Why isnt it a game?
Endless Ocean gives you a sailboat and a stretch of the South Pacific to explore at 10 fathoms. What it doesnt give you is danger, conflict, enemies, a story, obstacles a health bar, bosses
you know, game stuff. You dont even have to worry about your air supply. Ever tried diving without an air gauge? Divings a supersafe sport, but if you dont follow a few simple rules, you could rupture your lungs or catch agonizing decompression sickness or just drift into a happy warm funk until you run out of air. Im not saying EO needs to give players the bends, but itd be nice if the occasional fish at least tried to eat you.
Wait, you mean the fish dont bite?
Nope, not even when you chum the water and then reach out to pet them with your Wii remote. EOs fauna - both the fish below and the birds above the water - exist solely to satisfy your critter-molestation desires. Its be like Mario going to the Mushroom Kingdom just to grope all the Goombas and the Koopas. At least the manta ray in Super Mario Galaxy will kill ya if you ride him wrong, for cryin out loud. Your goal here ultimately is to catalog as many fish as you can get in petting distance, stopping along the way to give dive tours to tourists who want in on the hot fin-petting action. And if that sounds more like work than a game, then bingo - Thats why EO kicks off our inaugural installment of Electronic Nongaming Monthly.
If I were to rate Endless Ocean on a scale between Biology Class and a night dive in the actual ocean, Id give it trip to Walmarts aquarium isle. - Crispin Boyer