Tag: Video games

Star Wars: Jedi Survivor Review

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Cameron “Cal”  Monaghan “Kestis” is back once again in Star Wars Jedi Survivor. 

This video game takes place roughly around the same time as the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, and 5 years after Cal’s original adventure in Jedi Fallen Order.  Within those 5 years the original gang split up. There wasn’t a falling out, but rather everyone split off to do their own thing. Merrin left to explore the galaxy, Cere left to find remnants of the Jedi order, and Greez left to settle down with his own place. 

Cal continued to fight the Empire in different ways, and we meet with him working a job for Saw Guerrera in Corusant. 

He’s “captured” by some people to collect a bounty and they bring him to the lower levels of the planet to a senator looking to make a profit and gain influence with the Emperor. Cal’s capture was a ruse, however, and the group was all working together to access secret files the senator had. Their victory didn’t last long though. 

The inquisitors found them after a distress beacon went out, and all but Cal and his new bestie Bode were killed when they tried to escape. Cal fled on the Mantis, which was badly damaged in the chase, so he took it to Greez to get it fixed. 

Welcome to Koboh

Greez owns a cantina on the planet Koboh, it’s a frontier planet full of miners and raiders, and has a rich history in the far past of the Old Republic. 

As the ship is repaired, Cal and BD-1 explore the planet and learn a bit of its history. 

History of Koboh and Tanalorr 

A couple centuries ago the Old Republic Jedi used Koboh as a base for experiments on Koboh Matter and studying the nearby rift in space they called the Abyss. 

The two Jedi in charge were Santari Khri and Dagan Gera. Dagan somehow found a way through the Abyss and at the center he discovered a planet he named Tanalorr. Dagan and Santari invented a compass to travel through the Abyss safely after Dagan’s trip, and they decided to start building a Jedi temple on their newly discovered planet. 

After a while the Jedi Council were invited to view the planet, and vote on making it official that Dagan and Santari taught the trainees at the temple in Tanalorr. 

Dagan didn’t trust them, however and was quick to react angrily when they decided to leave the planet. Invaders had also arrived to attack the Jedi, but the aftermath of that attack is unknown. 

Dagan started to turn against the Jedi after the decision to leave Tanalorr, and Santari had one last chance to talk to him to bring him back to the light, however he was determined to start a war against the Jedi. Santari sliced his arm off, and put him in stasis on Koboh, and the way to Tanalorr was forgotten after that. 

Cal’s Discoveries

While exploring Koboh, Cal used his powers to discover the history of Tanalorr, and decided to try to rediscover the planet to use as a sanctuary for people trying to escape the Empire. 

There were complications, though, because on Koboh some raiders, led by an alien called Rayvis, have taken over. They demand everyone on the planet to obey them and their droid army. Thankfully, Cal successfully defended the cantina from them. 

During his explorations, Cal found a disabled Old Republic droid named ZN-A4 (Zee) and reactivated her. See helped Cal with her knowledge of the Old Republic, but her memories of how to get to Tanalorr were erased.

Unfortunately, Cal also reactivated a cryo-tube holding a one-armed Dagan Gera. He awoke centuries after Santari Khri froze him, and declared war on the Empire. The raiders were searching for him as well, and when Cal awoke him, Rayvis came in to collect him and fulfill a centuries long blood oath to serve him. 

This is when the conflict of the game truly begins.

The rest of the Old Republic equipment was inaccessible for them, so Cal and team decided to look for Cere, who was leading an outpost of The Hidden Path on a desert planet called Jedha.

The Hidden Path was briefly shown on the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, where they were hiding and moving Jedi and people who were against the Empire in an Underground Railroad-type system. In Jedi Survivor, this branch of the Hidden Path is trying to collect and preserve ancient Jedi artifacts and traditions before the Empire destroys them all. 

Cal meets Merrin on the way to the secret temple, and they reconnect during a sandstorm. They have to evade the creatures living in the desert and the Imperials occupying the planet. 

At the secret base, they meet BD-1’s old owner and Cere’s old Jedi teacher, Eno Cordova. I thought that during Jedi Fallen Order he was dead. We never saw him in person so seeing him here was a surprise for me. 

They led Cal and Merrin to a nearby Jedi temple that had people investigating the history of the Old Republic and might have clues to how to go through the abyss on Koboh. Unfortunately, the Empire has entered the temple and brought a super drill to destroy it, so the two had to quickly go and rescue the people trapped in there. 

One giant cinematic drill fight later, most of the team were rescued and Cal has his next lead. 

A lot of the story/gameplay at this point has a lot of traveling back and forth between Koboh and Jedha. 

To summarize:

The gang traveled between Koboh and its moon to unlock ancient temples, figure out the history of Koboh and fight the raiders on the way. Zee was taken at one point and Cal had to rescue her with help from Bode, and later they traveled back to Koboh’s moon to fight Rayvis to find Dagan Gera. Rayvis lost and wanted a merciful death in battle, which Cal obliged. They figured out where Dagan was, Cal and Bode fought him and collected the surviving compass to travel through the abyss. 

Back to Jedha, the compass was given to Cordova to unlock it and the group had a relaxing break by the fire before the next day. 

