Giveaway of the Day - Fishdom: Frosty Splash

Fishdom Frosty Splash:

Installation:

Fishdom: Frosty Splash downloads to a 46.5 MB zip file that unpacks to a read me and a wrapped setup activation file (the orange colored file with the key symbol), plus there’s a setup file with security (setup.gcd) that’s protected from being hacked. This file may case some security software to alert the user to a possible malware attack, but it will be a false positive. The game giveaway team check all game giveaways for malware using several well known anti -malware suites. There has never been a game giveaway infected with malware since the project started back in Dec 2006. The installed game is 58.3MB in size.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Playrix Entertainment\Fishdom – Frosty Splash\Fishdom.exe

If you have a 32 bit system ignore the (x86) in the path above.

A desktop shortcut is installed as is a start menu/programs shortcut (which can be found in the Playrix folder (Playrix Entertainment\Fishdom – Frosty Splash); you’ll also find an uninstaller in the Start menu/programs list. The game will automatically start once the installation wizard is complete unless you uncheck the check box at the end of the wizard. The installed game is 57.7Mb in size. Once installed you can delete the giveaway setup files. There are two shortcuts installed to the desktop, the game shortcut and a shortcut to Plarix’s web site. ypu’ll also find shortcuts for the game and an uninstaller in the Start menu/Programs list.

I’ve only tested the game on Win 7 this time around, but previously it did work on Vista and Win XP so if you have either of those systems it should work. My other operating systems are not available at this time due to updating my older computers. According to the developer the game should also work with XP and Vista, but no mention of Win 8 has been made yet. anyone running win 8, please confirm whether this game works Thanks.

Introduction:

last time this was given away New Years Eve 2011 it received a positive 84% out of 432 votes and received 54 comments which can be read HERE. It was also given away back in December 2010 where it received a positive 82% out of 553 votes with 65 comments which can be read HERE. You can check out a decent review via Gamezebo HERE and MyPlayCity HERE

We’ve previously also had other games in the Fishdom series here on the gamegiveaway, for example Fishdom and Fishdom H2O: Hidden Odyssey Premium and Fishdom: Spooky Splash..

Developers Introduction:

Enjoy winter with Fishdom™! Cheer up and spread the merriment of crispy clear days around! Use your imagination to recreate the nippy and fun atmosphere of winter in your tank. Earn money as you complete challenging match-3 levels and use it to buy festive fishies and winter-themed decorations. Get splashed with frosty joy in this sparkling and snowy sequel to Fishdom™!

Reference accessed HERE Dec 31st 2011

The Game:

Today’s game giveaway is basically the same as our previous giveaway Fishdom except that it has a festive snowy theme. The same match three game with different tiles and another fish tank to build. If you liked Fishdom you will almost certainly love this one as well.

The options menu enables you to change from full screen (default) to windowed mode. You can also toggle tips and hints , a custom cursor and a relaxed game mode as well as the usual music and sound effects sliders. You can choose the relaxed game mode when you first start the game up either via the options menu or when the game starts up. (See images I’ve posted below via the images link)

The Shop

Choose timed or Relaxed mode of Gameplay

It’s a pleasant match three game with an upgradable screensaver that you transform from an empty fish tank to a fully stocked aquarium while playing the game. Gameplay is as you’d expect for a match three; basically you have to create matches of three or more to destroy tiles. The aim is to clear the gold coloured tiles which are placed under the symbols. When you create matches on these gold coloured tiles they are removed. Creating matches of five or six add explosives, rockets and bombs to the playing field. To activate these either create a match three that moves one of these power ups or double click on them to make them explode. You score points for every tile you remove. As you progress through the levels they get progressively harder, with different layouts and tiles that required unlocking or double matching to remove the gold tiles. I was only able to progress to about level 8 while checking this game as all I had was an hour demo. Taking screen captures (nearly 100) of the tutorial and various items that you can buy in the shop took up a large part of my hour. So I can’t say if there are any more surprises. At the end of a level once all the gold coloured tiles are removed you are awarded money based on how many points you scored, the time it took to complete the level and the number of gold tiles you removed. This can then be spent on fish and other objects for your fish tank screensaver.

