Growing up I was around the sport of “fishing” some. My grandmother owned a Summer cabin in Wisconsin, USA and it was walking distance from a freshwater lake. I took part in some dockside fishing and even went out on a boat a few times. The sport never got its “hooks” in me as much as it did for my Dad and brother. Guess I always started going out with high hopes and walked away empty-handed. It was truly “no pain and no gain”. I guess I always preferred reading a comic book or playing a video game. So when the latest game from Ultimate Games, called Fishing Adventure, came across our tables I was a bit apprehensive in reviewing it. Released on February 21st for the Nintendo Switch, Fishing Adventure is a non-typical adventure game, based on the sport of fishing. Keeping things rather simple Ultimate Games has created a game that has “no pain” that results in “fun gain”.
Something Seems Fishy Here
Hopefully, you’ll see a similar animation like this a lot when you play!
Based in Poland, Ultimate Games has quite a handful of fishing games under their collective belts. This particular one started out on Steam back in November of last year. Porting games to the Nintendo Switch seems to be the thing to do nowadays. But porting Fishing Adventure was a sound choice! What caught my attention on the sales page initially was the bullet point “Interesting quests”. It sounded like this fishing game had an adventure/RPG element to it. I was happy to find out that indeed it does.
Fish all over the world, countries unlock after finishing quest chains.
Fishing Adventure is simplistic in nature but winds up being more fun than regular fishing. With over 30 fish species to catch you’ll have the chance to visit seven locales around the globe. You’ll start off in Poland and need to work your way down the quest ladder to earn your “Poland Fishing License” which then opens up the next country to fish at.
Stress-Free Mechanics, Like Shooting Fish In A Barrel
Catch six Bleak in 10 minutes? No problem.
Based on the initial “quests” we’ve seen in Fishing Adventure they seemed pretty straight-forward and stress-free. Catch ‘x’ number of this species in the next ‘y’ minutes, GO! As you catch fish you’ll earn levels. XP seems to be based on the size/weight of the fish you caught. You can decide to release the fish, which contributes to your XP, or sell it for cash so you can buy better equipment, including bait, fishing poles, boat licenses, etc.
Release or sell? Hmm
As far as the timed quests go, keeping cash on hand helps. When the game gets close to the time limit for that quest it offers you the opportunity to extend the timer at the cost of a mere pittance. Once again, lending itself to the “stress-free” gameplay methodology.
Simple controls
Controls were easy to use. “ZR” to cast and “strike” (strike is a fishing term to mean “Any ‘hit’ by a fish taking a lure or bait”). Typically you want to press “ZR” when you feel the joy-con rumble. If your lucky this action “sets” the hook in the fish’s mouth allowing you to reel in your catch using the “ZL” button. Apparently, the right joy-con can also be used as a motion controller to perform both these actions but we failed to test this.
The “L” and “R” buttons also seem to control the tension on the reel when reeling a fish in. For whatever reason, this isn’t explained in the help text. I never found much need to make use of this feature but perhaps at higher levels, it becomes more important to avoid snapping your line with bigger catches.
Statistically Speaking
Fishing Adventure does a great job of tracking all sorts of statistics. The game tracks what species you caught, what your biggest was, bait used as well as keeping track of daily records and rewards. It adds a nice RPG-like touch to the experience when you pull in a big catch and the game tells you a new record has been set.
More Fun Than A Barrel Of Fish, Err Monkeys?
There’s not a lot of bad things to say about Fishing Adventure. It is a more laid back type of game that you can easily play on your couch while watching TV. To the action and first-person shooter gamers among us, they will probably find Fishing Adventure to be as “boring” as real fishing can be. Nevertheless, Fishing Adventure emulates the real sport quite well, and unlike “real” fishing you actually catch something once in a while. From a guy whose not overly enamored with real-life fishing I found that Fishing Adventure was a game I felt compelled to go back to! Believe me, this is no “bait” and “Switch” (Nintendo pun intended)!
Fishing Adventure is out now in the Nintendo Switch eShop for 9.99 USD.
