Investigating the Big Steel Fish

Penguins are absolutely adorable, but what happens when you rip them away from their natural environment? That serves as the background to this wonderfully whimsical title wherein an inquisitive penguin goes to investigate a mysterious steel fish. The rest of his penguin friends have already run away in fear, but this little waddler wants to find out more. Suddenly, he is snatched up by a bearded fisherman and then transported onto a plane.

Flying out of Antarctica, our black-and-white hero emerges in a dark area surrounded by countless other penguins. Telling them about what has happened, it turns out that these penguin compatriots are the result of a penguin farm! Telling them about their true homeland, all the penguins rally behind our hero in an effort to escape and return to their natural environment. And so, the adventure begins.

Building a Bridge Back Home

Squinting their eyes in the sunlight, our group of penguins manages to escape from the farm and they start heading in the direction of their true home. Unfortunately, they come across a swampy river and they have no way to cross it! Your job is to build a bridge on their behalf, trying to save as many of these penguins as you can. They march on like lemmings, not knowing to stop before falling into the water, so you'll have to work quickly as they slowly waddle their way across your makeshift land crossing.

You will be presented with a honeycomb-like grid and it is within this grid that you must form a bridge. Along the right side of the screen are a series of pieces of varying shapes, each of which can fit into the provided grid. Place each piece in an appropriate spot by clicking on your left mouse button. Be sure to fill every gap and form a solid bridge. Otherwise, your little friends will have to go for a swim and this will cost you a life preserver... and there are a limited number of life preservers.

Tips and Tricks

Sometimes, you will be handed a bridge piece that doesn't quite fit the way that you would like it to fit. When presented with this situation, you have a few options to consider. First, if you click on the right mouse button, the piece can rotate. This is very effective for getting the larger pieces to fit into the grid.

Alternatively, you can swap the piece currently being held with any of the other three pieces displayed along the right side of the screen. This doesn't get rid of the current piece, but rather just swaps places with the other one. It's a temporary fix, but it could be enough to keep those penguins safe.

Worse comes to worst, there is a recycling bin on the lower-right corner of the screen. Pieces can be discarded in this bin, but it takes some time to process so you cannot keep feeding the bin with unwanted bridge pieces.

Other mechanisms that you may want to know about include the various tools at your disposal. Near the top-left of the screen are the tools that are currently available to you; more become unlocked as the game progresses. These tools can be used to destroy unwanted portions of the bridge or fill missing portions of the bridge. If you've already filled every visible portion of your land crossing, you can speed up the action by holding the space bar on your computer keyboard. Be careful not to lose any penguins in the process!