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.
We posted about The Strike a while back, and now its out! Its the third fishing game released this month! (also see Wii Fish and Anglers Dream) I’m hoping to get a copy next week and test it out! Check out the trailer.
If you play video games and love to fish, you’ve probably played one of Rapala’s previous entries in the the virtual fishing world. While their games look great, they haven’t been able to produce a game that is truly enjoyable. This year they’ve ditched their graphics and tried to push up the fun factor. I’m not convince the game will be any better then their previous attempts but I’ll be trying it out very soon and let you guys know. At least We Fish is going to be released exclusively for the Wii, so the game should be more polished then the previous version that were ported from other systems. Check out the trailer…
This popular fishing app on the iphone is now the first app to pass the 1 million downloads. No doubt fishing is a huge market that overlaps everywhere and from what I hear from people who aren’t fishermen is that the game is very fun. I personally haven’t played it yet, but may give it a whirl when I update the firmware on my iphone.
Its been a while since I’ve played a really good fishing game. I’ve tried about on the Wii, but I haven’t been terribly impressed despite the unique controls. There are at least four or five Wii fishing games currently, and there’s another on the way. No date yet on a North American release, but here is the Japanese debut trailer.
The graphics aren’t the greatest, but it looks like this game will have both fresh and saltwater locations and species!
It will be released in North America under the name Reel Fishing Anglers Dream.
We contacted Lakair Lodge the day before the OFN Crayola Invitational pike tournament to make sure there was a place for us to stay. Luckily there was, so we got all of our gear together and headed out the next day. Neither Jon or myself had ever traveled so far north, but we looked forward to it with great anticipation. The drive was long, but the thoughts of unexpected adventures ahead helped pass the time.
