Do You Digitally Fish?

Submitted by James Munn on January 1, 2007 – 2:26 pm7 Comments

During a New Years party last night, I was chowing down on salty munchies and watching the Packers lay waste to the Bears when a stranger walked up to me. I had seen him before, I think I even attended his wedding in the past, but the name escaped me at the moment.

He bares down on me with an intense stare, like he’s about to say or do something immensely important. I sip my brew and stare back at him with one eye, the other eye on the crappy NBC High Def football feed. Of course, I continued to much the tasty, bacon-wrapped dates and corn chips.

“Do you know of a quality deep-sea, salt-water fishing video game?”

I glanced over his shoulder for a moment, noticing my Fiance walking up behind him. It’s then that the entire conversation made sense. She must have mentioned to him that I’m a gamer and now he’s looking for help. It’s bizarre how conversations with complete strangers start this way.

“Well…,” I answer through a mouth full of junk food. (First down, Favre. Retire that.) I think for a moment and realize that no, I don’t know of any deep-sea fishing, salt-water fishing games at all. I don’t know of any fishing games, for that matter. Sure I’ve heard of Bass Master, which most gamers probably have, but I’ve never played it or even seen one of those games in action. My general experience is that they usually aren’t well made titles. It’s always made sense though, considering what I always assume to be a limited market.

He plays fresh water fishing games right now but is looking for games where he can catch sharks and larger, deep-sea game. He ocean fishes 3-5 days a week during the warmer months and needs to feed that passion in the winter months.

It’s pretty rare that I’ll completely overlook a genre but I think that’s about to change. I love to fish and crab, so maybe I’ll actually enjoy digitally fishing in the off-season? Are any of you fishing or hunting game fans enjoy a particular franchise? I’d like to help my new fisherman buddy out by recommending a quality deep-sea, salt water fishing game. His only console at the moment is the PS2, but any recommendation would be helpful.

http://chrislegend.net Chris

James, I’m a lot like you’re buddy there. I’m a HUGE fishing fanatic and, at the same time, a gaming nut.

I don’t recall a Saltwater fishing title for any system. PC or Console.

There have been a lot of different fishing titles over the years. The Rapala series gets a lot of marketing despite the fact that is seriously lacking in the gameplay department.

The hands-down best fishing game I’ve ever played was Pro Fishing Challenge on the original Xbox. It came very close to simulating what it’s like to actually fish. From cast and fighting the fish to boat handling it has it all. Not to mention the fantastic online multiplayer. There’s even a movement on the Xbox.com forums to get PFC added to the backwards compatible list.

Sorry for being so long-winded. Fishing games are a secret passion of mine. If you want any other info just let me know.
James

Chris,

Online multiplayer fishing? Wow, that is absolutely awesome and I’m amazed I haven’t heard of it! That’s something I was wondering, leave it to the Xbox line to do something like that.

I wonder why the deep-sea or salt water fishing has never taken hold? I’m on the East Coast of the US, so ocean fishing is only an hour boat ride away. I can imagine gamers in the mid-West might enjoy catching swordfish, shark and the like.

Rapala kept coming up in my research before I wrote this blurb, but I really haven’t seen anything positive about the game itself. I see the 360 will get Rapala Trophies in Q1 2007, but I’m not expecting much from it.

Virtual Deep Sea Fishing & Deep Sea Fishing II: Offshore Angler were two titles I noticed for PC. Unfortunately, they’re pretty damn old now and I’m not sure how they’ll hold up graphically (or if they’ll even run at all).

I’m going to try out a demo I found and see how it goes. I’ll be sure to report back.
http://chrislegend.net Chris

I’m on the east coast as well. Actually I’m 5 minutes from Cape Cod in Massachusetts which is heaven for saltwater anglers. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent fishing from shore, my kayak, or a boat, chasing everything from Stripers and Bluefish to Marlin and Sharks.

Pro Fishing Challenge (from Atlus) was, and still is IMO, the best fishing title released for a console. A lot of people never heard of it because it wasn’t marketed at all. So the story goes for most fishing games I suppose. It does have a large, dedicated group of hardcore fans though.

The Rapala games have all been big disappointments, especially their lack of any type of online multiplayer. I’m really not expecting much from the new 360 game either. I’m hopeful that they’ve learned a thing or two but I’m not holding my breath.

Be sure and let us know what your experience is with those Deep See Fishing demos. I hadn’t heard of those games and have always wanted to see a quality saltwater game be released.
Xaq!

The fishing mini-game in Zelda is fun… but he doesn’t have a Wii.
Bill

The Dreamcast had a salt water fishing title you used the fishing controller on. You could catch a variety of big salt water fish.
James

Bill,

That image you see is from a Dreamcast fishing game, actually. I know they sold a fishing controller for fishing as well, that system was so ahead of the curve yet so far behind it at the same time.
http://chrislegend.net Chris

Sega Bass Fishing was a great game. It was one of the first titles I picked up for the DC. The fishing controller they sold was also the best of it’s kind, then or now.