Fishy Fishee

If there's one sport - if you can call it such a thing - that you would think would translate into a terrible game it's fishing. Yet virtual fishing has proved strangely enduring. When Zelda: Twilight Princess was first unveiled for Nintendo's Wii, replete with more than 40 hours of Nintendo goodness, practically all anyone was interested in was the fishing mini-game.

With a title like Fishy Fishee you probably won't be in any doubt exactly what you're getting. It might be dressed up with a story about a kid being taught how to fish by an old man, and it might have cartoony visuals, but this is essentially a fishing simulation. You bait your hook, cast your line, dangle your bait about a bit then reel in your fish.

And like every other fishing game out there it ends up being really quite appealing. There are several different skills to master in the game, too, making it quite multi-layered.

Firstly you have to learn about each bait. Each one attracts a certain type of fish and can only be used in water where that particular type of fish is lurking. So you start off with a swamp worm which is only useful quite close to the river bank (or, in game terms, works if you stop the casting power meter in the first two squares of twenty) The ultimate squid meanwhile - which catches a tier 5 fish (more on that in a bit) needs to be used on a line cast right out, at the end of the bar.

Once your bait is set, a simple rhythm game kicks in which involves stopping a circle when it's at it's smallest point. Every time you stop it at the right moment, your target fish gets a little closer. After a few successive successes you'll have him hooked.

Then begins the game's 'pulling phase' - another rhythm type game where the numbers 0-9 scroll across the screen and you need to press the correct one at the right point. Get enough of these correct within a time limit and you'll have pulled in your fish (an illustration at the top of the screen shows how close the little critter is getting).

All of these sections string together nicely. That's until you get to the tier 3 fish anyway. To explain those tiers, the different baits and types of fish are rated 1-5 with number one prompting a very simple one-bar pulling phase game and two upping the ante with two bars. You can see where we're going with this - the higher the tier the more bars you get and the thicker and faster those numbers scroll.

Obviously, though, you can't press all three or four buttons at the same time as they scroll past the marker. Instead an arrow indicates which bar's numbers you press and it constantly shifts up and down as the numbers scroll. This basically makes the game about as tough as rubbing your stomach, patting your head and - say - juggling bottles of anthrax. It's a complete brain-melter. Especially when some of those numbers get substituted for symbols which relate to certain numbers.

It could be considered challenging, except the way the arrow bounces about at the last split-second before you press a button is reminiscent of someone holding their hand up to high five you then pulling it away again at the last minute. Again and again and again. Basically it's very annoying.

The difficulty curve is pretty steep, but if that doesn't put you off then Fishy Fishee is a well put together game with both a Story mode and Tournament fishing mode. Having to watch your character casting off before every attempt is dull, but then so's fishing, so it's apt really. If you think you can hack the pace of its rhythm game, then by all means this is worth a look.