Rapala Tournament Fishing (ign.com)
- ign.com -
November 29, 2006 - When it comes to the Wii controller, there are simply a few things the system is designed to do, and a few things it isn't. For instance, one look at the controller was all it took for Ubisoft to dive into Red Steel, a game that may not have hit all the marks, but definitely has the right idea as to how the controller should enable the user to interact with games like never before by staging motion-controlled swordfights and the manipulation of in-level objects with the shake of the nunchuk. The Wii Sports compilation is another solid example, as simple motions such as swinging a racket or bat, or rolling a bowling ball down a virtual lane is instantly immersive and seems tailor-fit for the system. Another genre we expect to see a ton of on Wii over the next few years is fishing; we've seen it in Zelda already as a very simplistic but entertaining mini-game, and aren't surprised to visit it for the second time during launch with Rapala Tournament Fishing. After all, the Wii-mote/nunchuk combo practically looks like a disjointed pole and reel set, so how hard could it be to deliver the true feeling of fishing with a controller so unique? Well, apparently it's a bit more difficult than we thought…
Brought over as a port from the current-gen versions (titled Rapala Pro Fishing), Rapala Tournament Fishing is essentially a quick control swap over to Wii that attempts to cash in traditional control for a much more immersive fishing experience. Unfortunately, the game misfires on nearly every aspect of its design, and really doesn't offer much of any lasting entertainment though either the games presentation, execution, depth, or control. The basic gist of the game is simple, having players jump into the universe by picking from one of a few preset characters, and then hitting the lakes in a few basic modes. Being that the game is called Tournament Fishing the obvious main focus is on just that, but aside form the tourneys there are also a few other quick modes that make for a more laid-back fishing experience as well. Free Fishing allows for a casual romp through any of the featured locations, whereas Arcade has players aiming to complete specific challenges based on type of fish, weight, or length. There's also a Time Trial mode with has you speed fishing from area to area, but regardless of what mode you select the action is essentially the same: Pick a location, grab a pole and lure, and start casting.
November 29, 2006 - When it comes to the Wii controller, there are simply a few things the system is designed to do, and a few things it isn't. For instance, one look at the controller was all it took for Ubisoft to dive into Red Steel, a game that may not have hit all the marks, but definitely has the right idea as to how the controller should enable the user to interact with games like never before by staging motion-controlled swordfights and the manipulation of in-level objects with the shake of the nunchuk. The Wii Sports compilation is another solid example, as simple motions such as swinging a racket or bat, or rolling a bowling ball down a virtual lane is instantly immersive and seems tailor-fit for the system. Another genre we expect to see a ton of on Wii over the next few years is fishing; we've seen it in Zelda already as a very simplistic but entertaining mini-game, and aren't surprised to visit it for the second time during launch with Rapala Tournament Fishing. After all, the Wii-mote/nunchuk combo practically looks like a disjointed pole and reel set, so how hard could it be to deliver the true feeling of fishing with a controller so unique? Well, apparently it's a bit more difficult than we thought…
Brought over as a port from the current-gen versions (titled Rapala Pro Fishing), Rapala Tournament Fishing is essentially a quick control swap over to Wii that attempts to cash in traditional control for a much more immersive fishing experience. Unfortunately, the game misfires on nearly every aspect of its design, and really doesn't offer much of any lasting entertainment though either the games presentation, execution, depth, or control. The basic gist of the game is simple, having players jump into the universe by picking from one of a few preset characters, and then hitting the lakes in a few basic modes. Being that the game is called Tournament Fishing the obvious main focus is on just that, but aside form the tourneys there are also a few other quick modes that make for a more laid-back fishing experience as well. Free Fishing allows for a casual romp through any of the featured locations, whereas Arcade has players aiming to complete specific challenges based on type of fish, weight, or length. There's also a Time Trial mode with has you speed fishing from area to area, but regardless of what mode you select the action is essentially the same: Pick a location, grab a pole and lure, and start casting.
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Though the overall presentation and interface isn't the greatest to begin with, the real problems with Rapala pop up as you hit the pond for the first time. For starters, while the game features 11 different locations to fish around the world including Minnesota, California, Alaska, Amazon, Mongolia, Africa and a few others, the amount of actual area you can navigate is astonishingly small. In Minnesota, for instance, you can hit up either Lake Minnetonka or Mille Lacs, and while these are two well-known fishing spots in the state the areas are cut down to nearly nothing for space. Each section will take only a few seconds to shoot your boat across, and while the depth and visibility of the lakes are pretty varied they'll begin to feel awesomely cramped within only a few minutes. In addition, there's no overhead map or layout of the lake before you select the area, so there's no telling what the level will look like until you're out in the boat. Team that with the fact that only two to three different kinds of fish can be caught in each of the regions (with Mongolia and Africa only featuring one single fish per pond) and the game will feel less and less like a true fishing experience, and more and more like a closed off tech demo of things to come.
