A Barf Boat Guide: Doesn't It Sound Appetizingly Fun?

The Basics

You play Captain Arf, a Pirate Warf, who is desperate to keep his boat afloat! You can help him by using your arrow keys to control the swaying of the boat. If you hold or tap the left arrow key, the boat will tilt to the left, if you hold or tap the right arrow key, the boat will tilt to the right. You can also make your petpets jump by hitting the spacebar. The object of this game is to keep all of the crew aboard when they pop up on deck to “check up on their captain,” as the game description explains.

Details of the Game

You have two options in what variation of the game you want to play. The normal mode is easier in the way that you have a larger boat and deck to keep your petpets afloat, but you earn fewer points at a time. Extreme mode is for those who want a challenge. Your boat in this mode is teeny tiny and it is very hard to balance your petpet for long, but you earn more points at a time.

During your game, various pirate petpets will come up on deck and it will be your job to make sure that they do not get thrown overboard by the ripping tidal waves (although, some of them might prefer to swim among the waves than stay on deck, but if you want a higher score you’ll need to keep them on deck!). One of your main objectives will be trying to balance your boat against the weight of the petpets and other objects (those will be explained later) that come aboard.

When you first start the game, you are given one petpet to balance and keep on deck. Don’t get too comfortable, though, because shortly after more petpets will come up at the same time, giving you multiple petpets to balance at the same time. Among the petpets, other objects will also float onto the deck as well.

Good objects:

-Petpets: These are obviously good! You need these to get points. The more petpets you have on deck at a time, the more points you earn per second! In normal mode, you get 3 points per second for having one petpet on board, 5 points per second for two petpets at a time, 7 points for three petpets, and so on. This shows you that the more petpets you can balance, the quicker your score will increase! In extreme mode, you start off with 6 points for one petpet per second, so your score is doubled if you can last as long in extreme mode!

-Coins: These are a quick way to make points! Sometimes, gold coins will appear on deck and they are worth 30 points. You will only collect the points if you collect the coin, so don’t let it tip off the boat before you catch it!

Bad Objects:

-Bombs: These little bombs not only add on to the weight on the boat (they will tilt you whichever way they roll on the boat), but they also blow up if you don’t get rid of them in a few seconds! Once you see these, do everything in your power to shoo them off the deck. Otherwise, after about 3 seconds, they will blow up and most likely throw your petpets off board! Sometimes, if your petpets are in the middle of the boat, you might be lucky and able to catch them from falling off, but if you are anyway near the edge when these bombs blow up, sayonara!

-The Water/Sea: Arr, this be the death of you! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist... the Barf Boat game music must be getting to me.) If you lose all of your petpets in the water, game over. :(

Mediocre if not Somewhat Gross Object:

-Barf!! Oh yes, my friend... you didn’t think a game called Barf Boat would be without barf, did you? Of course not! It must be said that your dear Captain Arf will lose his lunch (and probably breakfast too) every once in a while and when you lose the game. If all of your petpets meet their doom in the sea, his green puke will spray all over the deck. Also, during various times in the game when he just can’t take the rocking anymore, he will puke some more! But fear not, it does not affect your game play (unless maybe you have an uneasy stomach)! If anything, it keeps the game interesting, heehee.

Tips and Strategies

First and most important, you should note that if a petpet (or petpets) are leaning toward the left side of the boat, their weight will start to pull the boat to the left. You will need to counterbalance this by pressing the right arrow key to direct the boat and petpets back toward the middle of the boat and prevent them from being swept into the sea.

Don’t hold down either arrow key for too long. Instead, it is better to keep tapping them back and forth until you get a good rhythm going to keep your boat balanced.

It might take some practice to learn how to balance more then one petpet at a time. Sometimes the petpets will be in rhythm with each other and move left and right at the same time. Other times (maybe if a bomb comes in between them) one will be swaying the opposite way of the other. Practice will show you when you can and cannot save your petpets.

In relation to the previous tip, please note that it is MORE important to get rid of the bomb (and maybe sacrifice a petpet or two) then try and keep all of your petpets on board to increase your score. You only need one petpet on board at any given time to keep your game going. It is much better to lose points for a little while until more petpets come on board than to sacrifice your game if the bomb blows all of your petpets off deck!

You should always try to collect the gold coins, but again, don’t sacrifice your game to get them! If the coin is already on the edge of the boat or somewhere hard to reach, just forget it and move on; more will come later!

Use the spacebar to your advantage. If a bomb does come in between your petpets, just hit the spacebar to make them jump over the bomb in hopes that it will slide away while your petpets stay on board. However, be careful using the jump. Sometimes it will do more harm than good. If you are near the edge, you might just jump off the boat!

I suggest playing with the music on, I tried playing with the music off and it just threw off my game! The music tends to put me in pirate mode... those creaks just make you feel like you’re on deck, don’t they?

Play normal mode if you are going for a longer game because you will probably have better luck in that mode. Extreme mode is for those hard core gamers and if you can balance multiple petpets on that little deck, more power to you! I personally prefer normal mode.

Lastly, have fun! This game is quite fun and can be a great de-stresser. Besides, at least you can be thankful that you’re not on that boat... arrr!