Still, quite a few people have made games about it - from Sega's competition based 'Bass Fishing Duel', to this, the latest in the relaxing, and somewhat simmy, 'Reel Fishing' series. Reel Fishing III stays away from the competition side of fishing, and sticks close to the idea of a guy, sitting on his own, with his dog (yes, you have a dog in the game), waiting for a bite, and then trying to reel the lil' bastard in.

   

You start in the game as a novice fisherman, trying to recapture their childhood fishing joys when looking after a friend's fishing lodge. Immediately after arriving, you are given custody of your friend's dog, who will dutifully bring you letters from his master throughout the game. The letters start off with a tutorial, and later will provide you with hints and tips about the fish and their environments, as well as the tasks you need to complete to progress to the next environment. From then on, it's all quite simple - you go to an area, and catch fish, and keep revisiting the area until you have completed a given challenge. When you do that, a new fishing area will be unlocked, as well as a new challenge.

The mechanic of fishing varies depending on the tackle that you are using - there are several different types of rod, and a dazzling array of flies, floats, bait, lures - many of which will be awarded for simply having a good day's fishing. The method of actually getting a bite is somewhat different for each type of rod, but once you do, the way of reeling it in is quite simple - reel in hard when it's not thrashing away from you (using X), whilst balancing the tension on the line using the left analog stick.

When you've caught your fish, you can take them back to your house and put them in a tank, where you can feed them up, before releasing back into the wild, which will improve the size of your future catches in the fishing area that you caught it in. However, the problem with the game as a whole is summed up by the way that you feed your fish - you tap a button, and a bit of food is dropped into the water. You then wait and see if the fish eats it or misses it, then you can drop in another piece. A tank of fish will normally take 10+ pieces of food, and you have two tanks of fish - it's somewhat pleasing to feed them, but it's more a mechanic put in there to test the player's time. Which is very similar to the whole game - it's a test of your ability to sit there, and keep fishing until you catch what you have to in order to move onto the next area. You can pick up hints from the letters, and you can follow the stats of how well your particular tackle will perform at catching certain fish, but a skilled player is unlikely to progress much faster than a lesser skilled one.

   

I can only guess that means that the developers weren't shooting for a game where you look to achieve something, but you simply sit there and enjoy the fishing - which I guess is the whole point of fishing itself for many people, and why a certain breed of person, it could be very enjoyable - sitting there in your living room, staring at the TV, with the sounds of nature around you (the game is in surround sound, and the nature/water sounds are very nice, although the menu music is sub-elevator muzak). Sadly, I didn't find the decidedly average-at-best quality graphics portraying nature quite such an inspiration - water has been done a lot better, and for a small amount of static scenery, everything could have been of a lot higher quality.

When you add the low par graphics, to the clunky method of progression, and the fact that you mainly just need a lot of time and patience to make any progress, it makes it a game that will only really be loved by a certain breed of person. Most of which, I fear, will be actually out fishing, for 'Reel'.