Developer: MasterCode Studio
Publisher: Ultimate Games
Platform: Switch, PC
Tested on: Switch
Fishing Adventure – Review
After last year’s GoFishing 3D, Ultimate Games and MasterCode Studio are back with another fishing game on the Nintendo Switch, titled Fishing Adventure. While not a direct sequel to GoFishing 3D, it’s hard not to compare the new offering to the former title, given that both games come from the same studio. At first glance, this new fishing game looks much more promising than its predecessor, but looks can be deceiving. Does Fishing Adventure offer up an experience that is worth your time or are you better off casting out your line elsewhere?
Story
There’s no story to be found here, but frankly, there doesn’t need to be one. After all, you’re simply out fishing. The game does feature a variety of fishing locations around the world that you can unlock, allowing you to angle in a variety of environments. Developer MasterCode Studio is based in Poland, so you naturally start off at a Polish lake.
Graphics
Fishing Adventure is a huge step up in the graphics department compared to GoFishing 3D. Menus are sleek and have a modern look to them. Environments are relatively large and detailed, especially given that this is a budget title. The game might not be up there with some of the AAA titles, but given the simple nature of the game, the graphics are good.
Sound
One of the most jarring and off-putting things about Fishing Adventure is the utter lack of sound. The game’s soundscape is so empty that we were left wondering whether we accidentally turned the sound off on our console. With no environmental sounds, music or ambiance of any kind, you are left with just the splashing of water and the sound of you reeling in your line. Sure enough, in real life, too much sound would scare off the fish that you are angling for, but having the rustling of the trees or the sound of birds in the background replaced with complete silence makes for a very uncomfortable experience. The menu does offer sound options (although they are simply “on” and “off”) and it even lists music, but despite being set to “on”, music was nowhere to be heard. We’re not sure whether this was a glitch or if MasterCode simply forgot to program in the music, and we even looked at the in-game shop to see if the soundtrack was perhaps something that needed to be unlocked by purchasing it, but alas, no music to be found.
Gameplay
In theory, Fishing Adventure is a basic fishing game, with very little bells and whistles. You simply attempt to catch fish. Catching a fish rewards you with experience points and you can choose to either sell the fish for in-game currency or you can opt to release the fish back in the water, in which case you get more experience. Leveling up gives you access to more gear and more locations, and currency is used to buy the gear you’ve unlocked. It’s a simple enough concept, but the game suffers from not having any kind of tutorial mode or even a simple on-screen explanation, and you are left to your own devices to figure out how stuff works. Once you figure them out, basic controls are simple enough: ZR casts out your line, and ZL reels it back in. Holding ZR will determine just how far your line will go. Once your line is out, and a fish approaches your bait, you need to quickly press ZR to hook your target. When the word “FISH” appears you start reeling it in. So far, so good, right? The issue is that things are never properly explained. The above screenshot shows all the instructions that the game provides, and you’re left to figure out the rest by yourself.
Without a proper explanation, it did take us a while to figure out how it all worked, and although we did manage to snag a few crucian carp and roaches this way, it felt like things still weren’t 100% clear when it came to some of the seemingly finer points of the game. For example; the left hand corner of the screen shows a meter with icons and a percentage, for example and pressing L or R will change this percentage but without an explanation, we had no idea what this feature did.
The fishing controls aren’t the only confusing part of the game. You start the game on the shore, but with a boat nearby. Approaching the boat prompts a choice to purchase one of two boating licenses: either one-time-use or lifetime. It’s not clear whether you have to use the boat at all in order to catch anything. While it’s possible to fish from the shore, we couldn’t get a bite. Whether this means that you’ll actually need to sail out in order to be able to catch anything or if we were just unlucky remains unclear. Additionally, while rowing, you can’t see where you’re going, as you are unable to move the camera while navigating your boat. This leaves you pretty much unable to row to the place you desire, although it’s impossible to know whether the location of your vessel determines what fish you can catch either. Given how open and large the land sections are, this lack of navigation ability when boating feels like an odd choice. Ultimately, Fishing Adventure offers a mediocre experience gameplay-wise. Of course, there isn’t a whole lot that can be done with the genre, and given that the GoFishing 3D was a barely functional game, Fishing Adventure feels like a huge leap for MasterCode Studio.
Conclusion
Compared to GoFishing 3D, MasterCode Studio really stepped up their game, but going from unplayable garbage to a mediocre game with a couple of major flaws doesn’t mean that Fishing Adventure is a good game. A decent tutorial and a soundscape that wasn’t utterly barren could have made Fishing Adventure a fun little experience, but their absence hurts the game. Maybe the third time’s the charm?
Fishing Adventure - Review,
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