Fishing Resort – Review

Title: Fishing Resort
Developed By: Prope
Published By: XSEED Games
Based on: An Original Fishing Title
Console: Nintendo Wii
Genre: Fishing
Subtitles: English
Classification: This game has been classified Everyone by the ESRB and is appropriate for all ages.
Special Thanks: This game was funded out of my own pocket.

Fishing is one of the more boring hobbies I could think of… yes I know it is one of the more popular activities around but I was a youth growing up in the 21st century with all the technological gizmos that kept me away from the boat and perched infront of a television doing fishing on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Scratch that, I only did that mini-game once or twice). However, fishing games remain pretty popular with a fair few of them on the market – especially on the Nintendo consoles. It is obvious fishing games need something to draw a persons attention span else gamers would tune out within minutes and do something else… but Fishing Resort does a better job than most I have seen. How does it do this? Read on to find out in my review of XSEED Games release of Fishing Resort for the Nintendo Wii.

No matter how you look at this game, it is indeed a fishing simulator. You begin the game being able to create your own customized character with different age groups, faces and hair styles to choose from – and then you are found travelling alone to the island (Yes, cause in games children go to a fishing result by themselves) and from there your fishing experience begins. The game provides you with ample tutorials so you are not flung into the fishing experience alone and are provided with ample amount of activities to take part it… but except the opening where you are greeted to the island do not expect so much of a plot.

The aim of this game is to simply travel from location and location, looking for the best fishing spots and trying to catch all the fish that the resort has in its many lakes while also trying to catch the biggest of each kind as they are graded and added to an aquarium where you can admire your collective work. The controls are easy to pick up and provides a no fuss means of fishing. Using the wiimote to imitate casting the fishing line (No button presses), you can use the fish finder (Similar to what some boats have) to track the locations of fish where your line as been cast – and hopefully will get a bite. To reel in a fish, you must imitate reeling in using the nunchuk while keeping the line steady with the wiimote to ensure no added tension on the line. Too much or too little tension will result in the fish getting away. Overall, a very easy to use system with a bit of added challenge in order to not make it too easy when it came to catching the rare fish.

While the fishing aspect of the game is solid, you can hardly call it a game-seller for any title, therefore how does the rest of the game turn out? It was actually surprisingly enjoyable and offered enough to keep me interested for a fair while. As it is a resort all about fishing, it would be rather bad if there was nothing else to do on it right? The game runs on a time system so throughout the day you may be provided with different fish, special tours, fishing events or just take up fishing in a unique environment such as an alpine area or out to sea. The game also provided a shopping system where you can to purchase new lures, bait, rods and even unique clothes such as maid outfits or dog costumes so they did reward your effort at time for fishing for that hard to catch sea monster. Other inclusions that were of interest included an achievement system, the ability to rent different modes of transport and even an aquarium where you can view all the fish you caught.

For a Wii game, the design is most certainly above average and highly creative although could have used being refined upon just a little bit more. I was glad to see they didn’t choose to implement Mii’s like the last game I reviewed on the Wii (Go Vacation) did so it didn’t detract from the character designs they developed for the game and the appearances of the fish while looking realistic didn’t detract from the designs either. Environments were picturesque and evidently a lot of time was put into them – after all if the designs of the fishing spots were bad I doubt many people would be playing for long. In terms of the sound and music quality, nothing really stood out however nothing was painfully bad either. Could have used a greater range of sound effects as well.

Considering this was published by the same company that released one of 2011′s most interesting horror titles (Corpse Party), it just goes to show the variety of games that XSEED Games is willing to offer. Personally was added to the game experience was the unique fishing rod peripheral that was included in the games combo pack, which added to the gameplay experience and made reeling in feel less like flailing the nunchuk around. But overall, while you would still need to be a big fan of fishing games to actually catch all the fish in the game, it might be a great game for the casual gamer to enjoy. It hasn’t won me over to playing any more fishing games in a hurry, but I found playing the game in small bursts pretty enjoyable and I have to hand it to them in how they tried to avoid being just another fishing game.

Final Score
Storyline/Character Development: N/A
Design: B
Music/Voice Acting: C-
Gameplay: B
Replayability: B
Personal Opinion: C+
Overall Score: B-

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