{"id":14089,"date":"2015-10-08T00:01:33","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T00:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=14089"},"modified":"2015-10-08T16:59:57","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T16:59:57","slug":"unplugged-fish-fish-squish-boardgame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/08\/unplugged-fish-fish-squish-boardgame\/","title":{"rendered":"Unplugged: Fish Fish Squish! (Boardgame)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"fish<\/a>A good kid\u2019s game will involve a bit of actual thinking (looking at you Candyland) and a bit of physical interaction (to help those squirrelly ones.) Fish Fish Squish! has a bit of both, matching cards and smashing play-doh fish as a reward for success. This makes it fun for kids and agreeable to parents playing along.<\/p>\n

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Fish Fish Squish!<\/strong>
\nPublisher: Winning Moves
\nAges: 5+
\nPlayers: 2-4
\nTime: 20 mins
\n(Review copy provided by Winning Moves)<\/p>\n

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Fish Fish Squish! has cards showing one of three colors of fish. As preparation, each player uses the provided fish-molds to create five play-doh fish of their color. These are set upright on their player card. The cards are laid out in a grid and players reveal one card on their turn. If that card manages to create a \u201cthree cards in a row\u201d (straight or diagonal) consisting of one of each colored fish, the turn is a success. No bonus is given for multiple matches. On a successful match a player reaches across the table and gets to crush one of any player\u2019s fish. I have to mention that squishing the fish is a very satisfactory experience. Players who run out of fish are eliminated (not all that bad as the game goes fast.) Play continues with the next player flipping a card, and possibly squishing a fish, until only one player (the winner) has fish left standing.<\/p>\n

\"FISHFISHsquish_large<\/a><\/p>\n

While concentration requires a bit of memorization, only one card per turn is flipped in Fish Fish Squish! and it is left face-up. Thus the only \u201cstrategy\u201d left to a player is to look at the revealed fish on the board and try to choose a location with the highest probability of a successful match. (This usually means looking for a place where more than one type of fish would result in a 3-card match.) While that gives something an adult to think about, it isn\u2019t an extreme advantage. This is good and bad; younger players can still \u201cdo well\u201d in the game but it isn\u2019t as interesting to older players. The key equalizing factor is the fish-squishing. Playing with more than one player will quickly lead to \u201ckingmaking\u201d where players will gang up on whomever is leading. Of course, a parent is frequently the target, even if they\u2019re not winning.<\/p>\n

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Verdict:<\/strong>
\nDue to the \u201csquishing\u201d element, Fish Fish Squish! is great fun for younger kids. The game is playable even with very young players as they can get lucky and make the occasional match. Older kids or adults will not find it overly engaging, but there are a few things to think about so it isn\u2019t like playing a no-brainer like Candyland. Thankfully, the game goes very fast so after a few plays, if an adult is getting bored they can pass the game off to the young kids to play on their own. At its price point (roughly $10), it is inexpensive for a boardgame and is better than many other offerings out there – the squishing element is definately what makes the game stand out from others.
\nKid Factor:<\/strong>
\nNot much to see here, unless you can\u2019t handle violence against fish. Don\u2019t let your kids eat the play-doh, although I think it\u2019s non-toxic anyway…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A good kid\u2019s game will involve a bit of actual thinking (looking at you Candyland) and a bit of physical interaction (to help those squirrelly ones.) Fish Fish Squish! has a bit of both, matching cards and smashing play-doh fish as a reward for success. This makes it fun for kids and agreeable to parents […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unplugged-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14089"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14095,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14089\/revisions\/14095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}