Shoal of Fish is a calm relaxing game byCrazy Labs. The concept of a typical “shark game” is followed but with some deeper intricacies. Instead of eating smaller fish and getting bigger, a player is given a task to complete in each level (sorry, days - “levels” here are called “days”). Sometimes you need to catch 5 goldfish to complete the goal, sometimes 10 crescent fish, and sometimes just several hundreds of any fish you can see.  You control your main fish hero by tapping anywhere on the screen or by holding and dragging it to control the speed and direction at the same time.

Soothing shark like entertainment

In the beginning, your playable fish hero is not as big and fast, cannot accelerate quickly, or catch a lot of fish once it’s in the shoal. But with every level, you earn more coins that give you an opportunity to upgrade these characteristics. Right after every upgrade, you can actually feel how your fish has changed and how easy it has become to catch the prey.

Once in few days there’s a boss game - find and kill the boss or die. If you upgraded your hero with some powers regularly there won’t be a problem with that. And the whole “fight” is just a meeting of two creatures, the one who’s bigger and more powerful wins - easy peasy.

If you’ve earned enough points in the game you can buy a new kind of fish to be your main hero. And that new character is usually bigger and faster and makes your life easier in the game.

The music is tranquil, there is no timer or talking in the game, and all in all, it is quite a satisfying process of watching the swirls of fish while giving a direction to your main fish hero. Of course, you need to be aware of the enemies: big fish that can eat you! But they appear only after several levels and are rather lazy and slow, so you just need to be a bit careful. Because you are constantly dragging your fish here and there you kind of need to touch the screen at all times, so this game won’t be good for a morning “rush-hour-on-the-metro” play, but rather for an evening “tired-but-can-do-something” time. Together with its calming down music, it can be a nice relaxation activity at the end of a day, even with the sound on. Oh, if not for ads, sorry. By the way, what’s the monetization model here?

Monetization model

Upgrade with Rewarded Video ads

Bad news for whales and those who spend money on games, this is a shark game after all - there’s no “get rid of the ads” button, as monetization here happens only through the ads. So you can only pay for using the game with your time, not money.

The first part, compulsory ads, those that you can see after completing each level. They are skippable, so if the whole ad takes 30 seconds you don’t need to watch it, you can skip it as soon as the relative button appears in the corner (usually 5 seconds or so).

The second part is rewarded ads. When you finish the level you can receive a usual amount of coins or treble this amount if you watch an ad. Here the ad is not skippable if you want to receive the reward. The same happens when you die in the game (get eaten by a big fish) and want to revive - watch a full ad and you’re alive again. Also, if you don’t have enough coins to upgrade your characteristic it is solvable in the same way - watch an ad and feel free to do it.

Conclusion

Shoal of Fish is a pleasurable and peaceful time killer for those who like to play calm chilled games. However, without a “no ads” regime it won’t be very suitable for people who can find dozens, if not hundreds, of similar alternatives.

By Iryna Shapoval for Gamesforum