Frantic Fish – Definitely fishy.

Frantic Fish has many die-hard fans, and if you want to be one of them you’d better head over to Gamesville! This game is a cross between bingo and slots, and if you couldn’t guess by the name, it has a beachy theme. ^_^

 

Aloha!

 

In each game you have 4 minutes and 20 “spins” to score as many points as you can. On each spin you’ll get five fish with numbers one them, and one bonus item. All of these things appear at the top of the board,

 

The first five fish are directly above columns of numbered shells. Each shell randomly contains a number between 1 and 75, and the fish are numbered in that range too. However!  The numbered fish can only be matched to shells in the column directly below them!

 

Dangit. :(

 

To “match” a fish to a shell, just click on the fish and drag it to the shell. Keep matching fish each round and try to make as many bingo lines as you can. A bingo line is five fish-covered shells in a row, column, or diagonally. Each bingo line is worth 1,000 points!

 

Fish-o!

 

That takes care of the first five fish. The sixth spot is a random bonus, and you’ll get one of three things.

 

Item	Purpose
Random # Fish	It’s like a regular fish, except you can place it on ANY shell with that number!
Wild Fish	Place it on ANY shell for an instant match!
Coin	+1000 points to your score. Woohoo!

 

Pretty cool, huh? Unfortunately, the randomly numbered fish doesn’t always have a match on the board. Sadness. :(

 

But the Wild Fish is awesome! I love it. ^_^

 

Frantic Fish also has an awesome feature called “Auto Daub.” With auto daub on, the first 5 fish will automatically find their matches on each spin! You’ll need to take care of any bonus fish yourself, but with auto daub you have less to worry about. Woohooo!

 

Scoring & Rewards

Scoring is really simple. You get 200 points for every matched fish and both coins and bingo lines are worth 1,000 points. See? Easy. ^_^

 

The rewards are a little more complicated. Here are the current payouts.

 

1 Gold Coin	5 GVs
1 Bingo Line	10 GVs
Be in the Top 5 when the game ends	250 GVs & 5 entries
Be the #1 player when the game ends	250 GVs & 20 entries

 

Basically, you REALLY want to be one of the Top 5 players when the game ends! The entries are for a daily $25 drawing. This particular drawing is unique to Frantic Fish, and you cannot earn entries through other games! Really! You can’t buy entries with GVs either.

 

It’s pretty tough to get into the Top 5, so you’d better bring your A game and bribe lady luck.

 

Tips & Tricks

First things first. Turn auto daub ON! This will save you a lot of frustration down the road.

Secondly, keep an eye on your board and plan where you would place a Wild Fish. You want to make as many bingo lines as possible, so look for lines that are the closest to being finished. For example, a line with 3-4 fish already in it. ^_^

If the game has barely begun and you have few (or no) fish on the board, well, you have three options.

1. Start using the diagonals to build an X across the board. This distributes the fish and opens possibilities for more bingos.
2. Look for shells with duplicate numbers and cover one (or more) of them with a Wild Fish. Why? Well imagine that you have two #12 shells on the board. If you’re lucky you *might* get a bonus #12 fish that you can place anywhere, but it’s unlikely that you’ll get two bonus #12 fishies.
3. Close your eyes and pick randomly. Don’t look at me like that! Random can be fun. ^_^

Frantic Fish can turn upside down within seconds. I’ve had games where I was in the Top 5 for 10+ rounds and then stalled out at the end, and I’ve had one game where I joined on round 8 and somehow managed to make it into the Top 5. o_O

But most of the time I end up with a moderately covered board and no Top 5 title to make me happy.

Carp!

 

Final Ranting Rating

Many Gamesvillians LOVE Frantic Fish, but uh, I’m not one of them. *^_^* It kind of surprised me, because Slingo Classic is one of my favorite games, and Frantic Fish is a lot like it. I don’t want to delve into a full-out rant, but… well…. 

Get comfy.

Okay, here’s my BIG problem with Frantic Fish: If I play with auto daub on, I only have to worry about the bonus fish. This means I have 10 seconds to place one fish, and most of the time I either get a number I can’t use or a coin. I have nothing to do! Even 10 seconds feels like a loooooooong time if you’re just sitting there waiting for the timer to run out, and it’s not uncommon to sit there for 4+ rounds in a row with absolutely nothing going on.

On the other hand, with auto daub off, I have 10 seconds to scan and place 5-6 fish. No matter how hard I try, I can never do it fast enough. Since I automatically scan from the left to the right, this means I frequently miss out on the bonus fish. It’s extremely frustrating to realize you missed a fish. >_<

The reason there’s so much down time in Frantic Fish compared to Slingo Classic, is because it’s working with a larger pool. In Frantic Fish, every shell picks a number between 1 and 75. With Slingo Classic the columns divide the numbers into groups of 15, and nothing repeats.  (Column A ranges from #1-15. Column B ranges from #16-30, and so on.)

What this means is that you have vastly different odds of actually spinning something that you can use. Let’s focus on just the first column. With Frantic Fish, you have a 7% chance of spinning a match on the first spin. (5 out of 75.)

Slingo Classic has bonus pieces that you can pick up in the spins so the numbers are a little different, but for the first column you have a 32% chance of spinning a match on the first spin. (6 out of 19. Don’t ask, but it’s right.)

Slingo Classic doesn’t have auto daub, but it’s easier to find matches because I’m working with a smaller pool of numbers per row. It’s a quick pace but I never have trouble keeping up with it. Conversely, in Frantic Fish I often sit around and wonder if auto daub is working because nothing is happening. Seriously!

Also, the rewards are pretty shoddy. Unless you’re in the Top 5 you probably won’t get many GVs. (I usually picked up 30-50 GVs per game.) Oh, and good luck on getting in the Top 5, because you’re competing against everyone playing Frantic Fish at that moment. They take all of the players in all of the rooms and arrange the high scores through that.

Gamesville does this with most of their games, but Frantic Fish is the only one where getting in the Top 5 really matters. Remember, in order to get entries into the Frantic Fish $25 daily drawing, you must get into the Top 5 at least once! There’s no other way to get entries.

A game that has me yo-yoing between boredom and frustration is not a winner for me. I love the crew at Gamesville, but Frantic Fish is a stinker in my book. :(

2 stars out of 5.

Are you one of the rabid fans? Tell me why you like (or dislike) Frantic Fish! What would you have rated it? ^_^

 

Similar Games

If you like Frantic Fish, be sure to try some of these games too!

• Slingo Classic at Slingo – An exciting cross between bingo and slots! But you already knew that.
• Lottso Express at Pogo – Here we cross bingo with scratchcards! It’s really fun. ^_^
• Bingo Bash at Winster – Work together with your teammates to complete bingo patterns!