BETRAYAL 

The next morning the Empire had found the Hidden Path base. Bode called them in and stole the compass. He killed Cordova in the process and Cal chased him down before he escaped. Bode revealed he was a Jedi now working for the Empire. 

Darth Vader himself arrived at the base in the meantime, and fought Cere in round two after the original fight in the Inquisitor base years ago. Vader won after a long battle, killing Cere. Cal was angry and swore to find Bode. 

The Mantis crew found Bode’s tracker, and located him on a secret asteroid base for the Imperial Security Bureau (ISB). Think space CIA. 

It’s revealed that Bode had been working for the ISB for years since Order 66. To survive, the administrator had kept him hidden, but Bode would have to work for him to keep his daughter safe. 

Cal tore through the asteroid chasing him, tapping into the dark side of the force for the first time. Merrin was the only person able to bring him back and calm him down while Bode escaped again.

They went back to Koboh and found a new way to get through the abyss, which Bode had traveled to with his daughter. 

They opened up an old laboratory and sent out a beacon to guide a ship through to Tanalorr 

TANALORR

The Purple Planet. 

The Mantis crew finally arrived and went to find Bode. They found his daughter by her outside an old Jedi temple and she led Cal and Merrin to him. 

They tried talking him down but to no avail, and they fought, eventually to Bode’s demise. It’s ironic in a sad way because Cal used the blaster Bode gave him to kill him. 

They held a funeral for the fallen on Tanalorr, and Cal had promised to Cere’s grave that he’d keep fighting.

Game Notes

The story is a lot because it’s way longer than any movie or tv show. It’s also very compelling because the player runs through the story instead of just watching it. 

There’s a lot of bonus side content not even mentioned in the story. One thing though is that giant evil frog from the last game had a kid. 

The world exploration is much larger and the map is much easier to follow thankfully. 

Customization is also revamped. No longer can you customize the Mantis, but Cal, BD-1, and the weapons are all customizable and you can change the hairstyle and facial hair for many combinations.

Gardening is also back! In the previous game, you could collect eight different seeds during your travels to plant a small garden on the ship. Now you can collect seeds anywhere because the rooftop of the cantina has an entire garden you can use. 

Also in the cantina there’s a ton of different characters you can talk to, and if you visit them multiple times you can find new interactions and have their personal story progress.

 

Also FISHING!

To round off this discussion of Jedi Survivor, let’s go back in time to an old post I’ve written on here, and use the official scoring method to rank the fishing in the game. If you need to look at how the scoring system works, you can click the link here.

Meet Skoova Stev. The local Koboh fisherman. Cal meets him when traveling through the planet, and recruits him to run the aquarium in the cantina. There’s multiple locations to find him fishing while exploring, and each time he talks about his rich backstory. 

If you need a recap of how my fishing grading system works, you can check out the first post I wrote describing it here. 

So without further ado, let’s crunch the numbers. 

VARIETY OF FISH: 3

There’s a total of 12 fish species that can be added to the index and aquarium

FISHING LOCATIONS: 2

While 12 different fish species aren’t bad, each fish is found at a different location, meaning there are 12 different fishing spots. No two fish species are found in the same fishing hole. The hardest part of fishing is to find the locations themselves because sometimes they’re hidden behind locked doors or you have to find a way to jump cliffs to get there. 

FISHING CONTROLS: 4

You don’t technically do the fishing in this game, you have to find Skoova, talk to him, and he catches the fish, so the controls are pretty easy in that regard. 

KNOWLEDGE: 5

When you initially talk to Skoova he says something like “Aye laddie, today I’m fishing for the legendary ______ fish” so you are fully aware of what fish you’re getting, and there is a little bio you gain when it’s caught. 

RELAXATION: 5

You know, after running around different planets fighting the fascist Empire and different hostile creatures, there is something calming about jumping around and finding Skoova and listening to his tale. Like a calm eye in the hurricane of the Empire. 

EDIBILITY: NONE

All fish are collected and added to the aquarium in the cantina. If you listen to Skoova’s story throughout the game, you’ll understand why you wouldn’t want to just hunt the fish for fun. 

OVERALL SCORE: 19/25 

Not too bad! If the score was less than 10 I don’t think I could recommend playing this game. 

This is a really fun game with a great story, and there should be a conclusion to it eventually I’m definitely going to play when it comes out. 

The fall of the Jedi era is just about over and we are turning to the rise of the Rebellion. 

Turn in next time when we go through Andor!

“A Minecraft Movie” A Brief Discussion

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“A Minecraft Movie” (2025) released in theaters roughly over a month ago, and as the title suggests, it was certainly a movie about Minecraft. 

It stars Jack Black as the main Minecraft character “Steve” (no last name), as well as multiple other colorful characters who later find themselves in the Minecraft world aka The Overworld. 

The original game was released in 2009 and has had constant updates since. The first time I played it was on the Xbox360 and I stopped playing after a few years. I got back into it after the movie was announced and it still is fun!

I’m not going to be talking about the movie that much as a single entity, but rather how it stands in the game and the marketing of the film. 

“CHICKEN JOCKEY”

The movie is full of references to the game, and most of the time Steve Minecraft shouts out the references by loudly declaring it. 

