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Fun Fishing Game which Teaches Real Skills

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 25 / 28
Date: January 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Rapala Tournament Fishing for your Wii lets you fish in a variety of locations - New York, Minnesota, Florida, the Amazon and many other places.

The game is standard-screen only (no widescreen option) and lets you choose from a number of character models - male and female, various skin tones. You start with only the most basic of equipment, but as you win tournaments you begin to unlock more advanced options.

It's best to start out in free play mode where you can learn how to fish. A lot of this is intuitive. If you've played Zelda or any other game that has a fishing mode you probably understand what to do here. You cast out the line. You slowly reel it in. If you get a nibble, you have to set the hook in the mouth - and then the fun begins. You try to reel in the line (by actually reeling your left nunchuck hand) while moving the line left and right, and watching the tension so you don't either lose the fish or snap the line.

If you're skilled enough to get the fish near the boat, you get a net view where you have to point the remote at the fish, and then press the buttons indicated to draw it in.

Not all of this is well explained in the instructions. If you haven't fished before, then the notion of line drag affecting how you bring in a fish, or having to let out the line when the fish runs so it doesn't just snap the line in half, might seem a bit confusing. There are instructions both in the game and in the manual but I realize many people don't like to read :) Really, a little bit of practice should make it clear.

There are tournament modes, free play modes, and other modes to help you test your skills. During the loading menu it gives you random Rapela trivia questions. You can of course ignore these, or play them to kill time until the load is complete. As you win more of the levels, you get access to some neat equipment.

I was impressed with some of the fish models, but less impressed with the movements. The fish would change 90 degree angles in a flash. I realize the Wii does not have excellent graphics, and is better at cartooney visuals than "realistic" visuals. So, that being said, they might have done better here deliberately aiming for a more cartooney look and feel to this. In general on the Wii when you play cartooney games (Ray Man, Monkey Ball etc) they look crisp, but the more realistic games (Call of Duty etc) always look a bit kludgy.

I don't know how you could rate sound on a fishing game. There's no sound! Your helper makes random comments but really it comes down to you and the fish. Man vs pisces. It's like worrying about how your caddy talks in a golf game :) That being said, the helper is usually pretty helpful so that you can focus on fighting the fish - not watching all the on-screen alerts - and still know when to pull right, or left, or let the line out, or so on.

I like the little details - the deer wandering the side of the river in Alaska, the loon flying overhead in Minnesota. It really is quiet and peaceful while you boat around, seeking out the perfect spot - and then it gets quite complex when you've hooked that fish and are trying to balance all the forces just right to get him into the boat.

I realize this game might be challenging if you're not a fisherman. My advise is to start with one type of location, one type of fish, and spend the time to read the material on that combination. Just like a real fisherman would do. A real fisherman would learn what the fish is like, what the region is like, what lures are used. Then they fish for a while and discover through trial and effort what combinations work best for them. The same is true here, and heck, unlike Zelda or other games, the skills you learn here are actually useful in the real world. If you end up on vacation in one of these locations, grab a rod and reel and go out for an afternoon. You might be amazed at how much fun the real sport of fishing can be, when you leave the comfort of your couch.

Middle of the Road

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 14 / 14
Date: January 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

As a guy that still plays Sega Bass Fishing on his dreamcast (complete with fishing pole controller), I had been looking forward to this game for some time. I nearly bought it when I got my Wii (after seeing its discounted price), but opted to rent it instead...and I'm glad I did. It doesn't do anything remarkably badly (with the possible exception of landing fish with the net), but doesn't do anything observably well either. While nothing upset me about this game, I found it remarkably easy to walk away from.

The motion sensitivity had a lot of potential. In practice, it leaves a lot to be desired. For the first 20 minutes or so, I mimicked the motion of an actual fishing reel...then I figured out that as long as the nunchuck kept moving, I kept reeling (meaning I could flail my arms around like a lunatic and still be reeling the fish in).

Landing your catch was ridiculous...I mean, how intuitive is the following procedure:

1. Point the Wii remote at the screen, so the "net" symbol overlaps the yellow "fish" symbol on a black map (which reminded me of space invaders).
2. Press combinations of buttons as prompted on-screen. The size of the fish will dictate how many buttons are in the sequence.

Let's hope Sega develops "Sega Bass Fishing: Wii" or something similar.

Not for non-fishers.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 19 / 23
Date: December 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I've never gone fishing, so perhaps I'm not the target audience. Then again, I've never performed surgery and I loved Trauma Center: Second Opinion.