Where the game really begins to let players down, however, is in the general fishing control. Though the team did convert the basic controls over in concept, having the Wii-mote used for casting and all the main pole work while the nunchuk is used primarily for reeling, they are still astonishingly sloppy, and it becomes very apparent that this was a quick cash-out rather than an aim for true realism. First off, there's no speed variation in reeling, so whether you're moving the nunchuk slowly or at a rapid pace you'll bring in like at about a foot per second. If you accidentally cast in an unwanted space, for example, you have to either sit there and reel in slowly or press the "-" key, which instantly cuts back to the boat. No varying speed to tease fish, no hectic battles once you hook a monster bass, and no real immersion though the act of reeling. You might as well be holding down a button.
As another control oddity, the entire game lags about a half second behind each action, so while the bait is in the water you can pull the pole to the left or right to manipulate it, but it's very unresponsive. Team that with an odd camera snap along with pulling the bait and Rapala again becomes seriously annoying to work with in the motion department. Little things work, such as tilting the controller to different heights to move the bait slightly, but at no time in fishing did we truly feel like we were in control. To top off underwater motion, there's no way to actually yank the lure up into shallow water, so if you're using the Rapala Dives-To lure for example, that baby will eventually hit rock bottom on the lake and there isn't much you can do about it. Once it drags at the bottom, it'll sit there almost indefinitely.
In fact, when it comes to catching fish the annoying issues really don't stop. Not only is the game incredibly easy to hook a fish, resulting in a catch nearly every couple casts, but it's also far too easy to battle. The game offers a bit of tension control, using the D-pad to set line tension anywhere from one to five at the press of a button, but there isn't a big enough stress on how large the fish is, how much fight it has, and how tight the line is being stretched.
Even on pro difficulty the game is far too easy, and we've actually had more furious battles fishing with the pocket Radica Bass Fishin' LCD game then we have with Rapala on Wii, and that's a horrible letdown. There isn't much immersion into the world of fishing when you can't reel at different speeds, have constant lag between you and the game, and know exactly which fish you'll be catching every time you drop the lure. Add in an amazingly annoying camera while underwater and Rapala goes from having a ton of potential to striking out in nearly every category.
Where the game really begins to let players down, however, is in the general fishing control. Though the team did convert the basic controls over in concept, having the Wii-mote used for casting and all the main pole work while the nunchuk is used primarily for reeling, they are still astonishingly sloppy, and it becomes very apparent that this was a quick cash-out rather than an aim for true realism. First off, there's no speed variation in reeling, so whether you're moving the nunchuk slowly or at a rapid pace you'll bring in like at about a foot per second. If you accidentally cast in an unwanted space, for example, you have to either sit there and reel in slowly or press the "-" key, which instantly cuts back to the boat. No varying speed to tease fish, no hectic battles once you hook a monster bass, and no real immersion though the act of reeling. You might as well be holding down a button.
As another control oddity, the entire game lags about a half second behind each action, so while the bait is in the water you can pull the pole to the left or right to manipulate it, but it's very unresponsive. Team that with an odd camera snap along with pulling the bait and Rapala again becomes seriously annoying to work with in the motion department. Little things work, such as tilting the controller to different heights to move the bait slightly, but at no time in fishing did we truly feel like we were in control. To top off underwater motion, there's no way to actually yank the lure up into shallow water, so if you're using the Rapala Dives-To lure for example, that baby will eventually hit rock bottom on the lake and there isn't much you can do about it. Once it drags at the bottom, it'll sit there almost indefinitely.
In fact, when it comes to catching fish the annoying issues really don't stop. Not only is the game incredibly easy to hook a fish, resulting in a catch nearly every couple casts, but it's also far too easy to battle. The game offers a bit of tension control, using the D-pad to set line tension anywhere from one to five at the press of a button, but there isn't a big enough stress on how large the fish is, how much fight it has, and how tight the line is being stretched.
Even on pro difficulty the game is far too easy, and we've actually had more furious battles fishing with the pocket Radica Bass Fishin' LCD game then we have with Rapala on Wii, and that's a horrible letdown. There isn't much immersion into the world of fishing when you can't reel at different speeds, have constant lag between you and the game, and know exactly which fish you'll be catching every time you drop the lure. Add in an amazingly annoying camera while underwater and Rapala goes from having a ton of potential to striking out in nearly every category.