The screen saver tank starts as an empty tank. You can purchase fish for it via the shop , where you’ll find three tabs labelled Fish, Beauty and Comfort. For example clicking on the beauty tab you’ll find various plants, animals and other objects to make your tank look like a well stocked aquarium. All of the comfort items which include filters, feeders and air supplies can be upgraded; though each successive upgrade costs a lot more to purchase. There are several tropical fish you can choose from, each with its own characteristics, for example the Emperor Angel fish needs a varied diet in order to preserve their distinctive coloration, whereas Royal Gramma fish though shy will aggressively defend their territory in the tank. To create a good looking tank there are loads of items you can buy from various plant species such as Acetabularia Calyculus, Microsorium, and Myriophyllum Aquaticum amongst several others species, some sea organisms such as the Rapa Whelk and Starfish, to sunken ships, lamps, lighthouses, several christmas themed objects (such as a Christmas fish that has a santa hat on) and the traditional treasure chest amongst other items. All items purchased for the tank can be sold back to the shop so that you can choose other items. This makes for an excellent fish screensaver that is very much configurable to your tastes. You can also take photographs of your tank at any time and use these as wallpapers for your desktop; (great for a childs computer). To unlock new tanks you have to satisfy all of the criteria which can be found at the top right of the screensaver, that is you have to fill your tank with enough fish and create a beautiful and comfortable environment. Purchasing fish or other items from the shop will help to achieve these criteria. you can see what effect purchasing an item or fish makes to the indicator before you purchase it as the indicator bar moves to a new position when you hover your mouse over a particular object. when all three bars are at 100% you will be awarded a bronze cup. You can either unlock a new tank or go for a silver cup in the same tank. Opting for the silver cup reduces the bars to almost zero. to attain a gold cup you must carry out the process three times.

The screensaver is activated by ticking the checkbox via the main menu which also gives you access to the options menu and the start button. There are three different tank settings called Pirate Treasure, Coral Reef and Lost Atlantis, though the second and third tanks are locked at the beginning of the game. The options menu enables you to adjust the music and sound effects as well as toggle on or off full screen mode, a custom cursor, in game tips and hints.

Clicking on a fish will cause a reaction

Features:

☆ Almost 100 winter-themed decorations

☆ Unlimited number of festive tanks to create and design

☆ Endless replay value

☆ “Relaxed” and “Against the Clock” game modes

☆ Set up your aquarium as a screensaver

System Requirements:

OS – Windows NT, 2000, XP and Vista

CPU – 1GHz

System RAM – 512Mb

Video RAM – 128Mb

DirectX – 8.0 or higher

Video & Images

You can see nearly 200 images of Fishdom: Frosty Splash, that includes many of the hints and tips that pop up during the game (assuming you have them activated via the options menu – they are activated by default). Just click HERE to see them. You can look at all the images as thumbnails by clicking on the grid button to the bottom right above the filmstrip. There’s a slider to increase or decrease the size of the thumbnails. I reduced the quality of the posted images a little too much, but you can also see them much better via the slideshow.

You can take a photo of the aquarium to use as a wallpaper

Video:

You’ll find videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE
and HERE.

You can take a photo of the aquarium to use as a wallpaper

Conclusion:

This match three game play is really just standard fare compared to other match threes IMO; I’ve played many of this genre that have found much better game play; however what I really enjoyed about this game was earning money to upgrade the screensaver. I love fish screensavers and although it’s not the best fish screensaver I’ve seen (for example you can get something similar from other match three games such as Big Kahuna Reef and one of the Atlantis games), it does have loads of items that you can add to one of three tanks, though you need to earn cash by completing levels, and only one of the tanks is available at the start of the game.

I’d give this game 7 out of 10 for family fun and the addition of a configurable fish screensaver.

Thank you to Playrix and the game giveaway team for providing this game for free.

Scoring

Gameplay – 8
Graphics – 8
Audio – 7
Re-playability – 7.5
Originality – 7

Total = 7.5

Suggestions:

The addition of the screensaver adds to the average game play, however I’d try and improve the game play by adding some mini games and more power ups to the game. You could also make the power ups upgradeable so that they become more powerful. These upgrades could be paid from some of the money earned to purchase items for the screensaver. I’d also add more species of plant life and enable those to be upgraded as well. Each upgrade could increase the size of the plant or animal that you purchase for the tank.

Problems:

If you are posting late in the day I would also suggest posting in the main giveaway forums in the game discussion section. If you’ve installed the game but it won’t work for some reason, it should still be registered, so someone may be able to help at another time. Unfortunately if your problem is actually installing it then once the giveaway period is over there’s nothing that can be done until the game is given away again (though that isn’t guaranteed. It’s always worth checking out the free games sites as sometimes the games we get here are also available for free from them as is Fropsty Splash from Gametop, MyPlayCity and FreeGamePick.

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Games, Games, and yet more Games plus Download, Installation & Game play Problems:

If you have any problems installing or getting to work today’s game please go HERE for help.