For someone with little fishing experience, holy jeez is this game bad. It's not even the awful graphics (which are on par with an early GameCube game like WaveRace.) It's the almost complete and utter lack of instruction. It took almost five minutes of wrangling with the wiimote rod before I figured out the timing just to cast my line. Then, there's your "fishing buddy" who gives you nearly useless fishing advice like "I don't know if the color of that lure is working" which might be helpful if there were only 3 colors to choose from, but there tend to be upwards of ten. If it takes 3 - 5 minutes to test each color, you're looking at hours just to see if a particular color of lure is the most effective with a particular type of fish. Add to that the scads of lures available and frankly, it's overwhelming.

Then, there's the feeling of inadequacy you get when during loading screens (which, incidentally seem horribly long for how subpar the graphics are), questions are asked of you like "How deep does the Super Scap 3 fishing lure sink?" without having ever received any hint as to the answer so you just sit there guessing wrong answers.

To the game's credit, there are scores of locations, each with different fish, and all sorts of different boats, rods, lures, colors of lures, etc. But none of that is helpful if the game doesn't provide even the most basic instruction in how to use those tools. This game was clearly created by expert fishermen for expert fishermen. Everybody else should stay away.

Disappointing and poorly developed

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 11 / 14
Date: June 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I love fishing games. At least I thought I did. This latest game by Activision, however, really has me questioning that statement. It is a mix of mediocre graphics, crummy sound, and boring controls that makes this game a dud.

Audience: I'm a fisherman and, as such, was able to figure out what the drag settings meant and had a decent idea of what to change my lures to. I have to agree with other reviewers who say this isn't for a non-fisherman though--the in-game instruction is so poor that I imagine it would be tough to figure these things out.

Graphics: Poor even by Wii standards. The level of detail is pretty disappointing, and the rendering is just--well, it seems like it was done about 5 years ago.

Gameplay: You go out on a boat and catch fish. There are tournament modes, of course, but basically it's just all about catching fish (obviously) and little changes there. To the game's credit there are several locations and an interesting variety of fish.

Control: This is what really bothered me about the game. The casting mechanism makes decent use of the Wiimote--you hold it up and flip it to cast. So far, so good. Reeling can be done by holding down a button or with the nunchuck (actually holding the button down was less tedious--go figure). But what gets me is the sheer lack of need to really control what's going on. Before a fish hits you just reel--nothing more. After setting the line (which is incredibly easy--too easy in my opinion) and hooking the fish you just reel and essentially drag the fish to the boat. There are times the fish fights a little and you have to move your rod or loosen the drag, but overall the actual fish catching experience is pretty boring. The worst part, however, comes when you try to land a fish. Upon getting it to the boat the screen darkens and a little "net interface" of some sort appears on the screen. Landing a fish has something to do with moving a yellow circle over a silhoette of a fish and pushing a couple buttons. What that has to do with catching a fish is beyond me, but it frustrated me to the point of turning the game off more than once.

Challenge: It varies I guess. Sadly most of the challenge, for me at least, came when trying to compensate for the poor control system and lack of instruction from the very inane fishing companion. That, to me, is the hallmark of a bad game--when trying to overcome the game's flaws comprises most of the difficulty.

Rapala Tournament Fishing is like a fishing trip gone bad. If you've ever been fishing and been frustrated to the point of wanting to throw your rod into the water you've felt some of the emotion I felt while playing; if you've ever been so bored while fishing you almost fell out of the boat you experienced the rest. There are a few mildly amusing moments when you catch a large fish or when you pull into a new area of water to fish, but overall this game is very disappointing.

Bad

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: December 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Graphics are as bad as the Nintendo 64. The game makes no sense in general, and the instructions are terrible. It doesn't feel like you are really fishing as I had hoped, because you just push buttons, which makes no sense. Don't buy! At least if you are thinking of buying it, RENT it first, you will see what I mean.

Poor graphics, OK game

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: December 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

As the other reviewer points out, the graphic quality on this game is VERY sub-par. It seems like a very old port with updated wii-mote controls added in. Gamecube games, on average, had such better resolution, I have no clue why the heck this game got released as it is.

That aside, this game is pretty average in terms of gameplay. I had fun with it, although it does not merit it's price tag as is. When it is in the clearance/discount bin, this game will be a pretty good catch.

Rapala Tournament for Wii is a Commercial for Rapala

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: February 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The short story is don't buy it. Rent it first to see if you like it. I bass fished for years when I lived in the Midwest so I was anxious to try this game when my grandson got his Wii for Christmas. Unfortunately I bought it so I'm stuck with it.
Pros:
Good graphics
Large variety of fish species and locations
Full range of Rapala lures (duh!)

