If you’re like me, one of the things that annoy you the most about hacks is how much time you usually have to devote to completing the entire game. Because even as a gamer who spends countless hours on games, I have to recognize that amateur-made hacks may lack the dedication to quality level design and difficulty that makes professional games work. Fortunately, Mystery of the Flying Fish is one of the few hacks I’ve found that was genuinely entertaining start to finish.

For one thing, as a concept hack that only lasts for one world, I was able to knock it out in under an hour. Whether or not you’ll be able to do the same depends upon your reflexes. This hack features several levels or sections of levels which have flying Cheep Cheeps waiting to take you down. They can certainly be thwarted, but you have to be quick to dodge or defeat them. You also will not get many spare items or extra lives to do it with.

Despite the apparent shallowness of the idea, I was actually impressed by the number of different ways the creator of this hack exploited it to keep things interesting until the very end (and that especially goes for the final battle, which is easily the most inventive take on this classic bit of gameplay I’ve ever seen in a hack. I’m proud to say I managed to take the final boss down without getting hit, much less losing a life.) There is also some clever graphic and text hacking that ties into the story, and the fact that the story is well-written to boot is both unusual and refreshing.

In short, unless flying Cheep Cheeps aggravate you to no end, this is definitely a hack you should try playing. Highly enjoyable in all aspects.