DAVE THE DIVER - Switch Review

Nathan Rudge -

Sushi, farming, rhythm mechanics, mobile games, diving—DAVE THE DIVER is packed with content! With a fun little story and hours of gameplay to explore as you dive, you hunt for fish and run a sushi shop. With a crazy cast of characters, this game is truly making a splash and contending among even the biggest hitting titles that have been released this year. So join me as we dive into this review of DAVE THE DIVER.

The Good

Dan gets recruited to be the diver of a new sushi restaurant in a unique location of the world that somehow supports fish from around the world, giving you a wide variety to catch and serve. After spending the day diving in the water and hunting fish with your harpoon, you’ll spend the nights serving customers expertly crafted sushi from your business partner. As you dive deeper and deeper into the blue hole, you’ll discover the secrets that are hidden inside, with more and more to discover.

Diving deeper to experience the story of DAVE THE DIVER means that the gameplay is addictively fun. Just hunting and collecting fish while exploring the depths is a calming experience and that’s even with the added stress of predators hunting you down. Then managing the restaurant is its own experience, full of demanding customers, with the added fun of decorating several aspects and choosing the nightly menu. I couldn’t stop myself from playing day after day in the game to experience more of the addictive core gameplay loop.

All the characters are just a delight to encounter, all with their own unique desires and personalities and they are one of the highlights. Add in the stylised art choice and you have memorable characters from just a visual perspective; then add all the previously mentioned qualities and you'll remember all of them easily. 

Some of the characters are just straight up references to pop culture characters as well. The character who gives you the card collecting encyclopaedia is just straight up a discount Ash Ketchum, and while on a side mission, you'll find a character who is just Michael Bay. Every time you experience a new character or reference, it's pure delight.

TL;DR

  • Charming story
  • Core gameplay loop is addictive
  • Quirky and fun characters

The Bad

Honestly, there isn’t much I can say negatively about DAVE THE DIVER; the only aspect of the game that negatively impacted my experience would come from enemies and trying to avoid them. The biggest hurdle early in the game is the Tiger Shark, which can easily kill you with two hits at that stage of the game and when manoeuvrability is slow and clunky without dashing, you can die pretty easily. This resulted in a few people turning off the game and turning it back on to not waste the day. Yes, I am a classic Fire Emblem player; how did you know?

TL;DR

  • Difficult to manoeuvre in a pinch

Final Score: 9/10

DAVE THE DIVER is such a fun experience to play and is a strong contender as a memorable title for this year, in a year full of massive game releases. There is so much charm, character, and content packed into DAVE THE DIVER that it's bursting at the seams and is so worth the investment of any gamer. Roll the rice and fish in some seaweed, load up the harpoon and DIVE into the uniquely fun experience.

Thank you for checking out our DAVE THE DIVER Switch review, thank you to MINTROCKET (via Evolve PR) for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support: