Frozen Catch

ATAGA

About this game

Frozen Catch drops the match into a well six columns wide and eleven deep. Pairs of fish come down from the top, you slide them left and right, turn them so the pair sits flat or upright, and drop them onto the stack. Nothing clears at three. It takes four fish of one kind touching each other, in any shape at all, and then the whole clump goes into the basket at once.

Building that shape is where the game lives. An L of four counts. A square counts. A long snake across four columns counts. Because the fish above a cleared clump fall straight down, a stack that looked settled can rearrange itself into another clump, and that is a chain. Every link of a chain multiplies what the next one pays, so a stack built to collapse in three steps is worth far more than three separate clears.

The well gets faster as you go. Every two dozen fish sent to the basket takes you one depth further down, and the pairs come down quicker at each depth. A next slot shows what is coming so you can plan two pairs ahead, and a hold slot lets you park an awkward pair and take it back later, once per pair.

There is no level list and no order to fill. It is one session that runs until the well reaches the top and nothing new can come down, and the only number that matters is how far you got. Eight badges track chains of three and five, clumps of eight, depth five, and the long totals of fish and pairs. The crew board ranks your best session against the rest of the boat.

Frozen Catch is portrait only, runs completely offline, has no account, no advertising and nothing to buy. Everything is stored on your device and the settings screen has one button that clears it.

What’s new

Frozen Catch drops the match into a well six columns