What a fishing game is supposed to be like.
The Good- Tons of different places to fish. Lots of difference lures and bait. A amazing amount of fish species to catch. You can bait fish, lure fish, troll fish, stand on a boat out in the middle of the ocean and fish, fish off a kayak and fish out of a small boat. There are rivers, lakes, oceans to fish in. Freshwater and saltwater fishing are different and make for a great variance. Highly addictive.
The Bad- Some tournaments aren't fair like the most fished caught, I got blown out of the water by the computer who had 20 to my 13 and I came in second. Could have been because I ran so far to start fishing. You can only buy rods and reels at the starter area.
The fact is this game has created a beautiful balance of realism and ingenuity. Yes you can sit there and not catch something for a few minutes, but it's normally only in certain spots that I have found because the bigger fish can take longer. It's worth the wait when a giant fish grabs the bait and takes you for a ride. If you aren't getting bites the game even says to try a different color. This always solves the problem for me if I am having issues. I like sitting and waiting for the bite because it brings in so much anticipation and jerking the Wii remote as fast as you can is great fun. You don't always hook them either so it's not as easy as other fishing games. The fish fighting system is fun and rewarding when you pull in a XL fish that almost broke off 5 times during the battle. This system is perfect and I think it's dead on. I have played fishing games throughout my life, but this one has it down perfectly. I have the little fishing rod set up that came with the game and it makes the game even more fun. The fact is there are so many species, so many places to fish, along with quests, mini games, and a wide variety of ways to fish that this game has covered it all. The only thing I read in the book that I am concerned about it the multiplayer. It has up to 4 people at a time, but how I read it was that whoever hooks a fish first gets to start reeling them in and the others have to wait until its done. Not the best system, but at least there's multiplayer in a fishing game. There is a online for this game, but it just keeps records of people catching fish across the internet.
The fishing rod system is not slow and it is not what the review says. Yes it is going to take a little time on your part of fishing to get better gear. Fish that you catch are turned in for credits, which is what you buy items with. The rods and baits are based on the fish size. The best thing to do is get the S-M setup, then the M-L, then the L-XL. When you start catching big fish they are worth a ton of points. If you go trolling and catch a blue marlin they are worth over 10,000. The game isn't just gonna hand you everything right away, it makes you work for it. Whats wrong with that? To many instant gratification people these days. Once you have enough points and all those setups then you can buy the three star S set, three star M set, and three star L set. Yes its slow at first cause your catching small stuff, but after a few hours you will be seeing the real fun.
In all this is the best fishing game out to date and for me I will be putting down Battlefield 3 for this for a while. I will also continue to come back and play this game over and over because it has a ton of replay potential. I can't wait for my friends to play it.
Update- Here are a few things to bring up since I have played it more. The lure fishing is good because you can either left jerk, right jerk, or up jerk and make the lure move in a spastic action to attract fish. Or you can just reel and stop, reel and stop, until something hits. I have been to all the fishing areas and I have still only caught half the species. There are many different things to make you work hard for your credits through fishing and one is a biggy when you fish all 8 different main areas. There are around 16 different places to fish. There is a 3 star xl rod and reel which i have not unlocked yet and am still trying to do. The online ranking system has a great system where they put up a certain amount of fish from a specific area and you try to catch the biggest ones in that area than other people online. You will be given a online ranking and shown if you beat other peoples large fish than the ones you caught. You will find and earn new things in the game that are bigger and better than you could have hoped for and I don't want to spoil them. They are worth the wait. Catching every species alone will be a task and catching the giant rare fish has been almost impossible for me since I have tried and failed to do so when I found them. I haven't found the 3 star XL rods and reel yet.