If you’re looking for something other than today’s game check the didimatic site via THIS link for some brilliant deals.

There are several other deals available from Steam as well as many more from Gamersgate, Gamestop, Greenman Gaming and GOG; all of which you can find via the Didimatic site, which I’ve linked to above (apart from Greenman gaming.

Steam’s Christmas sale is on at the moment with prices slashed on hundreds of games.

The usual monthly free game from Alawars game box is still Finding Doggy. (You need to install the free Gamebox from Alawar to access the free games, which for newcomers change approximately every month). If that’s not enough, check out the Game Discussion forums HERE for details of other games either free or on deals such as the Indie Game bundles or the four day sales at IndieGameStand. The latest game is actually two games Flatspace I & II. You caan get both games for $1 or if you pay more than the average, which at the moment stands at less than $1.80 you can get extras added on. Usually these games come as a DRM free setup file plus sometimes you’ll get Desura and/or Steam codes as well.

Check out the Game discussion forums HERE for details of any Indie Game Bundles that are still live.

You can get today’s game from all three of the free games sites above:

Similar Alternatives:

Don’t forget you can get a whole raft of match three games from MyPlayCity (I’ve removed the link to MyPlayCity because they have changed their policy regarding toolbars and home page hijacks. They removed these a few years ago totally after forcing users to install at least one tool bar or allowed your browser to be changed before you could play any of their games. Now they appear to give you the choice of not installing toolbars or changing your home page by unchecking boxes during installation, but even if you uncheck the boxes you still get a MyPlayCity tool bar installed as well as your browser being changed to the ask web site. Though instead of totally hijacking your browser you still can open your usual home page but a second page always opens. That is done without your permission. They can be uninstalled, but it’s a hassle. That said, MyPlayCity offer a very large selection of over 400 quality arcade games. There is an alternative via Gametop, but they also try to install toolbars. Thankfully you can stop those by unchecking the boxes during installation. Unfortunately Gametop seem to have lost a large number of the games they used to offer. Both sites offer commercial games by paying the developers a retainer for being able to give them away. They are not technically free, but you can play them for an unlimited amount of time and they are available from these sites 24/7. The only drawback apart from the risk of installing toolbars is that your browser will open to the home page of either site depending which you got it from. There are a couple more sites like this such as FreeGamePick, all with the same risks. The actual games are fine to play and done hold any malware. You can go to the Gametop site HERE
There are some decent match three’s versions, of which are really good examples of the match three genre; including previous giveaways such as Inca Ball, Around the world in 80 Days, Flower Story, Halloween Night: Pumpkin Match, Story of Fairy Place, The Rise of Atlantis, The Treasures of Montezuma, Trio: The Great Settlement, and Atlantis Quest. Last weeks Cradle of Persia is also available from Gametop, though it’s called Persian Puzzle. You can also get one of its counterparts that’s usually called Cradle of Rome,, though that has also had a name change to Rome Puzzle.

Do be aware that these sites may add toolbars and home page hijacks to your web browser, but these can be avoided by un-checking the appropriate boxes during installation. Also when you close any of their games down, your browser is opened and directed to the sites home page. This is innocuous so don’t worry. Closing the page ends any connection and nothing is downloaded.

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A Request for help:

Developers rely on good feedback to improve their games. If you download this game please take some time once you’ve played it a while to leave some constructive feedback either positive or negative. The more constructive feedback we get, the more likely developers are going to give more games away. The giveaway site already has a very good standing with the search engines. Developers want their products out there on the WWW, this site has the potential to do that. The game giveaway project gives away on average between 9 to 17 thousand downloads for each game depending upon what genre and how obscure the game is. That’s a lot of homes these games are being downloaded into and a lot of ‘potential’ cash that’s being lost by the developers. If we get better games because of better feedback, the community are likely to continue to benefit from the generosity of the developers. Satisfied community members are then more likely to visit the home sites of those developers and purchase games that they may not have bothered with before they discovered the developer via the game giveaway site, thus giving the developers more incentives to give away even more decent games.

Please leave some feedback once you’ve checked the game out. It can be positive or negative, but please explain what your reasons were for the feedback you post. You could also leave suggestions for improving the game, for example, this game could do with more block types for the levels editor, add more power-ups, describing the ones you think would be suitable, add some mini games (which seem all the rage in some arcade games now) or enable the user to be able to change the in game music easily.

Thank you in advance to all those who take the time to post a constructive comment.

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen

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I don’t usually like match 3 games except for round the world in 80 days, but have downloaded all the aquarium games and really enjoyed them Thank you.