Review: Let's Fish! Hooked On

It takes guts for me to admit that Let's Fish! Hooked On had a strange, unaccountable hold over me.

I knew from the get-go that it wasn't a very good game, and the longer I played the more confident I was of this verdict. And yet, hours later I was still flicking that bait out into the water, and wondering whether a fish would glitch through my lure this time around.

But don't take my inability to pull myself away from this fishing title purely as a plus point. Let's Fish! Hooked On has copious issues, and at least part of my motivation for hanging around was to observe the trainwreck.

Hooked?

Let's Fish! Hooked On wants to be the fishing alternative to the wonderful Everybody's Golf. Unfortunately, it doesn't pan out that way.

You take part in tournaments and challenges, tossing your rod and plonking the line into the water. A fish bites, you reel it in, and then you repeat the process. You know, like fishing.

The actual fish-reeling action involves either pulling hard or cutting the fish some slack, depending on how hard it's pulling. You need to give the stick a bit of a wiggle every now and again, too, to stop the line from breaking.

As you progress you'll unlock more characters, more lures, more rods, better stats, and eventually begin to find more fish and discover more places to partake in the act.

It's strangely compelling stuff. It's easy to boot a round of fishing up and just go at it, and I found myself picking up my Vita for a session every now and again simply out of curiosity.

Stinker

I say "strangely" compelling because there's a whole lot wrong withLet's Fish! Hooked On. A whole lot.

Sometimes fish will glitch through your bait. Sometimes you'll watch fish simply fading out of existence. The camera angle is fixed, so you can't even see fish coming in for the bite.

Sound effects, such as you character yelling, repeat themselves to an annoying degree. Presentation is pretty awful, from the amateurish menu system to the confusing weekly progression tables.

And the real killer is that to win each level you can simply zoom-in, find where fish are bobbing on the top of water, and cast your lure out to that spot over and over to catch the respawning fish. It doesn't take much skill to beat this game.

So, while I'll probably be casting my line a few more times before I tossLet's Fish! Hooked On back, I can't honestly recommend that you pay for a copy yourself.