Slice and dice the salmon and turn them into sushi to feed the starving polar bears

Battle with rival bears over control of the bountiful river

Unlock new bears to play as along with tons of wearable accessories

In the frozen lands of the Arctic, a family of polar bears is starving. A brave polar bear then decided to volunteer to travel away from his family and home on a fragment of ice in search of food. After drifting for days, he eventually found himself in the greener part of the globe where it is just teeming with fishes, specifically salmons!

In Big Bear: Salmon Hunter, you’ll be helping this bear catch and shred – by clawing at them – as many salmon as you can so he can turn the fish meat into delicious sushi for himself and his family back in the Arctic.

The gameplay here is similar to Fruit Ninja and is very easy to get into – all you need to do is to swipe, somewhat frantically, to slice the salmon fishes as they leap out of the water. Slicing all of them together will earn you extra combo points, however, so it’s important to chain up your slices.

Like Fruit Ninja, there are obstacles, such as bottles containing poison or bombs, you will need to avoid at all costs because if you do accidentally hit those, it’s pretty much game over for you. There are also bonuses such as slow effect (turtles), double points (catfish), and gold salmon (triggers “Fever mode” – your screen will start raining salmon) that you can use to maximize the points you earn at the end of the level.

Take note as well that this is not an endless game. You are only given around 35 seconds to slice as much salmon as you can, though each bout of salmon-slicing is interrupted with boss fights which will earn you 1 extra second each if you do manage to defeat them.

Boss fights in Big Bear: Salmon Hunter is perhaps the most unexpected, and hence unique, part of the game. It completely caught me by surprise when it happened the first time around since it’s gameplay is slightly different from simply slicing salmon. The fight basically pits you against a rival bear who doesn’t like you in his turf, catching all his fishes… although apparently there are enough fishes for everyone if only sharing is an option.

Anyway, boss fights are mainly separated into several looped stages. The first one is the “face slapping” stage where you’ll need to swipe side to side as fast as you can. It will usually be followed with either a simple but rapid “single swipe” stage that lasts only 2 seconds or what I call a “link up the numbers” stage. The numbers stage is the most difficult since as you play, you’ll gradually need to chain up more numbers (up to 5) within the short 3-second limit you are given. That’s not including the fact that you must avoid any bombs that appear on your screen as well.

If you failed any of these mini-games, your opponent will hit you instead, draining some precious seconds from your time limit – by the way, the clock stops whenever a boss appears.

Interestingly, the game allows you to customize your bosses via the settings. You can upload a photo of yourself, your real-life nemesis or your friend to the template provided. You can even make it more hilarious by putting on bear masks over the photo.

Not to mention, there are missions that you can complete too. You will get 3 missions per level, and once you complete all three, you’ll then advance to the next level and obtain a new set of missions. Every level up you gain will also makes the game slightly more difficult, but on the bright side, you will also be inching your way towards unlocking a brand-new bear to play as.

Yes, aside from the default polar bear, you can play as a brown grizzly, a black grizzly or even a panda bear in this game. Different bears will have their respective sets of 3 unique skills, all of which are upgradable using game currency. Best yet, you can even customize your bear with a wearable accessory – hats. Hats can be obtained by playing a bingo-like game whereby you will need to collect a series of hat stickers or pictures and if you get a winning pattern, you can turn them in for a hat prize.

There are 3 power-ups that you can spend your game coins on if you want to have a better head start. Instead of spending coins, you can get one power-up of your choice for free if you decide to watch a video ad.

Being a freemium game, Big Bear: Salmon Hunter has an in-app store which sells more game currency, which you can earn at a pretty reasonable rate by playing the game; as well as early access to bear characters that if you’re patient, can be eventually be unlocked for free anyway. So, in other words, the game’s IAP is rather fair. This is important because if you’re the competitive sort, know that the game has a leaderboard that you can try to beat other players’ scores on.

In short, Big Bear: Salmon Hunter is a fun casual game which is somewhat similar to Fruit Ninja but offers several interesting new features of its own. The graphics look cute and from the many funny names and outfits of the bosses you’d encounter in the game, it’s obvious that the developers have a wicked sense of humor as well. Try it today!