Bathtub Fishing

Bathtub Fishing is a fishing game as drawn in the back of a school exercise book. Barry, a bear in a shower cap, is having a bath, and he is fishing in it. His hook is Gloop, a pink blob with a face who is VERY sticky. The line goes down by itself and comes back by itself; you steer Gloop left and right, and tap to reel him in early. Anything that touches Gloop sticks to him, anything that touches that sticks as well, so the catch hangs off the line like a bunch of grapes and gets bigger and wobblier as it goes. Bring it up and everybody on it hops off to the party on the side of the bath. The bigger the bunch, the more each guest is worth.

The bath is deeper than it looks. Somebody has written the depth down the side, and Barry's mum says it is a normal bath. Once the party is big enough the plug comes out with a GLUG and the bath is the sea, with fish, crabs, submarines and a whale. Then the whale goes PFOOOSH and the bath is in the sky, so you fish upwards into clouds, kites and rainbows, and after that the clouds carry it all into space. The scores grow at the same rate, which is to say unreasonably. A run takes a few minutes, and the last thing on the line is the Moon, who is delighted to be asked.

Some of the things in the water are asleep and very ticklish: a rubber glove in the bath, jellyfish further on. They have a dotted ring round them so you can see them coming. Bump one with a toy on the bunch and the toy lets go and waves goodbye. Bump one with Gloop while he is carrying a catch and he gets the giggles and drops the lot (the glove only does that once, then goes off for a nap). Three lots of giggles and the run is over, which Barry is also fine with. Every run, even a giggly one, ends with a new hat for Gloop until he has all six, kept in your browser along with your high score. There is also a rubber duck on the title page that says do not squeeze.