Fishing Kings Review

After Flick Fishing's success, it was only a matter of time before Gameloft jumped into the fishing action. Their answer to the fishing genre is Fishing Kings—and while it might not be my type of game, there's no denying that it's polished, looks great, and comes with plenty of fish, locations, and possible upgrades to keep you hooked.

At each fishing spot, your character will appear in a boat, looking out over the water. Tap the water to choose where to aim, then flick your iPhone to cast your line. The view transitions to an underwater look at the lake, river, or ocean. You can see the fish swimming past, as well as local flora like the coral reefs in the first location.

Once you hook a fish, you must reel it in—but slowly, minimizing the line's tension to prevent a break. The fish thrashes about, and you must tilt your iPhone to match its direction. Once it's close enough, you can flick your iPhone again to land the fish.

This control scheme, while lengthy, works well for the most part. My only complaint is that sometimes the reel wouldn't respond, which seems like a very odd bug.

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Fishing Kings' main focus is on catching fish, but missions from your PDA (really? a PDA?) give it structure. Some are just "Catch x of fish y", but others place you in tournaments, where you've got a set time to land the largest fish of the designated breed. Clearing missions unlocks gear upgrades and new fishing locations.

Overall, Fishing Kings is a comprehensive take on the fishing genre. It looks great, and other than that reel bug, it works perfectly. My only real complaint is that, well, I got tired of doing the same thing over and over again. It's an extremely repetitive game. But that's personal preference. Fans of fishing (or just fishing games) should find a lot to love in Gamelofts' newest title—and they'll even snag some Gameloft Live trophies to boot.