So I want to relax!

Little more than ten minutes after downloading Sea Life Safari did the messages start rolling in from my friends list questioning if I had lost my mind! My other half came in and I happily proclaimed “I downloaded a game in which you photograph fish!” – needless to say he didn’t believe me. As someone who usually plays the top new action titles no one seemed to believe I could enjoy this simple game.

For those of you who have not had the pleasure, Sea Life Safari is the latest arcade offering from Sierra. You are on a track a la old style horror shooters in arcades and must interact with sea life by throwing items and then photographing them as they expose their personalities. There are also collectibles in the form of ten sea shells per level and also two special items per level which don’t appear until the level is played three times (the game has limited levels but in order to progress you must play each level numerous times in order to remember where everything is and take advantage of it.

Looking at forums most people playing this game seem to be coming under fire of insults and abuse suggesting they cannot be serious gamers but I notice one thing – although this game is targeted at a family audience it is actually the older audience that appear to be enjoying this game. This leads me to the conclusion that although younger players can slate the game as they can run home from school and play the latest shooter it is the older audience that find after a hard days work or a day running after the kids this type of relaxation based game with calming music and no death worries is actually extremely soothing and a breath of fresh air in comparison to other games out there.

This game is what we all secretly want – it’s something a bit different and something that we can switch our minds off to and if you fit into the older gamer category (as the majority of gamers now do!) this is exactly what we need! We may enjoy FPS and hardcore games but every now and again it is nice to leave that to the younger gamers and sit back and relax whilst still obtaining those precious achievement points! I look forward to more games that explore these ideas and after writing this article I’m off to drift around the sea a bit more!