We like to think that what we do here is review games, so perhaps we seem a bit pedantic when we keep pointing out that non-games are non-games. Perhaps the world at large is completely fine with the idea of “screen toys” and other bobbins on a games console — downloads trackers certainly seem to bear that out.
So, what do we have here? “Perfect for entertaining guests or for something nice to look at while playing music through your XBOX!” I will resist the urge to point out the fact that the built-in Neon music visualizer is far more interactive than this. (Ok, I lied.) It is, as you might expect, a virtual aquarium, with 4 backdrops, 5 actual fish types, and one unique fishoid.
The backdrops are all 2D, but are cleverly coded to obscure the fish as if they were 3D. This doesn’t work perfectly, but is far less bland than simply fish moving in front of a photo. The fish are wonderfully modeled and look rather realistic — in stills. In motion they are distractingly robotic, though the smaller ones suffer less for this.
Your interactions are limited to dropping some food in, which makes the fish migrate toward the food cloud, and tapping on the glass, which, as in real life, does not often elicit any response at all.
What I found most entertaining were the “Tagpoles”, which concatenate your GamerTag as a tail to your GamerPic as the head of some bizarre aquatic Frankenstein.
It’s still basically 200 Points for a screen saver.
This title was 200 Points at the time of writing this review but has since been reduced to 80 Points.
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I wub Neon, but it’s shamefully broken since the dash update
As far as “screen savers” go, this is definitely the best I’ve seen! The fish behave quite realistically compared to the real life fish that they mimic. A lot of my non-gamer friends find this far more entertaining to muck around with than any of my actual games lol
Hmm, not interactive? You can add and remove all the different types of fish, changes scenes, get a complete random set-up, tap on the glass which sends them bezerk and even feed the little darlings… How much more interactive can a “non-game” get?!
I loved it personally
Eh? Where did anyone say it wasn’t interactive?
“I wub Neon, but it’s shamefully broken since the dash update
”
It’s a disgrace IMO. Microsoft would never show disrespect to a large developer the way they have Llamasoft.
Aye, I can understand Giles reasoning behind not wanting to fix it though, he’s enough on his plate without digging back into that particular piece of code for now – but man, it shouldn’t have been broken in the first place.
It’s bad enough that folks won’t know most of what it does/can do without bombing over to Jeff’s controls guide – which, of course, takes a certain element of knowing that him and Giles are responsible for it in the first place and last time I checked, you wouldn’t have the foggiest.
Still a majestic piece of software, mind. Especially when you see how it’s all put together – clever stuff.
Where it says “I will resist the urge to point out the fact that the built-in Neon music visualizer is far more interactive than this.” Makes me wonder if the reviewer even found the main menu lol
You do realise just how interactive Neon is, right?
Manual
I had no idea that the NXE update broke the interactiveness of Neon. What a shame, but to be honest, I don’t use it as commonly as I used to back in 2005/2006.
MS should pay Minter to do another one specifically for NXE. Seriously. Ok back to the topic at hand…fish. Yes. Feed them fishies.
This lasted about 3 minutes on my 360.
I can’t think of one redeeming feature worth mentioning, other than the exit button. The backgrounds are average at best, the fish models and textures are awful and the movement is more akin to Scuba Diver on the ZX Spectrum.
Seriously, the worst thing I have downloaded on the 360 by a long way… and Undertow takes some beating for that honour.
Hmm, were we playing the same aquarium? Even the reviewer liked the models and textures and he’s a hard man to please. The screenshots of this “game” look like photos, and pretty photos at that.
Makes me wonder if you’re trying to sell a competing product?
I’m ashamed but having just bought an HDTV I have to admit I would buy Aquarium HD if I had points left. It looks great and I love the backgrounds. Very vivid colors.
Yeah, if I didn’t already have The Blue Planet HD on tap courtesy of TV on Demand, I’d likely punt over myself for it.
But David Attenborough vs AquariumHD isn’t really a fair competition
Hey, I’ve been a defender of apps here, because I think there can be some good ones.
I really think that this is one of those good ones for most of the reasons mentioned in the review. One thing not mentioned in the review is that the guy nailed the lighting of the fish to match the backgrounds extremely well. That demonstrates to me that the guy put some effort into it. The biggest reason is because it’s 200 pts.
It could be better, yes. I’ve seen more advanced aquarium software out there (not talking about Seaman
), but those programs cost $10-15 easily as PC screensavers.
I’ll admit, even with my endorsement I’m not gonna buy it as I play on a projector where the bulb has a limited lifespan. Any screensaver is really a bulb killer.
Hey guys, it’s the developer here.
There’s an update available for Aquarium HD now. Just got to community games and re-download it. The movement / animations have been made too look *far* smoother and more natural. A few other tweaks have been made also.
Hope you love this product, it was a lot of fun to make!
is it multiplayer?
joking aside… it’s a nice, well produced screensaver but being able to control one of the fish yourself and maybe score points over your xbox live friend fighting for food etc would be a nice idea for Aquarium2
i would have liked to control where i dropped the food though and tapped the glass though.. just to get the fish moving
hope to see more from you like this reedake2