While I'm not sure whether or not Big Game Fishing is the first fishing game to feature product placement (Rapala makes a prominent appearance in the gameplay) it is certainly one of the more complex entries in the genre. One might look at the surface and see just a fishing game - reel it in, pull it up, hey look! I caught a pixelated fish! But Big Game Fishing, luckily, offers a bit more strategy to the player than that.
The plot revolves around a businessman on vacation who apparently didn't book through Priceline, since he is having financial troubles.
To compensate for his obvious lack of funds, he begins catching trophy fish. Or, rather, he does if you can figure out the complicated controls. For the life of me, I couldn't. But I always thought the graphics were pretty cool, so I guess I just sucked it up.
Now, earlier I mentioned strategy. Unlike many fishing games, the always dicey variable of fuel comes into play. Remember if you will that this businessman is on this island, and he's fishing to make money (which leaves me wondering what the heck kind of business is he in that he finds himself catching fish to survive.) Well, this businessman is also responsible for purchasing new equipment and fuel. It seems simple...but it leaves
the player wondering whether he should spend more money on fuel to fish for longer, or whether he should just keep the money and risk having to call out an SOS. Thankfully, its a just a game, so the real impact of such decisions doesn't really matter. But still. You like to succeed, don't you?
If the businessman runs out of money, he gets kicked off the island and his vacation is over. So you're going to need to catch the rarest of the rarest fish in order to keep him there. I mean, he'd do the same for you. You get to choose the fishing location, which plays a part in finding where the rare fish are, but again, you need to watch your fuel gauge.
It's a fishing game with more motivation than "Look. Fish. Let's fish for them." That's what drew me to the game, and that's what should draw you to it too. The graphics are akin with OutRun (but with fish) and the entertainment value is definitely there. Its worth checking out, and if you can figure out the controls, you're in for a ball. I give it 7/10