The following are some of the many references in the movie that are actually in the game:

“Flint and Steel“

“Ender pearl“

“The Nether“

“Crafting Table“

The majority of references is Jack Black loudly declaring the item and then sometimes describing it afterwards to the other characters. 

Movie references in the game:

There are none in the base game, however you can download additional content to add characters and items that are created from the movie into the game. 

There are two bosses that you can fight in the Nether from the add on: Maligula and the Great Hog. 

You can also craft additional weapons such as a tot-launcher and buck-chuckets. 

I guess it makes sense to add craftable items to the game from the movie. Otherwise why would the movie characters be able to craft them? 

The Marketing 

Similar to other movies that I’ve discussed here, McDonald’s made a Minecraft meal to sponsor the game. There was a kid’s happy meal and an adult happy meal for the movie’s release. 

The adult meal sold out quickly but I was able to try both types of food it offered beforehand: The Big Mac and Chicken Nuggets. 

They pixelated the meal containers and they look pretty neat. They even included a “fry recipe” like in the game. Potato and coal equals fry apparently. The other new thing is the “Nether flame sauce” for dipping the nuggets. It tastes a lot like sriracha. Probably won’t recommend it but it’s good to try once. 

Both happy meals included toys of some kind. The kid’s toy is meh, because the toy is mostly blank with a LOT of tiny stickers, but the adult toy does include a fun addition to the actual game. 

There was a random one of six options of Minecraft versions of McDonald’s characters. They came with codes you could enter in the game for new skins, and getting the meal gave you bonus content for the game like having Grimace himself in the game and eating Big Macs!

It’s a silly addition to the game that makes it more interesting to play instead of just the base game, so I think the marketing worked.

I’ve been getting back into the game a lot lately since all the updates and movie, and it’s very fun to play and build things. 

I think I’ll give the movie itself a 6.5/10. It was fun, but a lot of unnecessary exposition and characters explaining everything. 

This made the next video game movie after Pokémon, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario, and Five Nights at Freddy’s, so what video game movie should be next?

Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order Review

kneisguy1 Comment

Hello there and welcome to another Star Wars timeline discussion.

It’s video game time!

In this post we’ll be talking about the first video game in the timeline, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. 

The game takes place about five years after Revenge of the Sith and the purge of the Jedi Order. Our protagonist: Cal Kestis. 

Cal is currently a nobody working as a scrapper on a garbage planet. He works with a bunch of other scrappers disassembling Republic and Separatist ships from the Clone Wars. 

He and a buddy were taking apart a newly delivered ship when their platform collapsed and Cal had to use the force to slow down his friend’s fall and save him. 

Using the force and being a Jedi is illegal now and the Jedi police immediately find out there’s a Jedi in the scrapper guild, and the Inquisitors came in and rounded everyone in to investigate. 

Inquisitors and What They Do 

Inquisitors will be popping up a lot in stories between trilogies. They are former Jedi/force users who have been kidnapped and tortured/brainwashed to hate and capture Jedi as a dark side police force. 

There are a lot of them and I’m not sure of all the members, but their leader is the Grand Inquisitor who is ordered by Darth Vader, and the GI trains all the other Inquisitors. There is a lot of in-fighting going on between the members trying to move up in rank, but each one has a designation like 3rd Sister, 2nd Brother, etc. In Fallen Order we meet a few of them, but focus a lot on the Second Sister. 

She finds out there’s a Jedi working as a scrapper and rounds them all up for investigation. Cal’s friend is killed and he is outed saving the others, and the story begins with him on the run. 

A small crew on a ship called The Mantis rescued him and told him that they’re trying to bring back the Jedi Order. The pair of travelers, Greez and Cere, take Cal to various planets and meet various people to follow the path of Cere’s old master who created a list of force-sensitive children. 

Cere
Greez
Bogling
BD-1

Cal meets a little droid named BD-1 on the first planet they visit. They quickly become best buds and explore the galaxy together to unlock the vault that has the list. Cal also needs to restore his attachment to the force in order to make it through all the challenges he faces. 

My first challenge I faced in the game was this giant evil frog on the first planet. 

Oggdo Boggdo

This stupid giant frog is the hardest boss in the game and I just fell into his cave. Fighting him is so hard and I died about 15 times. 

I decided to stop trying for now and continue the game. Maybe my upgrades will beat him later 

Cal’s Journey

It’s hard to tell a completely linear story with this game because there’s a lot of different planets to visit and there’s not a specific order to go through them. Sometimes even you had to pause and move on to visiting another planet to work on your Jedi skills before coming back stronger and exploring more of the planet. There are only 5 explorable planets including Bogano, so it isn’t too overwhelming.

Zeffo, Kashyyyk, Dathomir and Ilum are all the other planets that are explorable in the game, and Cal visits each of them multiple times to explore more of the planets and regain his abilities in the force. 

Introducing: Merrin the Nightsister

Merrin is one of the sole survivors of the Nightsister massacre on Dathomir. She uses magic and necromancy to revive her dead sister’s to try and persuade Cal from leaving, but he is determined to complete his quest. 

Merrin is currently working with another former Jedi who survived the purge: Taron Malicos. Malicos is persuading Merrin to not allow any outsiders, and he alone can restore her planet. 

