iFish – Review
By App Type: Uncategorized
Our rating: 
By: iFish
Version #: 1.0
Date Released: 2008-09-19
Developer:
Price: 0.99
User Rating:
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A few years ago I went through my “fishing phase”. I spent every free minute I could out on our lake, fishing rod in hand, beer in cooler and license on hat. (Seriously, the game warden pulled me in three times one summer to check for my fishing permit. A small, private lake with almost no fish and they were checking licenses.)
I never had too much success but did enjoy my time on the boat. After all, as they say, “a bad day fishing is better than a good day on the job”.
The funniest story from that period (totally irrelevant here, though) happened one day when friends were visiting with their two young kids. Ben wanted to fish so I took my rod and buried the hook deep inside a rubber worm. While he hung out with his mom at the lake with the line in the water his father and I went out to get some real bate and a day license for him. When we got back Ben was screaming! Seems a large bass grabbed the rubber worm hard enough to hook himself on the hook. Yup, the five or six year old with a rubber worm accidently caught the biggest fish that summer.
Anyhow, somewhere along the way a friend bought me an electronic fishing game. It basically looked like a plastic rod and reel (only shorter). You pretended to cast, then used the plastic handle to “reel in”. It was pretty amazing how much fun it was.
Anyhow, a few years ago I destroyed one of my wrists- so ended my days as a fisherman.
iFish tries to replicate that fake fishing experience (that tried to replicate the real experience of fishing). As is so often the case with a copy of a copy of a copy, this one is a bit fuzzy and out of focus.
The game allows you to select from a series of locations. (This just changes the background image from what I can tell.)
Once a location is chosen it is time to fish.
A flick of the wrist “casts” the line and returns the realistic sound of the line sailing through the air. (Funny, but my casts were never quite so smooth.)
A few quick snaps of the “rod“ and you either get a humiliating chomping sound and a ”MISSED!!!!!“ on the screen or a screen that tells you to reel in.
Reel too fast and you are told- ”Slower“.
Reel too slow and you are told ”Faster“.
Either way most of the time you are soon greeted with ”Got away!“
Once in a while the game takes pity on you and lets you bring in a fish- usually a small sunfish or some other catch barely worth mentioning.
Seriously, they totally nailed it! This is totally the realistic experience I had most of the time during my fishing phase!
I like the concept here but the game needs a lot of work. The ”reeling“ is silly and inconsistent. And the entire thing is totally is completely repetitive. After a few minutes it is the same thing over and over and over again. That’s just fine on a warm summer day on Sunrise Lake but with a video game… not so much.
Quick Take
Value: Low. Gets totally boring after a few minutes
Would I Buy Again: No
Learning Curve: Low
Who is it for: I guess people who like to fish but not really even them
What I like: Brought back good memories, nice pictures, nice water sound
What I Don’t: Boring, no configuration options
Final Statement: I really like this concept and think a good fishing game could be created using the iPhone. This isn’t really it, though.
Choose from 10 different locations where you can catch over a dozen different types of fish. Can you catch the rare pickerel?
You don't even have to fish - you can just sit back and enjoy the relaxing sounds of a lake.
Features:
- Realistic fishing sounds
- Beautiful scenery (10 different locations)
- Relaxing lake-water background noise
- Accelerometer-based casting and hooking
- Keep track of the fish you've caught
O U R T A K E . . .
