Reel Fishin'

Title           Reel Fishin'
Publisher       Interstel
Game Type       Sport
Players         1
HD Installable  Yes
Compatibility   All
Submission      Chris Vella Profiled Reviewer

Review
   A fishing game on the Amiga? Can it be true? Yes! at long last this
great sport is now available on the Amiga. I've waited a long time to get
a fishing game on the Amiga and my first thought is can a computer really
simulate this sport properly. The answer is no, but that doesn't mean that
it won't be fun to play.

   You start by selecting what days of the week you want to go fishing.
You must study the weather reports because some days will have better
fishing then others. You then have a choice of about 10 lakes to fish
from. Moving the cursor over the lake will give you a brief description of
it along with how good the fishing there might be. Once you descide on
one, you must visit the tackle shop. Here you buy which lures and boat
accessories that you think that you will need. Once you have all your
tackle, you're ready to head out to the lake. You can only fish for certain
hours during the day and must head in by a certain time. A clock shows
you what time it is.

   The basic aim of the game is to catch as many big fish within the
weekly days that you selected. The game is controlled by the mouse and is
a little awkward until you get used to it. You first must move the cursor
over the engine, this starts your boat. You then move the engine handle
left and right to steer. When you get to the spot on the lake where you
want to fish you must drop the anchor by moving the cursor over the anchor
and pressing the left mouse button. You then click on your tackle box and
select your lure. Now you are ready to cast, This is done by moving the
cursor over a spot on the lake and pressing the left mouse button, you
will then see your line land on that spot. You then click the left button
over the fishing reel to reel in your line. There is an option to reel in
fast or slow. This depends on which lure you selected. When you are
reeling in your lure you will see an underwater view of everything
including a fish should it strike your lure. When a fish strikes, you must
immediately press the right mouse button and move the mouse back to set
the hook, if hooked the fish will jump and swim back and forth. You must
reel the fish in and make sure that you don't reel too fast or your line
could snap. There is a technique to doing this and you will have to play
the game to figure it out because it's very hard to describe in words.

   Any fish that you do catch is put in the live well. Here you can see
how many fish that you caught and the size of them. You have the options
of saving and loading any games that you play and you can also enter a
tournament and fish against other people.

   The graphics are pretty basic and the sound is also basic but the game
has a certain charm to it. It is fun to play for a while but it can also
get boring especially when you don't catch anything. The control method
does take getting used to but works fine once your used to it.

   In conclusion, This is a very hard sport to simulate on a computer. I
don't think that it can ever be done properly, but that doesn't mean that
the game won't be any fun to play. The game plays okay but is a shame the
graphics weren't any better, this could have been done without too much
difficulty. I can only recommend this game to die hard fishing fans. Most
other people probably won't like this game. It's not a bad game but I
think that it still can be done much better. Come on someone give us a
really good fishing game, this is one area the Amiga is lacking a good
game.

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