Cal discovers him and they fight after going to Ilum and building a new lightsaber. Merrin helps him and joins the crew of the Mantis.

Finale

Finally, Cal has regained all his skills and is ready to collect the holocron. While visiting the vault again, he had a vision of the possible future where he would train a new generation of Jedi, and the Empire would find them all and exterminate them. He snapped out of the vision to find the Second Sister confronting him. She took the holocron and ran to deliver it to Darth Vader. 

That part doesn’t matter. What matters is I’m fully leveled up and ready to fight that stupid frog again. 

This time I’m unstoppable and he cannot win. 

Now fully leveled up Cal went off to stop the Inquisitors. He snuck into their fortress underwater and fought his way to the holocron. He and the second sister fought until he was able to talk her down, but Darth Vader showed up and killed her. Cal was not strong enough to fight him, and all he could do was run. 

With the help of all his new friends he escaped the fortress and took the holocron. In the end, he decided to destroy it in order for no one to use the list of names against them. 

Thoughts On the Game

The game itself is fun! Some hard combat at times but the exploring is fun if you don’t look at the map. 

Seriously, don’t look at this. Can you read anything from this??

There were a lot of different collectibles in the game that I enjoyed. There were seeds you could plant in the ship, and there were other items you can discover and scan for more information on the world. 

And customization was limited, but Cal is the poncho king and has a ton of options. You can also customize the colors of your ship, but you’re away from it long enough that you won’t really get to see it much. 

And that concludes the first video game! This was a long-awaited post because it took a long time for me to write. Honestly with a game where I have to travel to many places multiple times it was hard to figure out what to write about. 

It’s been almost a year since I started this project, and I do plan on finishing it, so stay tuned for the next post about movies again!

Source: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBusinessGamer

Gotta Eat Fast

kneisguy1 Comment

It is April 2024, and the Sonic the Hedgehog team has partnered with IHOP to provide character meals and some downloadable content for games on the Playstation 5, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

There are six meals included in the Sonic specials. Six characters promote it: Miles “Tails” Prower, Sonic “Maurice” Hedgehog, Knuckles “Knuckles” the Echidna, Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik, Amelia “Amy” Rose, and Shadow “Shadow” the Hedgehog.

Each character on the menu is also partnered with a Chaos Emerald. There are seven of them in the games, so it is interesting that IHOP only made six meals for this partnership.

If it were me, I’d choose Big the Cat as the last meal to wrap up the seven Chaos Emeralds, and the meal would be one of the fish ones. In most iterations, Big is seen fishing or with a fishing pole, so it just makes sense, right? There’s a few fish meals to choose from to add him to.

The Meal

I went one evening with a friend to experience the Sonic the Hedgehog IHOP collaboration, and decided to order the Knuckles (chicken) sandwich with the classic rings Sonic is known for.

Knuckles is the only character with a meal that is not a breakfast item, so that just reinforces the idea to add Big as another non-breakfast fish meal.

I did make one mistake when ordering: I chose a grilled chicken instead of crispy, and since there was sauce and avocado, it slid all around the buns making it a messy meal, and I think if I got grilled it would stay put easier.

Dessert

We got the Amy dessert at the end, and it was pretty good! Strawberries on a waffle with a scoop of ice cream was a good choice for dessert, and if I were to go back I think I’d try the Shadow chocolate pancakes for a dessert.

The Games

One of the larger drawing factors that got me to go in was the items that we could get from the IHOP app after ordering. Most restaurants have some sort of “perks system” that builds up after every purchase, giving you discounts in the future. IHOP is no different. They can give you free pancakes after enough points.

The unique Sonic experience with IHOP allows you to get full games. Just for eating pancakes! Sonic Origins, Sonic Superstars, and Sonic Frontiers for Xbox, Playstation 5, and the Nintendo Switch. Buy pancakes to play games.

I already had all of these games, so this meant nothing to me. I didn’t come for them. I used my pancoins to buy the one thing unique to IHOP; Something that is completely unique to the restaurant and Sonic:

Amy in an IHOP uniform

Sonic Superstars had different skins for the characters you can download. Some are free, like LEGO Sonic and Holiday Sonic. Some are able to be bought, and some are able to be bought with pancakes.

I purchases it for the Nintendo Switch, and IHOP Amy is definitely worth getting if you had the game. This skin makes me want to buy all the pancakes and coffee.

If I didn’t already own the game, I would have gone to IHOP 50 times just to download Sonic Superstars from the restaurant, to make the whole game IHOP Amy Stars.

Skins are just a unique way to play the game and does not change anything but the looks, but the fact that this skin was only available through the restaurant was very funny to me, and that meant that I just had to go visit and purchase it. Thankfully the skin is only worth 5 Pancoins, and my first purchase gave me 12.

If you like Sonic and breakfast food, I’d honestly recommend it. The menu is exactly the same besides the additional images, but it’s a fun experience to go fast and collect (onion) rings.

Dr. Eggman’s Benedict is also the best name of any Sonic related breakfast. I think whenever I go back I’m going to get that just for the name, as well as the Keanu Reeves Shadow the Hedgehog chocolate pancakes.

I am not immune to propaganda.

Fishing in Video Games PART 5

kneisguy1 Comment

This is it. The final three fishing games I have on my list. I may add some more in the future, but for now this is all I have.

