A love letter to games and fish and restaurants and deep-sea diving. Marvelous.



Dave The Diver absolutely shines in a myriad of ways. The graphics are a stunning throwback to an earlier era of gaming with their lovely pixel art style. The gameplay is chill but not too chill and easy to get into but challenging enough to become expert at. The characters in the game are charming and instantly lovable due to excellent writing and spectacular animations. It is a world that draws you in and keeps you there, bringing wonder at discovery and the joy of collecting. Did I spend many hours doing things I didn't need to do like collecting all the types of fish at the highest level? Yes. Yes I did.

This was a game that thoroughly enjoyed playing thoroughly. I think part of that was due to the fact that it was never a fetch quest style of collecting but more of a choose-your-own-adventure version of searching for all the things. It rarely felt tedious to me and even as I was chasing down the last of the 3* Marinca cards or the final FishMon, I was almost never annoyed by anything other than my own declining gaming skill. I would, perhaps, ask for some different inventory management options (like, can I just sell all the 2* fish at the fish farm and keep all of the 3* fish?) but, in general, I think the devs did nearly everything right.

However, will I be looking back on my time with this game with the same fondness and reverence I give to other games? I'm not sure. I think It is a fantastic experience for all levels of gamer and was a joy to play, however. If you need to relax, like collecting, and can get into retro graphics, this is a must-play.

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