Rob Herman
United States
Cleveland
Ohio
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The Good
If Wishes Were Fishes plays like a medium-weight Euro with plenty of decisions to make. Several of the mechanics will be familiar, for instance, fish appear in a queue; to take a fish from anywhere but the front of the queue, you put a token on each skipped fish, which is then given to whoever ends up claiming that fish. Scoring is a "whoever added the most to the most popular category scores highest" mechanic that reminded me of Modern Art. The luck factor is reasonably high--sometimes the fish you want just aren't available--but there's lots of opportunities for scoring and indirect player interaction.
The components seemed to be of high quality. The tokens for skipping fish, rather than the chits I would have expected, were largish rubbery worms. A small problem with this is that it obscures the fish a little bit. A larger problem is that it obscures the depth of the game--see below.
The Bad
The theme and presentation of this game is very deceptive. With a title referencing a fairy tale, cartoon fish adorning the box and cards, and gimmicky purple worms used for tokens (chits would have been fine), I was expecting a light game appropriate for children; maybe something along the weight of Hey! That's My Fish!. As it is, the game actually takes quite a bit of teaching time to explain what the various fish special powers are, and quite a bit of thought and time are required for the play. As for children, if they find other medium-weight Euros too dry, I don't think this one would fare any better.
Overall Rating:    : Wouldn't refuse to play if asked, but wouldn't bother bringing it up. And don't be fooled by the box; this is not a kids' game.
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