By Ned Jordan

I have to say that it's been quite some time since I played a game as mellow as Sea Life Safari.  You just move slowly through undersea environments snapping pictures of aquatic life while New Age music loops play in the background.  There's nothing to shoot (with a gun at least), nothing to steer, no puzzles to solve; it's just you sitting back and snapping pictures of passing fish.  At this point I've probably lost about 80% of you, but let's take a closer look at this game for those of you who are still sticking around.

The basic premise of the game is that you're an undersea photographer assigned with capturing on film all of the aquatic species found in each of the game's environments.  You view things through your camera's viewfinder as the sub you're in pilots itself along its preprogrammed path. Well at least you're supposed to be in a sub, but it's more of a glass bubble because you have a full 360 degree view at all times.  As the sub motors along you can use the camera to zoom in on the fish and other creatures that you spot and snap pictures of them,  You can also toss various objects at the fish to trigger a short animated sequence which shows the fish's 'personality'.  Your goal is to capture each species on film and to do so with the best possible shot, which means a front or side view of the fish centered in the frame.  Each level runs until you use up your roll of 24 exposures (who goes on an undersea safari with one roll of film?  who uses film any more?) or the sub reaches the end of its course.  Afterwards your photos are rated and scored and you're given your final total score for the level.  And that's the entire game right there.

There's so little to the game that it's hard to imagine it holding anyone's interest for long.  It will probably appeal most to younger kids of the "gotta catch 'em all" (on film) crowd, but even they will eventually tire of the limited number of fish and environments.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 55%. Sea Life Safari is best left to young budding ichthyologists  Now that's one small target demographic for a game...