hour to figure out how to take decorations out of the aquarium once I put them in. And then once I figured it out, I forgot again because it wasn't very intuitive.

2) You have to feed your fish every single day or they die. I know that you should feed real fish daily, but if you forget, they'll live. These don't. If you go one day without feeding them, you'll get treated to a tank full of floating fishies when you get back.

3) You can use your aquarium as a screensaver, but if you do, you can't take care of your fish. They're just there to be a screensaver. To actually feed and care for your fish, you have to play the game out of screensaver mode.

4) It takes forever to get all of your fish to eat. Real fish do not just swim around and ignore food if they're about to starve.

But despite these flaws, it's fun. It's educational for a kid, and since the fish die at the slightest hint of neglect, it's a good teaching tool for a child that swears he or she is ready for a puppy. And the screensaver is pretty cool, even though it takes all the gameplay out of the game.

When we opened our Sim Aquarium, there is just the disc in a jewel case, with a label on the back of the jewel case that states "My Sim Aqua Reg Code" "TYPE YOUR NUMBER HERE" and then a seven number long hyphenated number. The problem is, the code does not work in the Install program, in any combination of captials, zeros, "o"s, hyphens, underscores, or any how. We cannot get past the Install Shield first screen. There is No Manual in the box with the disc; the manual is on the disc, which we cannot access without the code number. Soooooo, I have a disc that is un-playable and an extremely disappointed 9-year-old, and I am out the cost of the game. Hope you have better luck!

The game doesn't have clear instructions, but it is still fun. I had to email the help line for Viva Media about it. The fish are pretty, and interesting. It's kind of boring. The fish don't breed as well when you have two different types of fish. I still haven't been able to breed two different types. The same type breeding takes a couple days, and is boring because you get the same type of fish.

What would your kids rather have, a gold fish or a puppy? Most children would prefer the latter.

This game is well designed - good graphics and a lot of customization. But the thing is, is that fish are simple not fun pets! Therefore, taking care of virtual fish is quite boring.

On one hand, this is as fun as taking care of fish gets - unlimited customization with an unlimited budget.

It was soooooooooo boring, I wish I didn't make my mom buy it for the both of us, because we both regret it!!! All you do is feed the fish and buy some fish, then change the design of the tank. If that sounds interesting to you then, buy it, but I should warn you that it froze on me for about a half hour! It was a total waste of money!!!!

Nice enough looking fish and water habitats, but the game is unchallenging and therefore probably not all that interesting to most adult players. There are also no instructions (from what I could tell). You kind of have to figure it out yourself, which isn't hard, but I still would have liked clearer objectives to the game. I also couldn't figure out how to make the aquarium my screensaver, as it says you can on the box.

I much prefer "Fish Tycoon" (Activision), where you have to earn the money to buy supplies, and you can sell fish you breed and discover new species.

THE GAME DOES NOT SAVE RIGHT OR WELL. IT IS NOT WORTH THE MONEY I PAID FOR IT. IF I HAD IT TO DO OVER AGAIN I WOULD NOT BUY IT.