‘Ello there my Time Waster readers. Today I’m looking at my phone and wondering just what sort of jewel or dud it can offer us this week, and this time I’ve reeled in the game Ninja Fishing.
The title of this one says it all: a ninja who is fishing. Now our character isn’t our ordinary ninja, no. Instead he’s a big guy in a little boat who’s just trying to catch a few fish. From this alone it was pretty obvious to me that this game wasn’t meant to be taken seriously, at least not in the sense of being a game that takes a lot of concentration or will make you upset if you mess up. This thought was driven home when our ninja kept saying phrases parodying popular internet memes and the game proved to be extremely laid back.
To fish, all you have to do is tap the screen, where upon your hook will drill (with an actual drill) down into the water to a certain depth, and from there you take control. By tilting the phone you weave your hook between fish so that they don’t bite. Yes, you heard me, DON’T bite. And with a tilt-your-phone mechanic that runs very smoothly compared to some others, dodging about isn’t too hard.
So why are we trying to not get fish? Well the object of this game is to get as deep as you can before getting that bite. The deeper you get, the more fish you can hook on your way back up, and more fish equals more gold. You can also pull up treasure chests if you find them down in the ocean depths. And as you can imagine, more gold equals more points as well as the ability to unlock better equipment, such as a katana.
A katana for fishing? Yes, because after you fish up your boatload of critters, the force of bringing them to the surface launches them into the air, where you have to slice them up in order to actually earn gold for their catch. Beware though, for dynamite will be floating around too. This bit I found to be the only frustrating part of the game, since when I slice a fish I expect it to be cut, not bounce away only to be cut once or twice again.
But that’s what the gold is for: buying those upgraded tools so that you can slice and fish better. Gold is also used to unlock new places to fish (though there’s only one other as of now). Of course the best tools can only be unlocked with a huge amount of gold and/or real money, so if you’re dead set on getting the best there is without paying a dime for it, then you’re in for one long day of fishing.
About as casual as you can get, the only thing that really hurts this game is the lack of a real challenge. When thirty fish are flying through the air three to five at a time, I didn’t care when a few of them got away since I was just going to rinse and repeat until I had enough gold to spend at the store. This is the game’s major flaw and what had me stopping not too long after picking it up. It couldn’t hold my attention because it felt like there was nothing to lose and nothing to really gain either. And unfortunately for it, there really was nothing to win or lose in the end.
Ninja Fishing catches 3 GiN Gems out of 5 for being a bit too casual about its challenge level.