'Fishing Master' Preview (Wii)

I've always been a big fan of Ernest Hemingway's story "The Old Man and the Sea." I don't know what it is, because I'm certainly not an old man, but there was just something about the story that appealed to me, that animalistic nature of hunting on the open ocean, a deep and intense battle, all for it to end in relatively sadness. Ever since that story, I've always had the dream of going deep-sea fishing and having my own struggle against some giant marlin or perhaps a great white shark. Though it remains to be seen if I'll be able to wrangle any of them in the upcoming Fishing Master, I know I'll at least get to hit the water for some fishing.

Fishing Master was shown off a little bit at a recent event Hudson hosted for Bomberman Live. In Fishing Master, you are obviously trying to be the best darned fishing master the world has ever seen (though I shouldn't have to tell you that, because if you can't figure that out from the title…well…I'm just saying, maybe ye aint the brightest bulb in the socket).

You play as a young boy in the game (though there may be a girl avatar – we just didn't see it), who sets out to become a Fishing Master. To date, so far, the Nintendo Wii hasn't had a dedicated fishing game, though Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess had the usual fishing minigame to give you a taste. Thanks to Hudson, the Wii now has its first official fishing game. As said game protagonist, you'll head out to various shores, all so that you may plunk down your fishing lure into the depths of the ocean.

Once you've selected which area you are going to fish out, you can determine your place on the shore by moving around with the analog stick of the nunchuk. Next up, you'll cast the lure by holding the A-button, and flinging the remote in an action like you are really casting your fishing line. Though you can just throw it wherever you want, you'll want to aim more towards the darkened shadows in the water, where scattered fish are swimming about. As soon as the fish hits, you'll want to jerk up on the remote to make sure you get the fish good and tight on your line. To get the fish actually to you, you'll use the nunchuk attachment to do some virtual reeling in. However, fish generally seem to know they are in a fix, and so don't expect them to just give up and let you have them, because these fish are fighters and won't go without a fight.

Whenever the fish start struggling, you'll have to pay attention to both visual clues (indicated by diagrams to show you when you need to move your remote to give the line some slack) and audio clues (your trusted dog who seems to have a notion of what you are trying to do, and will bark when you need to take action). Fishing ends up being a delicate balance of reeling, yanking, and giving the fish enough room to breathe, while yet also being able to strike on him when need be.

I'm not terribly familiar with the name of fish outside of the more traditional ones like bass, tuna, catfish, and other similar popular ones, but based on the ones that were caught and brought in, they certainly seemed to be based on real fish, and once brought in the weight and dimensions of the fish were recorded for posterity's sake. However, the human race is a wasteful bunch, and so our oceans and rivers aren't the cleanest, and so sometimes you'll end up catching a bit of trash instead of a lovely fish. Ah yes, there were a number of cans caught that day.

The graphics are typical Nintendo coated, featuring more cartoony big headed characters with big eyes, and environments and fish that are perhaps more bright and popping off the screen than they are exactly in real life. It remains to be seen how far out into the ocean we'll be able to head out and what the biggest and most exotic fish will be, but given our intro paragraph, we are certainly looking for a way to live our dreams of deep-sea fishing. If you have similar dreams, or just like to have the occasional good ol' day of fishing every once in a while, Hudson's Fishing Master might just be the game you're looking for.