Fishing games seem to be made for consoles like the Wii.  Griffin International has a new title that is not only coming out for the Wii but is also coming out for the Xbox 360 and PC and is being bundled with a brand new Microsoft approved fishing reel peripheral to further enhance your fishing game.  The game is The Strike and is endorsed by leading outdoor retailer Bass Pro Shops.

The game features several modes such an Arcade and a Pro mode so that players can engage in “on-the-fly” fishing in Arcade Mode as well as the tournament experience in the Pro Mode.  There are a total of 10 lakes in the Career mode and 5 Lakes in the Invitational.  There is even a Quick Fish Mode where you can play in a pass and play party mode with friends as well as boat races and casting challenges.

You have a boat garage and as you advance in the game, you will earn more boats and unlock new lakes.  The lakes featured in the games are real lakes that can be found all over North America and the game’s developers used Google Maps to make sure that the lakes looked as close to the actual lakes as possible.

You start the game out with $100 so that you can go to the store – the Bass Pro Shop, of course – to buy lures, rods, reels, and lines.  There are 111 different lures featured in the game and Griffin worked closely with Bass Pro Shops to ensure that the lures looks and acted like they do in real life.  If something didn’t look or act right, Bass Pro made sure it got fixed before appearing in the final game!

As you take your boat out on the lake, you will drive by NPC fisherman/women who have a 30% chance of challenging you to a contest that will open into a mini game where you can win stuff.  There are also 5 hidden locations on each lake as well as one Legendary fish per lake per species!  There are also reward fish, that will sparkle and give you items if you can catch them.

The game offers Leaderboard rankings and will keep track of all your stats like the lure that you use the most to the number of successful casts.  It will even tally the total weight of each species of fish that you catch throughout the game.

The controllers are amazing.  As you can see, it’s a close to a fishing rod that you can get without actually using a full rod.  It feels quite natural and you can even use the reel to reel fish in.  If your hand gets tired – and it will – you can opt to use a button instead.  There is an accelerometer in the 360 controller (it’s located in the Wii remote for the Wii version) that will react to the speed and strength you use when you cast your line so the more force you apply to your cast the farther your line will go.  The view switches to an underwater view so that you can see the lure in action – whether it sinks to the bottom or floats at the surface the lure looks as real as I could ever imagine.  You can see the fish underwater as well and you can either react when you see the fish grab your line or when you feel the tension in the controller when it vibrates.  I’ve only been fishing a few times in my life but this was pretty close to the real thing!  You can even opt for an over-water view.

The game promises a realistic fishing experience and I think that one will be able to take some of the techniques they learn in the game and apply them to real fishing.  I was pretty impressed with the controller and since the Wii has come out I have actually been on the lookout for a good fishing game and I think I may have found one!  While there is no DLC planned, the game offers many hours of gameplay – when put to the test, it would take a player 2 full days to complete the game.  48 hours of concentrated gameplay can translate into an endless amount of fun for the casual or hardcore gamer.  I think that gamers will find something that they enjoy about the game and I think seasoned fishermen will enjoy this game when they are unable to get out to the lake to do the real fishing they enjoy.

The game will be available this September for the Xbox 360, the Wii, and the PC for $79.99, $39.99, and $29.99 respectively.

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