Rapala Fishing: Pro Series

Genre: Sports (Fishing)

Players: 1

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Review:

Rapala Fishing: Pro Series is a Fishing game released on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in 2017 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2018. This game touts a number of real-life fishing equipment that players can acquire in the game by meeting various goals.

The presentation in this game is okay but nothing special, making use of 3D visuals to depict the fish, locales, and other various boats on the water. That water looks decent, but static – the lack of any sort of effect on the water as your boat passes through it seems lazy. At the very least, the fish look good. This is backed by some generic-sounding energetic sports music and an annoyingly cheerful commentator who’s always yammering on in response to your actions, and as a result this game fails to capture both the serene beauty of the sport and the thrill of fighting to land a great catch.

The gameplay itself is similarly disappointing. Players are given free reign to navigate their boat to any spot on the water to cast their line, but they are provided with pathetic tools to indicate just where they should go – a fish finder provides information that’s not super-helpful, and players are encouraged to seek places where fish are jumping out of the water, but I had trouble finding anywhere like this after the game’s opening tutorial.

It scarcely matters though, as catching fish in any part of the water seems down to random chance, with that randomness leaning heavily in the player’s favor. Players have a bar to time their cast similar to how Golf games have you timing your swing, but it doesn’t seem to matter where your hook lands. Once the hook is in the water, players are directed to repeatedly input a lure-specific Street Fighter-esque series of directional presses to entice nearby fish, although it’s unclear just how much this helps – I had fish chomping on my hook before I even did anything, while at other times I’d keep my lure dancing and see no results. After this, you’re trying to keep the fish in-frame long enough to reel it in, while occasionally pressing in the left stick. And that’s about it. Not exactly thrilling stuff here.

I suppose I should detail this game’s use of motion controls, and it’s very strange. Unlike what you may expect, players don’t use motion controls in the game to cast their line or reel in a fish. Rather, players use motion controls to steer the boat, something that’s not only unnecessary, but actually makes this part of the game more tedious and frustrating. Thankfully you can turn this off.

Rapala Fishing: Pro Series has a lot of elements of a good fishing game. The realistic equipment, the free-roaming nature of the game, and the sufficient visuals are all decent. Unfortunately, the actual fishing gameplay itself feels random, pointless, and isn’t fun or immersive. If you’re looking for a Fishing videogame, you have better options on the Nintendo Switch.

tl;dr – Rapala Fishing: Pro Series is a Fishing game that uses real-life equipment and has some good qualities, but the fishing gameplay itself feels random, lacks immersion, and just isn’t any fun. You have better options for fishing games on Nintendo Switch.

Grade: D+

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