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Funky Fish

Unreleased Atari 2600 cart. published 41 years ago by UA, Ltd.

Listed in MAME

Funky Fish screenshot

Funky Fish © 1983 UA, Limited.

Funky Fish can best be described as an odd underwater Fantasy Zone style game with some strange twists. The screen consists of five boss monsters which must be destroyed before you can advance to the next level. Each boss monster (represented by a square) has a swarm of fish defending it, which must be destroyed before you can take down it down. However the guard fish aren't stupid, and as you approach they'll lash out at you attempting to fry your poor Funky Fish. Once you've succeeded in taking out the guard fish with your bubble blaster (hey you're a fish!) the boss moster will die. However each time a guard fish is destroyed it will turn into a piece of fruit which slowly falls to the ground. If you don't grab the fruit quickly it will turn back into a guard fish, so be quick.

Another little twist that Funky Fish adds to the same old tired side scrolling shooter genre is a power gauge. Yes it appears that your fish has a limited amount of power, and you must quickly defeat each boss monster before the gauge runs out. Once you've managed to kill all the guard fish (represented by the number at the bottom of the screen), the boss monster will start to glow and a timer will begin to run down. During this brief time (about 10 seconds) you can recharge your power by touching the dead boss monster. You can track the locations of each of the boss monsters on your handy underwater radar screen so you'll always know which direction to go.

TRIVIA

Unreleased prototype.

Funky Fish was based on the obscure Sun Electronics coin-op of the same name. The game was converted for home release on the ill-fated Emerson Arcadia and, following the system's demise, was also programmed for the atari 2600, but never released for that system.

SOURCES

Game's ROM.