If this is your first of all my fishing posts, it’s kinda weird that you started on the last one, but be sure to take a look at my first post in order to see how I rank the different categories.

Super Mario Odyssey (2017)

Super Mario Odyssey fishing

Super Mario Odyssey is the first game I ever bought for my Switch, and I am really glad there’s a short element of fishing in it.

VARIETY OF FISH: 1

Like just about all games in the MCU (Mario Cinematic Universe), the only fish in the game is the Cheep Cheep. They are red with yellow fins, and come in various sizes, but that’s all the fish there are. There are no Bloopers or Toads that look like fish to catch like in Paper Mario.

FISHING LOCATIONS: 1

The only time you are able to fish in the game is in the Lake Kingdom, where you can eventually possess a Lakitu and go fishing in a small pond.

FISHING CONTROLS: 5

The controls are very similar to Paper Mario The Origami King where you look for shadows, cast your line, and wait for a bite. You press the same button to cast and reel in, and the only slightly complicated part it reeling in at the right time.

KNOWLEDGE: 5

Since there’s only one type of fish, you definitely know what you’re going to catch. Sure they’re only shadows, and the largest one is actually a moon, but you know what you’re gonna catch.

RELAXATION: 5

With the calming music and the ability to fish in this little spot, it is very relaxing to fish in this game. Seriously go and listen to the entire Super Mario Odyssey soundtrack. It’s all great.

EDIBILITY: No

Unfortunately, you still cannot eat this fish. You can possess them like Lakitu if you’d like, but you cannot eat.

OVERALL SCORE: 17/25

Toontown (2003/2014)

toontown fishing

Ahh Toontown. The perfect world where jellybeans are your fishing bait, and your currency. The game was originally released by Disney in 2003, but after it got shut down thankfully some people made a new version of it in 2014. I would have gone on it myself to play it, but I accidentally forgot my password so I had to do a bit more research and try and remember the fishing for the game rather than getting on and doing it all myself.

VARIETY OF FISH: 5

There are a ton of different types of fish, and multiple sub-types. For example: You can catch the generic “Pool Shark” but there’s also other variations like “Kiddie Pool Shark,” “Swimming Pool Shark,” and “Olympic Pool Shark.”

FISHING LOCATIONS: 4

There is a small area to fish in every single location in the game. Every street, neighborhood, even in your home is a place to fish. This game loves fishing so much there’s even an event called Fishing Bingo.

FISHING CONTROLS: 5

The only thing you need to do to fish in this game is click the mouse to cast in the water, then wait.

KNOWLEDGE: 3

All you see in the water are shadows when fishing. Once you catch some fish then you add it to your catalogue, but before that you have no idea. Also: some fish that are found in one location, may not be found in another, so you at least know what you could catch.

RELAXATION: 4

This is very relaxing overall. The only reason it’s not a perfect 5 is because you use your jellybeans as bait, and once you run out, not only can you not fish, but you’re also broke.

EDIBILITY: No

To be honest, I don’t think you would want to eat these fish. The PB&J Fish maybe, but not the others.

OVERALL SCORE: 20/25

The Walking Dead (2018)

Screen Shot 2020-07-25 at 10.20.23 PM

I never watched the television show, but the game is really fun, and real sad too. Seeing as it’s about a zombie apocalypse, it makes sense that some people would fish to survive.

VARIETY OF FISH: 1

There’s only one type of fish to be caught in this game. Maybe all the other kinds turned into fish zombies? Or maybe the game is just being more realistic and not putting all the fish in the same area.

FISHING LOCATIONS: 1

There’s only one river you can fish at, and only at one point in the game is it even possible. There’s even a chance you would miss the fishing in the game if you decide to go hunting instead, but who would ever go hunting instead of fishing?

FISHING CONTROLS: 4

You don’t press a single button, but the controls are not complicated at all either. You use a spear in the game instead of a fishing rod, and that means you need to aim then strike, which may or may not be difficult depending on your timing.

KNOWLEDGE: 3

Clearly I can tell in the game that they are catfish, but the game does not tell you that in any way. The only description it gives you is ‘fish’. However, you can easily see the fish in the water, which is important for this kind of fishing.

RELAXATION: 3

I decided to give this one an average score for relaxation because you need to be a lot quicker than other fishing games to get the fish, and there’s always the threat of the zombie apocalypse looming over you. However, I did have fun and had a generally relaxing time catching these fish.

EDIBILITY: Yes  +10 POINTS

There’s no buttons or menu to get the fish and eat them, but because you’re in the wilderness trying to survive, obviously you’re going to eat the fish at some point.

OVERALL SCORE: 22/25

Because this is the final part of my fishing posts, let’s take a look at the best and the worst games that’ve been ranked:

BEST GAME TO FISH

Skyrim – 31 points

This is kind of surprising to me, actually. Skyrim is the best fishing game and there’s not even an actual fishing pole or anything to catch them? Weird. The edibility bonus definitely boosted it a lot, but it is my opinion that fishing should not just be for sport, but to actually eat, so that is why all those games got maybe more than they deserved.

