"It shouldn't be this hard to catch a fish..."

Sega was known for popularizing the fishing genre. They've been producing addictive fishing games since the Genesis days — who knew the time consuming and passive real-life hobby could've been translated into something fun in electronic form? With that said, it helps when players have a knack for fishing in the first place, and part of the enjoyment is had in taking chances and waiting for something eventful to happen, the catching of fish, of course! Unfortunately, with the good fishing games come the inclusion of the bad. King Salmon by obscure designer Vic Tokai is a pretty disappointing offering. I like to think of it as a Japanese interpretation of an American past time. I would say the Japanese overtones are seen mainly in the gameplay and sound departments. The main idea of a fishing game is to catch as many fish as possible, however, Vic Tokai has included RPG elements into the fold, and sadly, the RPG elements are what kill this game for me.

Firstly, the player's fisher is given stats like strength, luck etc., like in a traditional RPG. Naturally, the player starts with virtually no high values and must raise them; obviously, this is done by catching fish. The higher stats the fisher has, the easier it will be to catch bigger salmon, and this is the game in a nutshell. The inclusion of a "leveling up" element isn't so bad, and I can even appreciate such an innovative idea. However, we run into problems with the RPG model when it actually comes to the fish catching. See, once the player finds a nice spot in the lake to fish at, one's line will already be cast out, and all the player will need to do, essentially, is just wait for bites. That's fine and all, but when the bites do occur, the game reveals another RPG element: the reeling process is mixed with multiple choice questions. This element is not so good if one is expecting a traditional fishing game. In short, what should be so simple and straight forward as reeling in a fish (by button mashing) becomes a drawn out RPG-esque battle that takes longer than it should and demands more effort than it should.

For example, once a bite happens, a picture of the fisher getting tension on his line will appear, and then I figured to hold B and press up rapidly. The screen will change to the actual reeling battle against the fish. The player must perform an elaborate button combination at the right time to continue to bring the fish in, or it will get away. I really wouldn't mind the time sensitive button inputs alone, since they become memorable once a rhythm is established (something like hold B while tapping C, then holding C when the bass tries to swim away — I'm not quite sure what A does, but it does do something), however, on top of this is the random chance of getting a window that tells the player the salmon is retaliating. When a salmon retaliates, it may swim under the boat, try to tear the line, swim to another boat or a number of other things. The player will be given three choices of what to do. Here is where real life experience comes in handy.

From what I could tell, the most practical choice will solve the problem, and the window will go away and the reeling battle will ensue, but there is always a chance — even when the player does the right thing — that the fish will still get away. Sometimes one problem will be followed by another and those are really annoying. It seems like the designers were trying to add another facet of chance into the mix by thinking it would make things more spontaneous, and thus, fun, but, the multiple choice questions are more annoying than anything else. It's the bad kind of chance, in other words. To say the least, it's quite awkward and out of place in a fishing game (but maybe not in Japanese culture). That's about all there is to the gameplay. There isn't a lot of depth in the gear and tackle used to catch salmon; I believe the player has all he needs from the start. He can cast the line deeply in the options menu (the bluer the water, the deeper it is). It was interesting how boats can crash into each other; I've never seen anything like this. The controls are not intuitive, unless one has the instruction manual (which I didn't). I had to figure out everything myself, and it just seemed a little too complicated for the average fishing enthusiast to get into.

As mentioned, it requires a certain rhythm of inputs to bring in a fish, and even doing it proficiently takes too long, about two to three minutes or longer. This is not desirable if designers wish to offer the player arcade-like action (it should've been faster), but I don't think that's what Vic Tokai was going for. The music sounds more like it belongs in a hardline Japanese space shooter, rather than in a humble fishing hole in anytown U.S.A., and the same tune gets repetitive fast. The graphics were OK: they could've put more effort into it though; everything seems to lack detail. What we have is a unique console style fishing game that may appeal to some RPG fans and people who like tough games. Another appeal of fishing games is the casual gamer can play for five or ten minutes and get his fix for the day; yet, this is not one of those games. I believe fishing games should be able to give players instant gratification, so I hold the lack of instant gratification against King Salmon. The game isn't fun, nor is it a real challenge. The reeling battles seem more like chores, and the multiple choice questions just break up the flow of action. I really can't recommend this to anyone, and virtually everyone is best off avoiding it for the other, better fishing games on the Genesis.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 10/04/11

Game Release: King Salmon: The Big Catch (US, 03/21/93)