Rapala Tournament Fishing presents Activision's vision of what a fishing game should be. Sadly, this game stinks like yesterday's chum. Even with the motion sensitive Wii remote, Activision's Rapala Tournament Fishing fails to even remotely capture the sport, thanks to horrendous controls, terrible graphics and boring game play.

Players choose from a variety of modes, including Free Play, Arcade, Time Trials and Tournament mode. The Tournament mode stands out as the biggest feature, as players enter a series of sponsored tournaments and push to become the master fisherman. Players can't customize their fisherman directly, but they can equip him with an avatar and choose from a variety of Rapala-sponsored equipment.

Unfortunately, all of these modes don't provide any fun because of the dreadful control scheme. Things start out promising, as players cast with the Wii-mote by pulling their arm back and hitting the A button, and can even jerk the controller around when a fish snags onto the hook to bring it into the boat. However, the timing feels off. As a result, when a player performs a motion in the game, it comes off almost a half-second later. This leaves a big lapse in performance and never really gives the player the feeling of fully controlling the motions of the rod. Even worse, the remote vibrates during a reel in and the resulting force feedback effects feel awkward, further throwing off a player's fishing performance. Rapala does feature the ability to move the fishing boat to certain spots in each pond, but it turns out to be pointless because of their small size. Gamers will cover an entire pond in a minute and a half, if that.

The bad controls aside, this game poses little to no challenge. No matter what their size or which Rapala-sponsored lure gamers use, the fish are incredibly easy to catch. They don't put up much of a fight when caught, with only an occasional netting mini-game adding the slightest challenge. No matter what kind of fishing skills gamers possess or which difficulty level they choose, the results usually end up the same – they'll have a boat full of fish, without any effort.

Even the graphics suck. Some of the fish models look good upon first glance. However, that changes once they move around. Broken animation and glitches further ruin the experience, causing fish to pass through hooks or snag onto the line all of a sudden, with no warning that it even saw the lure. Fishing stages also lack variety – gamers will visit a pond, a small lake, or, hey, even another pond in the middle of nowhere.

Rapala's audio grates on the nerves. The announcer provides advice for catching fish, but his comments make little sense, like having a drinking buddy congratulate someone on a catch, even though they hooked a bicycle tire. As for the rest of the game, elevator music and lots of splashing sounds round out this very disappointing experience.

Rapala Tournament Fishing comes up short in every category. If a lot more work was put into the game's controls and presentation, gamers could've had something worth framing on the wall. Instead, they have an unfinished, reeking effort that should be tossed back into the water. To get the best virtual fishing experience, drop $40 on a Dreamcast system, Sega Bass Fishing and the fishing rod controller.

Related Links

Rapala Tournament Fishing Game Guide

Activision

Our Final ScoreVery Bad

What did you think of this game? Post Your Own Review