Cons:
- Only Rapala lures are available. No worms, spinnerbaits, jigs, etc.
- Game lags behind actions of the player. Slow response to some actions.
- Though there are many different bodies of water, the area available to fish is very limited.
- Larger fish, over 4 lbs, or Northerns. Muskies, large catfish require an unnecesarily difficult landing technique involving moving the net over a fish icon on the screen and then pressing a button sequence shown on the screen. and you'd better do it quickly or you'll lose the fish!
- At seemingly random times, you will lose a fish for no apparent reason; even though the drag and rod tension are correct.
- In order to upgrade within the game to a better boat, rod etc., the player must complete a quiz at the begining of each game. The quiz is designed to make the player memorize details about Rapala lures and company history. This was the thing I resented most about the game! You pay $40 for the game and then you have to learn all about Rapala products and history in order to access all but the most basic of features.

Bottom line: Don't buy this game; rent it first!

It's pretty sad that Zelda's fishing minigame is better than this.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

For those of you who own a super nintendo with bassin's black bass, I recommend you bust it out and play it before you opt to buy this game. I'm not sure if this game is a port from an older console, or if there was no effort at all put forth to develop a good fishing game. When you are given innovative hardware, I feel I should be doing more than holding A to reel in a fish. Oh, not to mention the graphics are comparable to playstation 1, maybe. I'm still trying to figure out why this game was even released for a next gen console, granted so much more could have been done better, not to mention, there is virtually no use of the wii motes innovative controls.

Now for the review:
Starting from when the game was first booted up, the opening music and graphics gave me hope that I may be playing a good fishing game. As soon as I saw the chracter select screen, I knew I was wrong. The graphics right from the get go are pretty bad, probably slightly better than playstaion 1 graphics, I was also using a widescreen TV, which only made it look worse. There was no create-a-character mode to customize your player, you just select from a few preset male and female models. Moving along to start the game, nothing is unlocked to start so you are pretty much stuck with the one boat and a few lures. There are limited lakes to fish from, most of which only contain a few types of fish, and most of the locations look the same. The boat controls are standard but the graphics were so bad I didn't think it mattered where I was fishing as I couldn't tell the difference between the dock and a floating branch any way.

Now for the actual fihsing. The controls are terrible, you don't even use the nunchuk to reel like Zelda. You basically hold A and flick your wrist. Hold A to reel, and move the wii mote left and right to guide the line. You can't change the camera at all once you cast, so you are stuck in this poor underwater view. The fish for the most part appear randomly out of no where and bite. Oh, and for reeling in a fish, once you figure out that all you have to do is hold A while swinging the wii mote like a lasso, you'll have the fish from 80 ft to your boat in less than 2 seconds. Boooorrrring. The underwater graphics are much better than the rest of the game, but the poor views and fishing controls make the game a complete bomb. Also, there are severeal glitches in the game. Once the fish gets close to your boat it randomly gets stuck under the boat and some how comes through the bottom of the boat into your net.

Cons:
Glitchy
Limited camera options and poor view
Terrible graphics
Limited character creation
Limited fishing areas
Limited fish variety
Very repetative, boring fishing controls (once you figure it out)
Controls don't make use of wii mote or nunchuk
Rapala in your boat is annoying and just says random things the whole time
Fish appear randomly on your lure

Pros:
None

Overall:
If you are satisified with n64 graphics and don't care at all to use your wii mote / nunchuk to fish innovatively, this game is for you. For you true anglers, just wait for a real fishing game for the wii, I'm sure there will be one soon.

For the love of God, don't buy (or rent for that matter)

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: April 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

For someone who has had many great experiences with fishing games, I was more than excited to reel in some big ones on the Wii when I heard that a fishing game was being released on the counsil. With that being said, every fishing game I've ever played was better than Rapala's.
I'm including ones that were on NES and SNES as well. Controls are difficult and don't leave any room for small movement. Graphics are terrible with the water contantly cutting the screen with a wierd horizon. Needless to say, I've never been more disappointed in my life with a video game. It would be of no suprize to me if Rapala themselves were the ones who made, not licenced their name, this game. If you want a good fishing game for $50 chances are you can find a Sega Saturn with a reel controler and their great fishing game for that amount of money. Please don't make say "I told you so."

I like it

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

It's gonna take me some time to get used to it- but it's been fun so far today. I played it for like 30 minutes and I've never gone fishing in real life so I think it's cool.

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