Koi DX

Genre: Puzzle / Misc. Game

Players: 1

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Review:

Koi DX is a difficult game to describe, largely because there’s so little actual game here. You play as the titular fish in a stream or pond, looking for other fish and solving “puzzles”, though I use the word lightly because they aren’t really all that puzzling or engaging. Keeping you from this goal are pollution-tainted black fish that… well, they’ll delay you for a few seconds.

Okay, look, I am fully onboard with the idea that a game doesn’t need to present challenging gameplay to still be a wonderful interactive experience. I gave Gris an A grade largely for this reason – it had a beautiful presentation, and presented a compelling abstract story. But even there, Koi falls flat.

The audiovisual presentation here doesn’t convey the simple elegance it seems it might, nor does it have stunning visuals. It’s just… basic. Boring, even.

What’s worse, the game’s already slow pacing is brought to a crawl each time anything of interest in the game happens. Bring a fish to a flower? Stop the game while it does its long flower-opening animation that you’ve already seen a dozen times. Clear an obstruction? You’ll not only be shown, but the game will freeze while it slowly clears away.

What’s more, the “story” here is cringe-worthy levels of bad, about a fish that’s somehow fighting pollution in what I’m sure the game’s creators thought was really poignant, but just comes across as ham-handed as possible.

There’s just not much reason to recommend Koi DX. There’s not much gameplay here, the presentation is basic and boring, the story is terrible, and what little game is actually here is constantly interrupted. Don’t bother.

tl;dr – Koi DX is an odd game that has you swimming as a fish in a pond and solving “puzzles” that aren’t really puzzling. The gameplay is boring, uninventive, and slow, the graphics are basic and uninteresting, and the game constantly slows things down even more whenever anything of note happens. Don’t bother with this one.

Grade: D-

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