What's it gonna be then, eh?

I’ve never been fishing and I don’t think I ever will, waking up at ungodly hours to go somewhere and get swarmed by mosquitos has never been my idea of fun. However, I’ve played pretty much every fishing (mini)game I’ve ever come across. There’s just something about them, I guess.

I think the first one was probably the minigame in Legend Of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. It was short, and mostly just to get some important items, but you could still clear out the place. About a decade later, it was the one in Suikoden II (although each of those minigames is worthy of their own post).

Following that came a slew of mobile games, from Ridiculous Fishing under iOS 5 to Fishing Paradiso on current Android. Other titles include:

• A Girl Adrift: fun, but quite the grind fest.
• Fisherman’s Horizon: pretty bare bones, and the control scheme is a little strange, but it delivers on what it promises.
• Pokemon: Magikarp Jump. Sort of a fishing game, i guess? It’s fun to play, and nice to see poor Magikarp get some justice and time to shine
• Zen Koi: Not a fishing game, but there’s fish in it. And you can get different ones too. The graphics are pretty.

I’m pretty sure i’m leaving something out, but those are the ones in recent memory (also on the “not on your device” list).

Back to Fishing Paradiso, though, I have died and gone to heaven. No, really. That’s how the game starts. The main character just shows up in an insland in heaven, and he’s told by his talking bird companion that he needs to fish. Soon after, all sorts of people start showing up, and they too want you to fish. There’s also a scientist and some horrible asshole of an angel (go figure, huh).

I’m still going though it, but the music is really great. It’s the only reason i’m playing for longer than the time it takes me to go to the bathroom or prepare a cup of tea and some toast. I like that they’ve done something slightly different with the controls than most fishing games, it feels more mobile friendly somehow.
Also the backgrounds are lovely too, excellent pixelart.

I had this sudden realization today, as I was playing it, that I’ve actually played quite a number of these types of games for one reason or another. It probably helps that mobile “gaming” as a whole seems to be a gigantic dumpster fire, with the odd monument valley throw in to serve as the exception that proves the rule.