Hey, That’s My Fish! Second Opinion

Hey, That's My Fish! is a wonderful little treat. Fast-paced, quick-scoring and ultimately immensely frustrating come the end of the game.is a wonderful little treat. Fast paced, quick scoring and ultimately immensely frustrating come the end of the game.

How Did I Learn About This Game?

I can remember learning about this game in the mid-'00's. A serious gamer I knew who played heavy games like Twilight Imperium referenced picking this game up for his nephew to introduce them to board games. However, as was his way, he’d picked up two copies. One for his nephew and, in his words, “one to play to death for myself”. He also wanted to learn the game, as it was another board game, which, like for many of us, was his passion. This was my introduction to Hey, That’s my Fish! I never even played it that day as we were there for other games. The game was etched in my mind, though, as I got a look at it. I was 18 or 19 at the time and this game went just about against everything I knew on board games and games that my friend played. I wanted it. I bought it not too long after, and it has stuck in my collection since.

Gameplay

With Hey, That’s My Fish!, it takes nearly as long to set the game up as it does to play it. A game for two to four people, the winner being the player who has gathered the most fish for their penguins come the end of the game.

Set the board up, the board is made of hexagon tiles. Each tile has a quantity of fish printed on it, one, two or three fish. Place penguins, in turn, on a one-point fish. Once all required penguins are out play commences. Penguins can only move in straight lines which is the 6 directions out of the hexagon tile, not through other penguins or over gaps. They can move as far as you like in that straight direction. Once you placed the penguin on the new tile, pick the tile up from where that penguin started and place it in your points pool, you are now scoring.

Play then passes on and you repeat. What will happen is that you run out of space as your penguins progressively eat the board and the game has to end when no more movement is available. At that point take the tiles the penguins remain on and count your scores. There are 100 points of fish in the game, find out who takes the win.

Greedy Penguins

This game may come across as quite friendly and perhaps look like a game for children. Certainly, my first impression. However, it is ruthless and without mercy. There is a real cat-and-mouse come chess-like feel to the game (I’m no chess fan because there is no random element; this game does have a random element). You need to try and maximise fish pick-up without letting your penguin playing pieces get cut off from the board. At the same time, you want to try and block your opponents from getting the fish and cast them adrift into the ocean. It is a battle, and players will likely shout at each other when their pieces are cut off from the game. It is inevitable.

It is also fast, which makes it a wonderful game to pull out when time is finite or you are at the end of a gaming session. You really only need about 15-20 minutes for one game, and some of that time is spent setting the board. I also feel it makes a great travel companion.

The artwork looks awesome on the box cover. The minis are incredibly detailed for such a game. The overall product quality is excellent for me.

Final Thoughts

Hey, That's My Fish! is a highly entertaining game that is really suitable for anyone. I mean, who doesn’t love a penguin?