Glowfish by MumboJumbo

[smes3817]

I suppose the one thing I would like to see would be to have a summary of enemies killed, coins collected, secrets found, etc. on the pause or map screen for each level. There have been a few times that I've spent my time exploring a level and think I've found absolutely everything so I ended it only to find that I still came up short. I wouldn't have ended the level if I had known that...

And that may actually be a purposeful design decision to entice even more replays and exporation but I don't really know. All I know is that I simply cannot get enough of this game

[syntheticvoid]

Originally Posted by smes3817

I suppose the one thing I would like to see would be to have a summary of enemies killed, coins collected, secrets found, etc. on the pause or map screen for each level. There have been a few times that I've spent my time exploring a level and think I've found absolutely everything so I ended it only to find that I still came up short. I wouldn't have ended the level if I had known that...

totally agree... I didn't care much when I wasn't worried about the star rankings... but now that I'm going for them all, it'd be VERY nice to see something like this in the pause menu. =oP

[awp69]

Originally Posted by smes3817

I suppose the one thing I would like to see would be to have a summary of enemies killed, coins collected, secrets found, etc. on the pause or map screen for each level. There have been a few times that I've spent my time exploring a level and think I've found absolutely everything so I ended it only to find that I still came up short. I wouldn't have ended the level if I had known that...

Also completely agree with this. It's a great game, but it is a little annoying when you get out of level and found you missed one star or one secret area. In some games, I don't care about being a "completionist" but I'm often finding myself just a tad short of getting a better/perfect star rating and I would have explored more if I had known it.

That aside, this is really a fantastic game and hope it doesn't get overlooked when GOTY lists come out.

[TimEggers]

I see your points. But careful looking at the map and the fact each area (between checkpoints) is of a good size that careful exploration shouldn't be an issue.

You have to admit, 4-stars comes with a great feeling of accomplishment. I also get so much joy just from the gameplay that replays have never bothered me (yet).

What I'd love to see are opacity options for the buttons so I can dim them down so they aren't as obvious over the amazing environments.

Really though so much in Glowfish is done just right. I've never played a game where I've wanted to slow down and really savor every screen. Easily the best buck I've ever spent on my iPhone.

[smes3817]

Here is a SUPER informative and helpful post by Twiegp in the HD version thread:

Okay, since this had been bothering me for a while, and since this page is near the top of what you get when you Google "Glowfish 4 stars", I'm going to give all the advice I have for how to 4-star levels in light of how poorly it's explained ingame:

1) My working hypothesis is that there are three components to getting four stars. You get one star by default, and you get an additional star for each of:

a) Collecting all the coins in a level (including those dropped by popped bubbles / slain enemies)

b) Collecting all the "friends" in a level and either delivering them to one of the houses or the ending whirlpool.

(NOTE: I'm not sure if having the merging enemies "eat" eachother and thus losing the ability to get the maximum amount of friends for a level precludes getting this star. I suspect it does. The easy solution is to just not have them eat each by not shielding around them.)

c) Destroying all the enemies in a level. This includes bubbles and the red bone fish (yes, it's killable!) but not things like electric eels or jellyfish (which are not.)

The one exception to this is the Darter race, where you get four stars for simply clearing it quickly. This is easily done with the (upgraded) Darter companion, amusingly enough.

If you think you got everything but are still frustrated at only getting 2/4 stars, what this usually means is that there's an enemy you missed somewhere that drops a friend... hence you're missing both the "enemy killed" star and the "friends" collected star.

2) The following things are NOT relevant to getting four stars:

a) Speed (except in the Darter race)
b) # of deaths
c) Total points
d) Collecting power-up fruit (although collecting fruit may trigger scripts that are important to getting other items)

3) The game gives you more information on where hidden items are then you realize. By default, offscreen friends will create a blue glow on the border of the screen indicating where they are relative to you. Additionally, if you're using the Darter chum, offscreen coins will create yellow glows (including coins in secret areas.) If you're using the Scout chum, offscreen enemies will create red glows (and if fully upgraded, offscreen items will appear on the screen as well.)

Consequently, if a level is giving you trouble, skip it until you've fully-upgraded both your Darter and Scout chums, and then come back and use them to make sure you've cleared all of the offscreen auras in each part of the level. The enemies that hide and only appear if you're unshielded near them are especially annoying to have to clear out without Scout.

4) Darter is so indisputably the best chum for anything but heavy combat that it's a bit sad. His coin-collection ability is incredibly useful for trying to get four stars.

5) As alluded to above, sometimes scripts will be triggered that create more enemies/coins/friends, and this means that sometimes clearing out all the offscreen items isn't enough for 4 stars. In this case, collecting powerups or traveling to certain locations may trigger these things to occur. But usually you'll trigger all of these things as part of routine item collection.

Anyways, I'm still in the process of getting 4-stars on all of the levels but this has worked reliably for me in the first 30 or so. I'll edit this post if I think of anything else that's relevant to add. Good luck.

[Update]

This worked for the first 49 levels, I think the last one is a bit different... my guess is that you have to complete it without "losing your glow", as per the achievement, but as usual I really don't have any idea of what that means. Not getting hit at all? That would pretty much be impossible..

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Last edited by twiegp; 08-20-2011 at 07:37 PM.

[TimEggers]

I have yet to find it hard to realize what it takes to get 4-stars. I like the fact that everything ISN'T spelled out for the player but if one looks closely there are subtle clues.

Excellent game. Superb.

[Puce Moose]

I never heard about this game, and only learned of it yesterday from Lightopus being compared to it in some ways.

From what I can gather, Glowfish has a story and a progression arc (working through different levels), and you can actually complete the game? Is this true?
I ask because I keep reading review tidbits that say things like:
You swirl him around the inky depths on a permanent rescue mission
which reads to me as if it's an endless runner/score chaser. I hope that's not the case!

[syntheticvoid]

Yeah, it's level based... Its a pure exploration game, that yes, you can finish =o)

[Reese015]

Man... I come back to this game every now and then ever since it launched and I *still* haven't finished it! So many levels, each one so well done and absolutely gorgeous. This game is one of the best deals on the app store, just amazing.

[dclose]

I'm loving Glowfish, but I'm even more impressed with how this looks on the iPad with the HD version! I had been playing Glowfish at 2X mode, on my iPad, but with the sale I finally bit for the HD version too, and wow, I would've signed on a lot sooner if I'd known it looks that good on a retina iPad. What a great, tense, yet relaxing battle and exploration game!