webfishing - 8/10
ouhhh yeah... i'm fishin ... on Da Web !
my dear wife gifted me this game, as we had both seen it appear on our circles on twitter, just generally being shared around and commented on, screenshots cropping up here and there. we went in thinking it would be a cute, innocuous fishing game - you know, something good for a quick little hour or so, like how you can only really play animal crossing for about an hour at a time? but... ooh, actually, this is quite relaxing. and cute. and fun, actually; really fun. and so, the rest of our voice chat trickled in, one-by-one, to give it a shot.
imagine my shock (and hunger) when i finally closed the game a solid 5 hours later (and change).
the premises and gameplay loop are so simple, and yet in spite, or perhaps because of that very fact, it is utterly engaging. our entire voice call of 7 people fell to deafening silence save for people calling out what fish they got, and calling the attention of the others excitedly when they had unlocked or bought something new. we were so entirely invested in this game, and our immersion remained effectively unbroken for the whole time. what's better, is that i am a complete fiend for a good fishing minigame. this is like i've died and went to fishing minigame heaven.
the social element lends itself to many a fun time; for us, it largely led to us listening to the procedural-gibberish dialogue noises voicing many bad fish puns, as well as communal animal noise spam. that alone was a lovely social experience with this game, and i'm sure that you could likely engage in similar activity with public servers.
everything about this game oozes charm, comfort and such a wonderfully sweet atmosphere that it is truly a perfect game if you just want to while away a few hours shooting the shit with your friends, or some randos, whilst getting your fish on.
my only complaint, should the devs be reading (and i know that this is going to be a bit of a bugger, so please take this with a grain of salt, tongue entirely in cheek), is that i wish that there was further representation in the species department. bunnies and foxes and other popular critters wouldn't go amiss, especially given the forest setting of the game. even then, that's less a complaint and more of a wishlist suggestion to improve upon the game slightly more. i am already intensely satisfied with what the game is currently, and i intend to play further as a result. i suppose, if i were to lodge a single genuinely needed thing, controller support is a must. there exists steam input profiles right now, but this would be a killer steam deck game if it had built-in support.
a purely fun time that will capture you - doubly so if you're a fishing minigame freak like me.
