Rapala Pro Bass Fishing 2010 - Nintendo Wii

To keep this review short and to the point, this game is a total surprise and the most fun I have had in a long time playing a game. Simple concepts can sometimes be the most fun. I barely fish in real life, but in this game I could fish for hours and hours. The graphics for the water, sky, fish are very nice, though graphics for some trees, docks, buildings can be rather average. Water detail will vary from dark and murky to clear and full of rays of sun light depending upon the lake and weather conditions. There are 7 lakes to choose from, and each come with different times of day, season, and weather condition to choose from. There are 30 different fish in the game, many dozens of lures to choose and unlock, 3 types of fishing boats, gear for your male or female fisherman to wear, and so on. There is a main tournament mode where you have so many minutes to complete the tournaments objectives and beat the other 30+ fisherman. There are many, many things to unlock in the game; there is a list that tells you what you can unlock in the extras section. There is also a free fishing mode that allows you to catch fish for no other reason than to relax and catch fish you want, or you can attempt to complete one of the challenges, or mini-games, that are unique to each lake. You can choose your tess pounds, rod, reel, lure, lure design, and so on, in the tacklebox. You can find plenty of information about the lakes, the fish, etc., in the fishopedia section. There are 30 monster fish in the game, or the biggest of the big for each type of fish in the game. The most notable is Lou, a 285 pound sturgeon that is the "king" of all sturgeons. You can only attempt to hunt these named monster fish in certain times of day, and in certain seasons for each lake. The fishing itself is quite simple but enjoyable. You can cast overhead or from the side, then have up to 7 methods to attract fish with your lure as you reel in. There are 4 white corner markers in the center of the screen where you want to try and keep your fish in to build up a blue meter that allows you to perform a rod pull to tire the fish out. If you let the fish get out of the center of the screen, and then stay on the sides too long, you will lose the fish. Some light fish can be yanked onto the boat when they get close, some fish need to be prevented from squirming away by pressing a sliding button on bar at the right moment. Simple, but fun, and note that I use the standard console controller, not the fishing rod controller. Negatives include some frame-rate dips during rain on the lakes, tournament mode is not too difficult to beat, and some of the challenges can be so difficult that only random luck will prevail. That said, what is here is great fun and I highly recommend it. The only thing that would make this better is if they had ice fishing, fly fishing, and spear fishing. As is, the game is a lot of fun unless you can only have fun blowing away 10,000 zombies with gallons of blood. Do not be confused by the prior two Rapala fishing games, this is currently the one to get. Hard to believe I paid only $10 for it.

Found on Amazon for a dollar and it's certainly worth it! Not fully realistic, but at least resembles fishing to some extant and is easy to get in to.-Casting is intuitive and seems realistic but hooking and reeling in just doesn't feel "right"; it's too slow and there isn't really much feedback. It's like a mini-game trying to keep the fish in the middle of the screen (as the in-game coach will continuously tell you) and some of the "attacks" seem cartoonish.- Audio is cool, but repetitive. Casting and reeling sound great, as does the boat...it's the announcer(s) that seems to have only a few lines to say.-Tourneys are fun, but a little frustrating at first. It's cool that you get to fish against real pros on real lakes.-Includes a decent amount (and decently recreated) of fish species. It's not just about catching large mouth bass.-Graphics (considering it's a 5 year old Wii game) are ok, nothing special and not horrific.This game falls right between Sega Bass Fishing and The Strike on the realism and fun scale. If you can find it for a decent price, pick it up.

We liked this game because we were looking for diversity in many fishing games. We like to fish and had compared this game to others and found that the kids liked this game. After playing, the kids were pleased that we had purchased this game. This game has met our expectations because the kids loved it.

Too hard to hook a fish. Even my boyfriend who is avid fisherman did not like it. Save your money.

I have found that it is very hard to drive the boat. Casting is also challenging and reeling the lure in has to be done according to the games specifications. Finding the specified fish that is called for in the Tournaments is also hard. I much prefer The Strike by Bass Pro Shop. In the Strike you can reel the lure in the way you prefer. Casting takes some practice, but is much easier than the casting in Rapala's game. The boat seems easier to handle and the fish are easier to find for the Tournaments. Winning the Tournaments and progression in the Strike is easier, although it can be just as challenging as the Rapala Pro Bass Fishing. The Rapala I have found is just frustrating to be any fun. The Strike's graphics are much better than Rapala's and are more lifelike to actual fishing. If you want a fishing game I would recommend The Stike over the Rapala Pro Bass fishing. I have been very disappointed in the Rapala and have found myself returning to play The Stike instead of wasting my time with the Rapala game. I bought both of these games with Amazon as I buy all my games through them.