Amazon.com: Rapala Tournament Fishing!: Nintendo Wii: Video Games

39 Reviews

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(10)

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2.6 out of 5 stars (39 customer reviews)

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40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun Fishing Game which Teaches Real Skills, January 12, 2007

By	Lisa Shea "LisaShea.com" - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

Rapala Tournament Fishing for your Wii lets you fish in a variety of locations - New York, Minnesota, Florida, the Amazon and many other places.

The game is standard-screen only (no widescreen option) and lets you choose from a number of character models - male and female, various skin tones. You start with only the most basic of equipment, but as you win tournaments you begin to unlock more advanced options.

It's best to start out in free play mode where you can learn how to fish. A lot of this is intuitive. If you've played Zelda or any other game that has a fishing mode you probably understand what to do here. You cast out the line. You slowly reel it in. If you get a nibble, you have to set the hook in the mouth - and then the fun begins. You try to reel in the line (by actually reeling your left nunchuck hand) while moving the line left and right, and watching the tension so you don't either lose the fish or snap the line.

If you're skilled enough to get the fish near the boat, you get a net view where you have to point the remote at the fish, and then press the buttons indicated to draw it in.

Not all of this is well explained in the instructions. If you haven't fished before, then the notion of line drag affecting how you bring in a fish, or having to let out the line when the fish runs so it doesn't just snap the line in half, might seem a bit confusing. There are instructions both in the game and in the manual but I realize many people don't like to read :) Really, a little bit of practice should make it clear.

There are tournament modes, free play modes, and other modes to help you test your skills. During the loading menu it gives you random Rapela trivia questions. You can of course ignore these, or play them to kill time until the load is complete. As you win more of the levels, you get access to some neat equipment.

I was impressed with some of the fish models, but less impressed with the movements. The fish would change 90 degree angles in a flash. I realize the Wii does not have excellent graphics, and is better at cartooney visuals than "realistic" visuals. So, that being said, they might have done better here deliberately aiming for a more cartooney look and feel to this. In general on the Wii when you play cartooney games (Ray Man, Monkey Ball etc) they look crisp, but the more realistic games (Call of Duty etc) always look a bit kludgy.

I don't know how you could rate sound on a fishing game. There's no sound! Your helper makes random comments but really it comes down to you and the fish. Man vs pisces. It's like worrying about how your caddy talks in a golf game :) That being said, the helper is usually pretty helpful so that you can focus on fighting the fish - not watching all the on-screen alerts - and still know when to pull right, or left, or let the line out, or so on.

I like the little details - the deer wandering the side of the river in Alaska, the loon flying overhead in Minnesota. It really is quiet and peaceful while you boat around, seeking out the perfect spot - and then it gets quite complex when you've hooked that fish and are trying to balance all the forces just right to get him into the boat.

I realize this game might be challenging if you're not a fisherman. My advise is to start with one type of location, one type of fish, and spend the time to read the material on that combination. Just like a real fisherman would do. A real fisherman would learn what the fish is like, what the region is like, what lures are used. Then they fish for a while and discover through trial and effort what combinations work best for them. The same is true here, and heck, unlike Zelda or other games, the skills you learn here are actually useful in the real world. If you end up on vacation in one of these locations, grab a rod and reel and go out for an afternoon. You might be amazed at how much fun the real sport of fishing can be, when you leave the comfort of your couch.

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23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not for non-fishers., December 27, 2006

By	Douglas E. Wong (Riverside, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars

I've never gone fishing, so perhaps I'm not the target audience. Then again, I've never performed surgery and I loved Trauma Center: Second Opinion.

For someone with little fishing experience, holy jeez is this game bad. It's not even the awful graphics (which are on par with an early GameCube game like WaveRace.) It's the almost complete and utter lack of instruction. It took almost five minutes of wrangling with the wiimote rod before I figured out the timing just to cast my line. Then, there's your "fishing buddy" who gives you nearly useless fishing advice like "I don't know if the color of that lure is working" which might be helpful if there were only 3 colors to choose from, but there tend to be upwards of ten. If it takes 3 - 5 minutes to test each color, you're looking at hours just to see if a particular color of lure is the most effective with a particular type of fish. Add to that the scads of lures available and frankly, it's overwhelming.

Then, there's the feeling of inadequacy you get when during loading screens (which, incidentally seem horribly long for how subpar the graphics are), questions are asked of you like "How deep does the Super Scap 3 fishing lure sink?" without having ever received any hint as to the answer so you just sit there guessing wrong answers.

To the game's credit, there are scores of locations, each with different fish, and all sorts of different boats, rods, lures, colors of lures, etc. But none of that is helpful if the game doesn't provide even the most basic instruction in how to use those tools. This game was clearly created by expert fishermen for expert fishermen. Everybody else should stay away.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Rapala Tournament for Wii is a Commercial for Rapala, February 22, 2007

By	James Rockford "danno" (Arizona) - See all my reviews

Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars

The short story is don't buy it. Rent it first to see if you like it. I bass fished for years when I lived in the Midwest so I was anxious to try this game when my grandson got his Wii for Christmas. Unfortunately I bought it so I'm stuck with it.
Pros:
Good graphics
Large variety of fish species and locations
Full range of Rapala lures (duh!)

Cons:
- Only Rapala lures are available. No worms, spinnerbaits, jigs, etc.
- Game lags behind actions of the player. Slow response to some actions.
- Though there are many different bodies of water, the area available to fish is very limited.
- Larger fish, over 4 lbs, or Northerns. Muskies, large catfish require an unnecesarily difficult landing technique involving moving the net over a fish icon on the screen and then pressing a button sequence shown on the screen. and you'd better do it quickly or you'll lose the fish!
- At seemingly random times, you will lose a fish for no apparent reason; even though the drag and rod tension are correct.
- In order to upgrade within the game to a better boat, rod etc., the player must complete a quiz at the begining of each game. The quiz is designed to make the player memorize details about Rapala lures and company history. This was the thing I resented most about the game! You pay $40 for the game and then you have to learn all about Rapala products and history in order to access all but the most basic of features.

Bottom line: Don't buy this game; rent it first!