No Fish! was provided to me to play and try out in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
One of the first card games I played when I was a kid was Go Fish. It’s also one of the first card games we taught Lily when she was younger. So I was quick to jump at the opportunity to review No Fish!.
No Fish! is catastrophic twist on the classic card game Go Fish that is educational and fun for the whole family.
Keep reading to see our full No Fish! game review and read all the way to the bottom to see why we rated it a 4.5/5.
Table of Contents
No Fish! Game Quick Summary
- 15 min or less
- No reading
- Little setup
- Cute illustrations, especially since the theme is a bit darker
- Ages 5+ but might images/educational value may be too much for sensitive kids
One sentence summary: Make the creatures that your opponents hold go extinct and pass off your plastic to be the last one with a living organism.
No Fish! Game Rules
No Fish! is super simple to play, especially if you’ve ever played Go Fish.
All of the cards are dealt out evenly amongst the players. Turns consist of asking if any other player has a specific sea creature card. There are two moves from here:
- If the player has the creature, they say “No fish” and discard the sea creature card(s) face down in an extinction pile in the middle of the table. And the player that asked the question gets to go again.
- If the player does not have the creature, they say “Mo’ Trash” and take half of their plastic cards and give it to the asking player. The player that asked the question is finished with their turn then.
Play continues counterclockwise until a player has no more sea creatures and are only holding plastic cards. They turn up their plastic cards and are out of the game.
The last player who holds a sea creature card wins.
No Fish! Game Setup
No Fish! cards are simply dealt evenly to all players. Super easy setup!
No Fish! Player Overview
Age Range
We easily played this with a 4.5 year old so while No Fish! is stated to be for ages 5+, I’d argue that younger children can easily play it.
That being said, if your child are sensitive to the reality of our struggling oceans (for example, removing shark fins unnecessarily) – I’d pause on playing with young ones. Lily has watched documentaries and shows previous to playing this game so she already was familiar with the cards depicted.
Player Count
We would recommend playing with 2-5 players.
No Fish! Educational Value
No Fish! can directly help with the following ideas through gameplay:
- Counting
- Matching
- Strategy
And if you’re looking to tie No Fish! into a study unit or wanting to expand on educational value, use this list for some extra inspiration to discuss:
- Ocean study and exploration
- Environmental concerns
- Endangered species
- Study units on: Loggerhead Sea Turtles, Yangtze River Dolphins, Bluefin Tuna, Coral Reef, Scalloped Hammerhead Sharks, and Southern Sea Otters
No Fish! Replayability
With it’s low table footprint and compact size, No Fish! is a great game to toss into a bag for travels. No two games are the same and it’s fairly quick gameplay makes it a great game to play with younger kids on a regular basis.
Overall Thoughts on No Fish!
No Fish! is an educational spin on an old favorite and I would highly recommend it, especially to anyone that is interested in learning or teaching about the ocean and it’s struggling creatures. It’s quick, fun, and beautifully illustrated.
