Picture this: it’s 1999. You’re standing by a picturesque lake in rural Sweden early one Saturday morning. You’ve just battled with the biggest perch you or your friends have ever seen, winning the grand prize. You hold the fish and pose for a photo and as the flash temporarily blinds you, a tear rolls down your cheek. You wake up holding your Nintendo Switch, was it all just a beautiful dream?
In Fishing Adventure, you can make all your fishing dreams a reality. Travelling to beautiful locations across Europe and North America to fish to your heart’s content.
The gameplay is of what would you expect for a fishing game but it feels true to life, or at least as much as it possibly can in a virtual world. As you succeed in pulling in your catch you can choose whether to toss the fish back in the water for some experience, or sell it for some sweet, sweet money. Experience and money can then be used to unlock new items in the shop such as advanced rods, reels and lures to further your ability as a fishing master. Boats can be rented, allowing you to manoeuvre on the water and get to that perfect fishing spot.
Fishing Adventure can be repetitive, sure, but some would argue that’s just part of the nature of fishing. Tournaments and quests are available to add variety, consisting of arbitrary tasks like catching a certain type or quantity of fish within a set amount of time. There is a certain degree of grinding involved in order to unlock further fishing locations and some might find that to be incredibly tedious.
There isn’t an introduction or tutorial to be found and controls aren’t particularly explained during gameplay other than a control visual being shown when the game is paused.
Considering Fishing Adventure is a mobile port, visually the game is surprisingly good – particularly the textures of the water and some of the surrounding scenery. Weather conditions vary and there are ambient nature sounds that play to further immerse you in the game.
Fishing Adventure is a wonderful, if basic fishing simulation that induces relaxation and rekindles memories of childhood fishing trips. If you have a fondness for fishing then you won’t be disappointed, especially for the mere price of £3.99.
8 fishes out of 10.
Fishing Adventure can be reeled in on Nintendo Switch and Steam, and you can catch some of our other games reviews here.