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As a final gripe about the general gameplay, Rapala fishing is definitely hurt by the license it represents, rather than being at an advantage because of it. Since the game is entirely based off the Rapala product line, each lure in the game is based off only Rapala products. This means you'll be making use of the Floater, Dives-To, Skitter Pop, Skitter Walk, Super Shad Rap, Shad Rap, Countdown, and a few others, but only using those pieces of licensed bait. Not only does the game come up short with the amount of featured fish, but the lack of diversity in bait only adds to it. Sure you can change the size of each bait or the color based on condition, but we'd expect the available bait options to range in the hundreds rather than around 20-30 overall choices.
In addition, the game is constantly asking trivia questions about the products during loading screens (though it's a good time-waster), but the actual amount of info given for each of the bait selections is far too sparse when actually choosing it during the game. There's a bit of text used to describe each lure, but the text scrolls very slow, and often doesn't give the truly important info. If the Shad Rap is the perfect lure for the depth, visibility, and size of fish I'm looking for I want to know it instantly when reaching into my tackle box. It's a videogame, so why not have as much info readily available to the player as possible?
As far as general presentation, Rapala won't be turning any heads, but it could definitely have been a lot worse. The game has a fair amount of odd visual bugs and cut corners, but its general look is passable as a ported current-gen game. The fish look decent, the characters are fairly detailed, but the overall animation is too stiff for its own good. There are awesome points in the game, such as watching a Northern Pike emerge from murky water and hit the bait, but in general Rapala has a totally average style and visual design. The game's HUD is surprisingly basic, as is the net interface (for bagging bigger fish), and there are a few on-screen objects that just seem out of place, such as a tiny model of your fisherman pantomiming your actions right next to a seemingly gigantic fish that takes up the rest of the screen. On the audio side, character chatter gets very redundant, and there isn't too large of a soundtrack to the game on top of it. Pretty much everything from interface to art direction is simply enough to get the job done, as Rapala doesn't particularly excel in any specific department.
In addition, the game is constantly asking trivia questions about the products during loading screens (though it's a good time-waster), but the actual amount of info given for each of the bait selections is far too sparse when actually choosing it during the game. There's a bit of text used to describe each lure, but the text scrolls very slow, and often doesn't give the truly important info. If the Shad Rap is the perfect lure for the depth, visibility, and size of fish I'm looking for I want to know it instantly when reaching into my tackle box. It's a videogame, so why not have as much info readily available to the player as possible?
As far as general presentation, Rapala won't be turning any heads, but it could definitely have been a lot worse. The game has a fair amount of odd visual bugs and cut corners, but its general look is passable as a ported current-gen game. The fish look decent, the characters are fairly detailed, but the overall animation is too stiff for its own good. There are awesome points in the game, such as watching a Northern Pike emerge from murky water and hit the bait, but in general Rapala has a totally average style and visual design. The game's HUD is surprisingly basic, as is the net interface (for bagging bigger fish), and there are a few on-screen objects that just seem out of place, such as a tiny model of your fisherman pantomiming your actions right next to a seemingly gigantic fish that takes up the rest of the screen. On the audio side, character chatter gets very redundant, and there isn't too large of a soundtrack to the game on top of it. Pretty much everything from interface to art direction is simply enough to get the job done, as Rapala doesn't particularly excel in any specific department.
Closing Comments
Rapala Tournament Fishing is definitely a letdown for launch, as it had potential to be a sleeper hit for gamers looking for a casual alternative to countless hours of Zelda. With only a few fish per lake (sometimes only one) the game has almost no depth, and the need to constantly push the Rapala product becomes annoying after only a few minutes. The game’s transition to Wii was especially rough in the gameplay department though, featuring a reeling function that only works at one solid speed, a noticeable half second lag between any action and the on-screen result, and generally unresponsive Wii motion control. The audio/visual presentation it entirely average, the gameplay is as shallow and cookie-cutter as can be, and there’s literally nothing here to satisfy serious fishing fans for longer than an hour tops. Sure we get excited when a fish nabs our lure from out of nowhere, but that excitement quickly dwindles when we come back to the realization that Rapala is too basic for its own good and fails to immerse us at all in the sport of fishing. If you’re a hardcore fishing fan, go play The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, as it’s still the best fishing game* on the system, and comes with 50-70 more hours of a character-based “side quest” for you to enjoy when dropping lures becomes stale.
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