Shimano Xtreme Fishing Mini Review

There has been at least half a dozen new fishing games released for the Nintendo Wii this year. I’ve played almost all of them, and the all have one thing in common, they suck. I’ve been playing fishing games since the late 80’s back on the original Nintendo and there has been a lot of solid fishing experiences over the years but for some reason the Wii has failed to deliver.

I had high hopes for the Nintendo Wii and fishing games because of the whole motion control system. In theory its the perfect system to release a fishing game on. In reality, all of the fishing game that have been released so far have been very buggy and fail to truly capitalize on the unique controls.

Shimano’s first venture into the Wii gaming world does however stand out among the other releases this year. Graphically the game isn’t pretty, and its filled with glitches, but its the only new fishing game that has kept my attention for more then an hour. The game is incredibly easy, so rather then spending your time trying to catch a fish, you instead spend it trying to beat your own records. It’s possible to catch thousands of pounds of fish in ten minutes!

What makes Shimano Xtreme stand out is the fact that it offers three completely different fishing experiences – rod and reel fishing, spear fishing and bow fishing. The spear and bow fishing involve nothing more then looking around for splashing fish and then pointing your cross-hairs at them. It’s incredibly simple, and strangely rewarding. Of course, if you are looking for a regular rod and reel fishing experience there is nothing special here to keep you playing.