 

WORST GAME TO FISH

Ghostbusters – 11 points

This one makes sense. The fish in this are actively trying to kill you, so it being the worst fishing game may actually be a compliment. You also attack the fisherman in the game. Ghostbusters might just be anti-fishing, and that’s probably why it scored so poorly.

These best/worst of fishing do not mean much in regards of game quality by the way. Most of the games received the same rankings. They’re all good games, and every game is automatically good if it has fishing in it, so try some of these out if you haven’t before!

And that is all the fishing games that I have right now! Do you know of a game I haven’t looked at and want me to rank? Let me know and I may put out another post of these when I get enough new games.

These themed posts are some of my favorite to write, and I always love doing them and sharing them so I will always be trying to think of some new thing to write about daily or weekly as a big show. It’s just what I like to do, and I have the time now that I’ve graduated.

Check out some of my other themed posts below that had multiple parts:

Boss Baby nominated for an Oscar

AquaWeek – DAY ONE

Scooby-Doo’s 50th Anniversary Celebration – DAY ONE

Toontown fishing image found from: https://rainbowrosegames.wordpress.com/2018/03/14/how-to-properly-fish-garden-in-toontown-rewritten/

 

 

Fishing in Video Games PART 4

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Welcome to the day of S. It would be amazing if there was a snake you could fish up in any of these games I’m about to list, but we’re not that lucky sadly.

Be sure to check back to the first post to see how the rankings are set up if you need!

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)

Skyrim 1

Skyrim is still an incredibly fun game. I recently started replaying it and am enjoying it a lot. It’s an open world game, and those tend to have fish in them so

VARIETY OF FISH: 3

Surprisingly in this massive world, there are not that many types of fish in the game. According to the Skyrim wiki, the only kinds of fish in the game are Abecean Longfin, Cyrodilic Spadetail, Histcarp, River Betty, Salmon. Silverside Perch, and Slaughterfish. If you can’t tell, the last one will try and kill you.

FISHING LOCATIONS: 4

Water is not everywhere in this world, but everywhere there is water there is fish.

FISHING CONTROLS: 5

You don’t actually have a fishing rod in the game, but you are able to dive into the water, and for Xbox controllers, you can quickly tap the ‘A’ button and try to catch the fish.

KNOWLEDGE: 5

When you do attempt to catch a fish, it will tell you exactly what you’re catching, and when caught it’ll show the fish with a little image in your inventory

RELAXATION: 4

The ease of fishing is what makes this score so high, but it’s not a perfect 5 because the fish are so fast, and you end up rapidly tapping the button to try and catch them.

EDIBILITY: Yes  +10 POINTS

You can eat probably about 65% of the things in this game, and thankfully fish are one of them.

 

OVERALL SCORE: 31/25

Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated (2020)

spongebob dive

Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom was not one of the few Spongebob games I played as a kid. The ones I did play did not have fishing in them however, so it makes perfect sense why the one that does got a remaster and rerelease.

VARIETY OF FISH: 1

There’s plenty of fish in the game, the whole thing takes under water. However, the only fish that can get caught on the hook is Spongebob himself.

FISHING LOCATIONS: 3

The hooks are not located everywhere in Bikini Bottom, but it does seem like there’s one hook located in almost every level somewhere.

FISHING CONTROLS: 3

As soon as you attach yourself to the hook, you just press a button to dive and use the left thumbstick to move around. I don’t know exactly what the fisherman is thinking while you’re doing this, but I bet they’re pretty annoyed.

KNOWLEDGE: 5

You are the only fish that goes on the hooks, so hopefully you know yourself.

RELAXATION: 2

Considering that this type of fishing is actually bungee jumping, it is not very relaxing. However it isn’t too stressful either so that’s why I ranked it a 2

EDIBILITY: No

You are the fish in this game. Why would you want to eat yourself??

 

OVERALL SCORE: 14/25

Stardew Valley (2016)

Stardew Valley 2

Stardew Valley is a fun, relaxing game overall. It’s a farming RPG, so of course fishing is in it.

VARIETY OF FISH: 4

This game is similar to Animal Crossing: New Horizons in that there is a ton of fish in the game, but only certain parts of the year and at certain times do they show up.

FISHING LOCATIONS: 4

There is not water everywhere in the game, but anywhere there is water you can fish. You can also set up a little fishing pond in your farm if you want.

FISHING CONTROLS: 2

This fishing game is probably one of the most complicated on the list. As seen in the photo above, the fish is in a track, and you need to keep the green bar surrounding the fish. Sometimes the fish rapidly moves around and it’s impossible to catch, which is what makes it so difficult.

KNOWLEDGE: 2

You don’t really know what you’re going to catch until you caught it, and then it gives you details on the fish, so there’s a lot of trial/error on fishing.

RELAXATION: 1

Because of how intense the reeling in is, there’s barely any relaxation to have.

EDIBILITY: Yes  +10 POINTS

Thankfully, your farmer can cook and eat the fish, which can give a big boost to some stats you have for a short time.

OVERALL SCORE: 23/25

Be sure to check back for the next post where we wrap up our fishing rankings and I’ll state in this list of games which is the best for fishing, and which is the worst.

Fishing in Video Games PART 3

kneisguyLeave a comment

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)

minecraft 2

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)

8774C0A3-7FBE-4F28-983A-0AD0C27835B0

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)

rdr2 2

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!

