Guppy (iOS) Review

Nowadays, even free online and mobile titles offer pretty solid experiences and quite complex gameplay, so it might be difficult to think back to a time in which all that could be played on phones was Snake, and that people even enjoyed it. Guppy tries to capture that magic of a simplistic high-score hunt in a more modern shell, but with the same feel of low-budget and lack of resources that defined the early phone releases.

This is beautifully done in several ways, but the one that stands out most is the graphical style. While a dot based system similar to Snake would be too transparent today in what it tries to do with all the 8-bit styled games that exist, the developer instead chose to go with a style reminiscent of hand-drawn sketches to give the feeling of a small and simple title, and it works - especially well in combination with the gameplay that is all but a sweet reminder of when gaming was simpler.

The gameplay has a little guppy floating around in the pond trying to eat bugs to get points and grow, but the little fish has to watch out for bigger fish that are out to eat it. The concept is old, but it has the modern edge of utilising touch controls to steer the fish. The fins move when pushing the side of the screen, which represents it and gives great, yet difficult to master, control over the little fish and helps to make Guppy a really pleasant experience.

Guppy manages to be that simple game in a modern package by playing to the strengths of the old games for the platform while also adding new tools given by modern technology. For fans of releases like Snake, Guppy is something to keep your eye on.