Reviewed by Brandy Shaul
I’ll be the first one to admit that, with the exception of tennis and NASCAR, sports aren’t my forte. In fact, when expressing my desire to take part in them in the real world, fishing would be near the bottom of the proverbial totem pole. That being said, while Hudson’s Fishing Master World Tour may not have been on my list of must-play games, it does help fishing (at least virtually) gain more of an appreciation in my book.
Fishing Master World Tour takes the gameplay found in the first Fishing Master title and spreads it to 7 different regions all around the globe. These regions, the United States, China, Japan, and so on are then split into 40 different locations, some freshwater and some saltwater, where you can catch over 200 different species of fish, ranging from your simple guppy and carp to more exotic species like yellowtail and stingray, depending on your location.
Gameplay progresses in a loosely structured story mode as you become a guest on a local fishing boat, which will gladly assist you in traveling the globe in the hopes of becoming the best fisherman (or fisherwoman) in the world. You are even accompanied by your loyal pet, either a dog or a cat (your choice), whose mood and overall actions will help you on your various outings by finding bait (like worms) buried in the ground, or by excitedly reacting when you have caught a new or rare fish, encouraging you to do your best to not let it get away.
As catching fish is the ultimate goal of the game, thankfully the controls are very user-friendly and make for as realistic an experience as one could find in a fishing game on the Wii. Fish appear onscreen as shadows of varying sizes, allowing you a definite target to aim at, with casting your line being as simple as flinging the Wii remote in a forward direction (the harder you swing, the longer your hook travels).
An exclamation mark will appear above your head, accompanied by a rumble of the Wii remote when a fish has been hooked, and you are then left with multiple options as to how to reel said fish in. If you are into realism, the Nunchuk itself can be moved in a circular direction, symbolizing the turning of the handle on the rod, but that method actually takes a lot longer than simply pulling down on the Nunchuk’s analog stick.
As you reel in a fish, a meter is placed at the top of the screen which represents the fish’s strength and mood. The farther the meter swings to the left, the calmer the fish and the more likely it is to simply forget about your bait and swim away, while anything on the right side of the meter signifies an agitated fish that will flail so much in the water that it can easily snap your line if you act carelessly.
When on the left, the meter tells you to reel in your fish with everything you have, while the opposite is true: if a fish is fighting you, stop reeling them in and let them wear themselves out before moving on.
Helping in both the realism and the challenge departments is the ability to stun the fish by quickly swinging the Wii Remote in a horizontal fashion when promoted to do so on screen. This literally freezes the fish for a few seconds and allows you to reel it in no matter what the strength/mood meter currently displays.
Once you catch a fish, it is automatically weighed, measured, and catalogued in your “fishing journal”, which serves as an encyclopedia over all of the fish you have caught, and provides biological information about each true-to-life species, as well as information over the various created fish you will come across as you progress through the game.
These original fish add a bit of humor to the title, as they tend to contain oversized features, like a goldfish with eyes half the size of its body, or be comprised of materials like metal, and can only be caught by fishing with a magnet in Detroit’s industrial sector.
Other than magnets, you are allowed to choose from a large amount of bait, with specific bait being for saltwater or freshwater fish. While you will never run out of bait, as you are always left with one infinite option for each type of water, you will often have to upgrade said bait to options like shrimp, plankton, crab, and so on in order to catch special fish that will only bite on one thing.
While the game at first does its best to advise you in your bait choices depending on your geographic location, later in the game you are left on your own, making it a bit of a trial-and-error process if you wish to catch all 200+ species within the game. This combined with the fact that there isn’t much to take part in other than the same repetitive fishing action makes the title best played in short sittings, or with friends via the title’s online gameplay, which challenges you to find the biggest specimen you can from each location, in order to beat out all other players.
As for the game’s technical departments, the graphics are a bit two-sided. While the water is beautiful, and does a nice job of reacting appropriately as you fish, that is, causing waves as you real one in, or even vigorously splashing when a fish is putting up a fight, the rest of the graphics are a bit dull in comparison. Each species of fish is realistically represented, but all main characters (including your pet) are drawn in a cartoon, even anime-like style that lacks in detail.
The sound department, however, deserves praise all around, as the calming melodies played while waiting patiently for a fish to approach the line give way to dramatic, intense sound effects as you try your best to reel one in. Likewise, since the game has you focusing on one particular area of the screen at a time (that is, where the line has fallen in the water), audio cues play at set intervals that signify when you should stop reeling, when you have caught a rare fish, and so on, allowing you to retain your focus on the line, without taking away from your ability to also keep track of a fish’s mood, etc.
In the end, while Fishing Master World Tour is a fairly repetitious outing into the fishing world, there is a real sense of satisfaction that arises when catching a new species of fish or breaking a friend’s record for longest trout, eel, etc. ever caught. With intuitive controls and a real pick-up-and-play sensibility, Fishing Master World Tour is perfect for fishing fans both young and old.
Special thanks to Tina Casalino and Hudson Entertainment for providing a copy of this title.