 

Fishing in Video Games PART 2

kneisguyLeave a comment

We’re back for Part 2 of the ranking of fishing games. There are three more to talk about so let’s get started.

If you need to see how I’ve ranked the following games, then check back to my first post and see how each category is reviewed.

Ghostbusters (2009)

ghostbusters fisherman

I know what you’re thinking: The Ghostbusters video game had fishing in it?? Yes and no. You could argue that capturing the ghosts in your little proton pack is like fishing, and I’d agree with you, but this post is about fish, and there are actually ghost fish inside the game, so we’re ranking that instead of catching boring regular ghosts.

VARIETY OF FISH: 1

According to the in-game database, the fish in the game are all bundled into one fish possessed by a minor ghost, calling this fish a “Dead Fish Flier.” There appear to be multiple types of fish in the bundle, but they’re categorized as one in the game.

FISHING LOCATIONS: 1

The only time these fish are found is near the end of the very first level. There are not fish in any other part of the game unfortunately.

FISHING CONTROLS: 5

All you really need to to to take care of these fish is use your proton pack, and to do that is just holding a single button. I was playing on my Xbox, so it was a single press of the trigger.

KNOWLEDGE: 3

You can clearly see that they’re fish, and you are able to scan the fish to get even more information from them, like background, and what they’re weak against, but if you catch the fish you cannot scan them.

RELAXATION: 1

The fish attack you and they’re spooky ghosts. There is nothing relaxing about this fishing.

EDIBILITY: NOPE NO NO NO

These are ghost fish. You can’t eat a spirit, they’d just go right through you. They’re also trying to kill you.

 

OVERALL SCORE: 11/25

Halo: Reach (2010)

halo reach perspective

Similar to Ghostbusters, there’s not actual fishing rods you can use in the game, but there are fish.

VARIETY OF FISH: 2

There’s definitely more than one type of fish in the game, but it’s not clear on how many, and I do not believe that there’s a lot.

FISHING LOCATIONS: 2

A small number of the multiplayer maps have fish swimming in the water. It’s very hard to tell how many because there’s a lot of maps and the fish are hard to spot sometimes.

FISHING CONTROLS: 5

The only way to “catch” the fish in the game is to shoot them, or throw a grenade at them and you’ll probably get them too, but I would consider the fish caught at that point.

KNOWLEDGE: 2

The game doesn’t tell you exactly what type of fish there is, but they’re visible in the water, and sometimes you get lucky by finding a spot labeled “Koi Pond,” which clearly means the fish there are koi.

RELAXATION: 2

Because the fish are all located on multiplayer maps, and the fact that this is a shooting game, it’s hard to feel relaxed fishing when there’s a lot of other players trying to kill you.

EDIBILITY: NONE

After you shoot the fish they just float a bit on the water. You can’t collect them to eat for health or anything.

 

OVERALL SCORE: 13/25

Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

(Original-1993, Remastered-2019)

link's awakening 1

 

VARIETY OF FISH: 2

As you can see in the picture above, there’s only a small number of fish at varying sizes.

FISHING LOCATIONS: 1

You can only fish in the small pond in Mabe’s Village.

FISHING CONTROLS: 4

The fishing isn’t too complicated in this game. You press one button to cast out, and the same to reel in. The only slightly difficult part is you may miss all the fish so you need to reel in and try again.

KNOWLEDGE: 4

You don’t know what type of fish you caught until the fisherman tells you afterwards, and there is no type of catalog showing what you had. You can see the fish in the water, however, and attempt to collect a specific type of fish.

RELAXATION: 2

It’s very frustrating when you cast out and miss all the fish, and when you actually get one on your line, very fast music starts playing, so it becomes stressful.

EDIBILITY: NONE

All you can do with your fish is sell them to the owner of the dock.

 

OVERALL SCORE: 13/25

Be sure to check back for Part 3 of fishing! The upcoming part have games with actual fishing controls in them unlike Ghostbusters and Halo: Reach.

Fishing in Video Games PART 1

kneisguy6 Comments

In my opinion, if there is a fishing mini-game within the video game you are playing, then it is a good game. I’m not talking about a video game all about fishing, I’m talking about any game that may or may not be open world, and you can go to a body of water and choose to fish from it or not. There is surprisingly a large number of games with fishing mini-games, and today I’ve decided to list as many as I could, and rank them on how decent their fishing is.

To properly rank the quality of a fishing mini-game, there needs to be certain criteria they have. I have come up with five aspects of the game’s fishing to score, each with points that range from one to five:

VARIETY OF FISH 

How many fish are in the game, and are possible to fish up? Points range from 1: Only one kind of fish, to 5: A very large number of fish

FISHING LOCATIONS

Where can you fish? Is it any body of water, which would earn 5 points? Or is fishing only legal in a specific area which would be one point?

FISHING CONTROLS

How complicated is the fishing in the game? Do you only have to push a single button once you’ve cast out your line? (5 points) Is there a lot of controls needed to reel in the fish? (1 point)

KNOWLEDGE

I wish I could come up with a better title for this category, but it is essentially whether or not you 100% know what you are fishing in the water (5 points) or if you have no idea what you’re fishing before it’s reeled in (1 point)

RELAXATION

This category somewhat fits in with the controls category, but I believe relaxation is key for fishing games, because in my experience, you aren’t really stressed out by fishing most of the time. 5 points for feeling very relaxed, and 1 point for feeling very stressed.

