Ridiculous Fishing (I played the Android version) is another game that I pretty much finished last year, but I put in just a bit more time to actually get to the credits. The game was recommended by a friend of mine, and when I expressed my boredom with fishing games in general he told me that this game doesn't really have much to do with fishing at all. I was happy to see that he was right. The gameplay loop (as thoroughly explained on its Wikipedia entry), consists of three phases: 1) Drop your line and avoid catching any fish on the way down (this phase gives a Frogger sort of feel) and try to get as deep as you can, 2) Reel your line in and catch as many fish as possible (while avoiding the jellyfish, which subtract from your total), and 3) Shoot the fish as they get thrown into the air, and hit as many as you can before they fall to the ground (again, taking care to avoid the jellyfish).
The gameplay loop is expertly designed and the game is pretty fun and addictive overall. The motion controls work well, and the art and sound design is also high quality. The upgrades and items you can buy with in-game currency are for the most part worthwhile. Despite the high quality all around, as with most smartphone games, the game still feels pretty shallow and only really kept my interest for a relatively short amount of time. There are three fishing spots plus an endlessly deep spot, but once I got to the bottom of the first spot my interest in continuing tailed off pretty quickly. I was curious about the ending, which comes by getting to the bottom of the third fishing spot, so I kept going, but it turned out to not be worth the time. Still, I had fun overall, and this is definitely one of the more well designed smartphone games I've played.
Have some 3-in-1 fun with these Ridiculous Fishing links:
- Official site
- Developer's site
- Review at jayisgames.com
- Tips and tricks from Destructoid