Odell - Down Under

“Gobble up the competition as you struggle to survive in this undersea science adventure.” That’s what the cover art says to this educational video game—Odell: Down Under. It was developed by MECC and published by SoftKey in 1995. The published target ages for this game are 8-14, but even adults can have some fun (and gain some knowledge) with this game.
The setting for this game is the Great Barrier Reef in Australia; hence the name “Down Under.

” The player’s role in the game is a fish. There are 54 kinds of fish you can choose from to play, including: Blackfin Barracuda, Cuttlefish, Great White Shark, Lionfish, Lyretail Coral Trout, Palette Surgeonfish, and Whitemouth Moray Eel.
There are four types of gameplay. There is a Practice Mode to get you used to the game. The Tournament Mode starts you off as the tiny Silver Sprat fish, and takes you through every fish on the list, finally playing as the Great White Shark. The Challenge Mode is similar to the Tournament Mode, but you only play four random fish instead of all of them. In the Create-A-Fish Mode, you are able to create your own species based on certain factors such as size, color, agility, speed, and special ability (a sonic blast, an electric shock, squirting ink, or being poisonous).
The object of the game is to stay alive by eating, staying clean, and not being eaten by predators. What each fish eats seems to be the main educational focus of this game. Each of the fish you can play has different eating habits. To survive, and to gain points so you can advance to the next fish (as in Tournament and Challenge modes), you need to eat enough edible food. The types of foods available are plants, worms, sponges, crustaceans, coral, and fish. When you find something to eat, you click on it. A dialog box tells you if that was a good choice or not. You get points by eating foods meant for the specific fish you are playing. Also, if you eat the wrong things, your health will decrease. Your health will take a huge drop if you eat something poisonous such as a sea slug.
You also have to keep clean. By doing so, you can restore your health. You must find and move next to a specific mollusk or bluestreak cleaner wrasse. I’m sure you just said, “A what?!?” A bit of education in this review…a bluestreak cleaner wrasse is a fish that eats parasites and dead tissue off larger fishes' skin. Eww. And remember, besides eating and staying clean, you must avoid being eaten by predators—those higher up on the food chain.
The graphics are par for its time and the music and sound effects are well done; so the game is enjoyable in those aspects. And if you enjoy undersea life and want to learn more about the eating habits of fish that inhabit the Great Barrier Reef, then I suggest you download Odell: Down Under.