BONUS: EDIBILITY

Just for fun (and to bump some scores up even more), I’ve added a bonus category that gives 10 points to a game that allows you to eat the fish that you catch. This does not mean that ones that don’t allow you to eat fish are bad fishing games, but being able to cook and eat what you catch does add a fun bonus to the game in my opinion and it gives a bump to the games that show fishing for food and not for sport. This is a simple yes/no scoring system, and points are not deducted if the answer is no.

With all of these categories listed, let’s talk about the games. They are listed in alphabetical order, not what is rated best or worst.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020)

AC 2

Many previous iterations of Animal Crossing have fishing in them, but New Horizons is the most recent, so I am ranking the fishing in this one.

VARIETY OF FISH: 4

There are a lot of fish in this game. However, many are only available certain times of the day in real time, and only on certain months. 4 is the best score I can give it because the fish I want to catch may not even be available when I get on the game.

FISHING LOCATIONS: 5

You can fish from beaches, rivers, and lakes. Once you get 3 stars on your island, then you unlock terraforming and can create your own rivers and lakes, and fish are able to spawn in them!

FISHING CONTROLS: 3.5

To first catch a fish, you need to build a fishing pole. Then you need to find a shadow in the water. If there isn’t a shadow, you can craft bait for them to appear. Then, you cast your line, and only use one button to do it. Then you wait for the fish to even notice it, and sometimes they don’t so you need to re-cast. The fishing controls are not very complicated at all (you only press one button to cast and reel in), however the process to fish is very long at times, and can make the process tedious.

KNOWLEDGE: 3

As stated before, the fish you see in the water are shadows. You don’t know what you’re fishing. However, the shadows only come in 3 different sizes, and once you fish up something new, it goes into your catalog and you can see what times and months it appears in the water.

RELAXATION: 4

The fishing in this game is very relaxing. The only reason I did not list this as a 5 is because once the fish spots your line, you need to wait for them to actually grab it, and the game tries to trick you by having it touch the line a few times before.

EDIBILITY: NONE

You don’t eat any of the fish you catch, but you can donate them to the museum to look at later,  or sell them for some more money.

 

OVERALL SCORE: 19.5/25

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017)

BotW 1

This is not actually a game I own, so I outsourced the ranking to my good friend Laurie. All scores and words following this are hers.

VARIETY OF FISH: 4

Hyrule Bass, Staminoka Bass, Hearty Bass, Hearty Salmon Armored Carp, Mighty Carp, Armored Porgy, Mighty Porgy, Snake Carp, Chillfin Trout, Sizzlefin Trout, Voltfin Trout, Stealthfin Trout. Pretty Much all the fish aside from the regular Hyrule Bass offer a resistance/benefit when cooked in a cooking pot and eaten.

FISHING LOCATIONS: 4

Practically any deep body of water has fish, excluding ponds, lakes and rivers in the NW (cold climates). Which hurt to swim in.

FISHING CONTROLS: 4

The standard jump-and-chase-the-fish-in-the-water is kinda difficult, but shooting a fish in the water with an arrow kills the fish and makes it easier to catch as it floats on the surface, lightning arrows and bomb arrows and regular bombs kill fish with in the attack area.

KNOWLEDGE: 5

You can see the fish beneath the water, and when you swim close to them their names will pop up.

RELAXATION: 3

Given swimming takes stamina, you could drown (and lose a heart) chasing them, but shooting fish in a lake and then swimming to catch them is fun.

EDIBILITY: YES   +10 POINTS

Yes, you can eat the fish, and cook them. Or freeze them if you’re in a certain area of the map and it’s cold enough. Frozen fish (and other meats) give you heat resistance.

 

OVERALL SCORE: 30/25

Club Penguin (2005)

CP ice fishing

Club Penguin is probably one of the most well known computer games of my generation. Even if you haven’t ever played it, you know what it is. Plus there’s fishing in it.

VARIETY OF FISH: 2

There’s really only two kinds of fish in the game normally: the yellow one and the large red mullet. There’s a third kind that’s grey if you decide to buy a special fishing rod to catch them, but you normally cannot fish it.

FISHING LOCATIONS: 1

You can only go ice fishing in a small hole behind the lodge.

FISHING CONTROLS: 5

The controls are using your mouse and clicking when you catch the fish, so it’s incredibly easy to use.

KNOWLEDGE: 5

You can clearly see down into the water when you’re fishing, so you know exactly when to fish and when to reel in to avoid traps.

RELAXATION: 4

The fishing in Club Penguin is pretty relaxing, the only “stress” in it would be the traps like sharks, crabs, and jellyfish which could ruin your line and force you to grab another bait.

EDIBILITY: YES   +10 POINTS

You don’t actually see your penguin eat at all, but it’s heavily implied that the penguins all eat fish, and there’s even a separate pizza making game where fish is one of the ingredients.

 

OVERALL SCORE: 27/25

That’s all of the fishing for this post, be sure to check back soon for more catching ranks!