xbox live indie game reviews

While most games try to do a bit too much, Fishing Girl is content with being a bite-sized little mini-game. Two young lovers are separated by an ocean, and you have 10 minutes to re-unite them. This can be accomplished by casting your line all the way to the next island and reeling the whole thing back in. To be able to cast that far, you'll need to upgrade your rod all the way (I think there were 4 levels of rods). To buy upgrades, you've got to catch fish!

There are three sizes of fish: small, medium, and large. Likewise, there are three rarities: common, uncommon, and rare. Within each of the 9 types of fish, you can either pull in ugly fish (worth less) or beautiful fish (worth more). To catch a fish of a given size, you must use an appropriately sized lure or build a chain of fish. A medium fish will eat small fish and a large fish will eat medium fish. If you get a fish on your line that your lure can't handle, the line will break and you have to cast again.  A tenth fish, the giant shark, broke every lure I ever managed to hook him on--though I suspect if you create a long enough chain you could actually catch one.

Each rod upgrade allows you to cast your line progressively further out to sea (and, by extension, deeper into the depths of the ocean), and each fish you catch will give you a bit of a time extension in addition to padding your wallet. If you can't rescue the little boy on the other side before time runs out, you'll be informed that "Night has fallen and the boy was lost at sea." In the three games I played, though, the only time I "lost" was when I spent the whole time trying to catch a shark.

Fishing Girl does one thing (catch fish), and it does it pretty well. The graphics are about as pretty as anything I've seen in an XBIG, and the whole thing is just extremely well polished. Ten minutes is a little short, but the activity is so simple that I'm not sure I would want to play it for much longer than that in a single sitting. At only 80 points, Fishing Girl is a great game to have lying around for any time you want to queue up a longer download, and I have no problem giving it the WorthThePoints seal of approval!