The third post about fishing, and they’re all pretty fun games in my opinion. Well, they all have fishing in them so of course they’re fun.
If you need a refresher on how I am handling my ranking system, check back on my first fishing post I made.
Minecraft (2009)
Surprisingly, besides both mining and crafting, there’s also fishing in this game. But for some reason they decided not to add that in the title of the game?
VARIETY OF FISH: 2
There’s more than one type of fish, but not many. Just Cod, Salmon, Pufferfish, and what is clearly a clownfish but is labeled as “Tropical fish.”
FISHING LOCATIONS: 5
Like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you can create rivers and lakes and any body of water you want, and the fish will just appear in them.
FISHING CONTROLS: 4
I was playing this with an Xbox controller, so the controls for me was just using the trigger to cast and the trigger to catch, and for PC users I’m assuming the controls are just the mouse button, so it is very simple to fish, but you will need to make a fishing rod with sticks and string, and in my experience, killing spiders and finding string is hard to come by.
KNOWLEDGE: 2
When using a fishing rod, you have no idea what you’re going to fish up. It could be a fish of any kind, or it could be an item or some garbage. However, in some water locations you can see the fish swimming underwater and you can punch them, catch them with a bucket, or kill them with your sword.
RELAXATION: 5
It is very relaxing to fish in this game, watching the bobber waiting for fish to grab it.
EDIBILITY: Yes +10 POINTS
Just like real life, don’t eat the pufferfish because they are poisonous. They are edible in the game though just like all fish.
OVERALL SCORE: 28/25
Paper Mario The Origami King (2020)
VARIETY OF FISH: 2
Most of the fish you catch will be a cheep cheep, but in one of the fishing spots there’s also Bloopers (white squid). Sometimes, you’ll get a Toad pretending to be a fish, or even a collectable, but there isn’t too much variety in the fish.
FISHING LOCATIONS: 2
The game is not like Minecraft or Animal Crossing where you can just create a new fishing spot, but there’s a total of 3 locations where you can fish in the game, and sometime you need to complete a task for someone to unlock the fishing spot.
FISHING CONTROLS: 4
These fishing controls are very similar to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, in that it is one button to control your casting, and the left thumbstick to aim. I do think fishing in this is just a bit easier, too. Unlike New Horizons, you are planted firmly in one place and cannot move until you stop your fishing, and you can charge your cast so aiming is a lot easier in this game.
KNOWLEDGE: 4
There’s really only a few things you could fish up, so knowing what you’re going to fish, despite all you seeing is shadows, will be pretty easy
RELAXATION: 4
I personally feel really relaxed fishing in this game. The only reason it is not a perfect 5 is because of the waiting time from where the fish see’s the line, and when I can reel it in, and that is slightly stressful.
EDIBILITY: No
Seeing as all the fish are made of paper, and you’re also made of paper, I think it makes sense not to be able to eat any of the fish. I mean, would that be considered cannibalism or something?
OVERALL SCORE: 16/25
Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018)
Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of my favorite games from the last few years. It’s in the wild west, and it has fishing in it.
VARIETY OF FISH: 4
There is a total of 15 types of fish throughout the game, and some large “Legendary Fish” you can catch and sell to a specific person.
FISHING LOCATIONS: 4
Almost every body of water has fish in the game, and once you catch one it appears on your map as a small sketch so you can remember that the fish are located there. For all the legendary fish locations you receive a separate map later in the game.
FISHING CONTROLS: 2
Fishing in this game is more difficult than other games. You need to have the right kind of bait or lure to catch fish easier depending on if you’re at a river or lake, and while using my controller I have to press a lot of buttons to cast the line, and reel the fish in. It actually is very difficult and tiring to reel in a large fish sometimes. Thankfully, there is a tutorial mission early in the game teaching you how to fish. This is probably the most realistic fishing controls in the list of games I have.
KNOWLEDGE: 3
Besides the legendary fish locations, you really just need to start fishing and see what you catch. You cannot see the fish in the water most of the time, but once you catch a fish once in the area, you’ll see it on your map.
RELAXATION: 2
Considering you need to keep the pole up and moving in a certain direction to fight the fish, and you need to manually reel in the line when something is caught, I do not think this fishing is very relaxing.
EDIBILITY: Yes +10 POINTS
Fishing is one of the ways your character can survive. You need to eat a lot to keep your character’s weight up, and fishing is a skill needed in the Old West.
OVERALL SCORE: 25/25
Be sure to check in again for part four of my fishing games! All of those games surprisingly start with the letter ‘S’. It’s stupendous!
Kristopher K. Online 