“Fin Fin on Teo the Magic Planet” was a game made in 1996 by Fujitsu in Japan. The game follows the bird and dolphin hybrid Fin Fin. The game has Fin Fin react to the volume of your voice; the quieter you are, the calmer he will be, and the louder, the more upset. The game uses the real-world time and date you are on as a feature of the game. The main goal of the game is to befriend Fin Fin and discover the world of Teo.

Trying to get the game to start the first time made the Windows 95 freeze and I had to restart the computer. Once I got the game to run I set up disk one. Disk one, also called first contact, is just setting up info, time and date. But once I got set up for disk two, I found out I didn’t have disk two.

My sister helped me find an emulated version of Fin Fin. Emulated games are mostly older games that were put onto newer computers and able to run on them without much trouble. The emulated version worked for me, but I struggled to find out how to make it work. The instructions they had on how to download the emulated game were confusing. It would say to download this big file but you only needed a small one that was in the big file to make the game work. The game never really explained how to play, like controls, except for arrow keys to move and numbers one to six and “W” for sound when setting up disk one.

The game, once I got it working, was good but I had the problem of only playing at night so Fin Fin never came out or was active enough to do stuff with him. After waiting a while, Fin Fin would fly around the map and every now and then sing and come up to you. It’s like bird watching, but you can become friends with the birds. I found out from pressing random keys that pressing keys “S” should take pictures and “B” to see Fin Fin’s friendship bar. I couldn’t find the photos I took in any of my files, but that could have been because I emulated the game so the photos didn’t have a place to go.

Fin Fin’s friendship bar is important to keep high because if it gets too low, Fin Fin slowly stops coming up to you and soon flies away if the bar is low for too long. When I did play during the day, Fin Fin was more active and traveled around the map, getting Lemo berries, a specific type of berry, to eat, singing, responding to me and moving Lemo berries to his nest. But, because the game takes too long to play and I don’t know if there are certain dates that trigger events I might be missing stuff.

I did have some background knowledge of the game before playing. I knew Fin Fin has a wife and a son named Fin Fin Jr. You can see them around Fin Fin’s nest, but I’m not sure how to see them. I was unsure if a certain time and date or high enough friendship level would allow them to be seen.

“Fin Fin on Teo the Magic Planet” hasn’t been sold in stores for almost 30 years, so getting your hands on the game could be a challenge. Originally the game was popular; they had toys, watches, music and even an anime episode for Fin Fin. Over the years, it was forgotten and overrun by newer games, but over time it was rediscovered and started to grow in popularity again.

Small groups of people online search for lost media of the game. I got my copy of the game as a birthday present. My dad got it through a resale website, and he had to convert his money into what they use in Germany, the euro. Also, I had to use an emulated version to allow me to play the whole game. The one I used emulated the whole Windows so it could run both disks. Games similar to “Fin Fin on Teo the Magic Planet” are “Petz 5,” “Tamagotchi” and “Animal Crossing.” All games use the date and time as a game mechanic or have pets you take care of.

“Fin Fin on Teo the Magic Planet” was a good game, because it’s chill and requires patience to become friends with Fin Fin. The game can’t really be played fully in one day, you need multiple days to fully become friends with Fin Fin and to discover the world of Teo. Like I said before, the game is like bird watching, but you become friends with the birds. Some days Fin Fin might not want to be bothered much, so when trying to talk to him, you need to have a lower volume, but other days you can be louder. The only downsides are the controls and how they don’t explain what you’re supposed to be doing.

Apparently, by pressing the spacebar, you could offer Fin Fin a Lemo berry to gain friendship. But, I might have skipped over the part where it explains what you’re supposed to be doing as I was going too fast on the first contact, or disk one, to get my information set up that I missed something. I can’t go back unless it resets my save and progress so far. Also, I messed up with the time and date. I was pressing buttons and accidentally made it the next day and a few hours ahead, but there was no button to go back. So another downside would be not being able to go back to see anything you missed and fix the time and date, with a button to go back if you messed up the date.