Ridiculous Fishing Impressions: Insanity Beneath The Sea

Ridiculous Fishing: A Tale of Redemption is the perfect title for this game. Not only does it convey one of the craziest fishing expeditions you’ll ever go on, it also speaks to the troubles developer Vlambeer faced after creating a Flash-based game called Radical Fishing. As fan enthusiasm for this crazy Flash title grew, the team decided to create an iOS version. Production started on December 7, 2010, and was going swimmingly until another developer created a clone of the game, called Ninja Fishing. This game copied every aspect of Vlambeer’s title, except rather than shooting fish with a gun, they’re sliced in two with a sword. Vlambeer wasn’t going to beat this clone game to the market. After Ninja Fishing hit Apple’s App Store and found success, Vlambeer’s interest in finishing the iOS version of Radical Fishing diminished. The team thought about killing it.

Fan support rallied the team to keep the project alive, but development didn’t necessarily pick up at that point. People on the team became more intertwined in the development of Hundreds, Spelunky, Gasketball, and Spelltower. Development on the Radical Fishing barely moved forward until the team dove fully into the project again in the summer of 2012.

Production concluded in late February, and the aptly named Ridiculous Fishing: A Tale of Redemption was born. It hit Apple’s App Store on Tuesday, and I gotta say, Vlambeer knocked it out of the park.

Stepping into the hip waders of a fisherman named Billy proves to be an oddly intense and immensely entertaining experience. The first phase of the game follows the basic concept of fishing as we know it: Drop a line into the water.

Rather than trying to get a bite, the goal is to avoid fish and get the line as deep as you possibly can. Money obtained by playing the game allows you to attach electrical items like hair dryers to the line that will fry fish that try to grab the line. You can also equip a drill as a lure to violently descend to a greater depth.

Once a fish eventually hooks itself, Billy starts reeling him in. On the way to the surface, he wants to hook as many other fish as he can. We’re not talking about a few fish here. He can hook dozens at once. He can also pull up all kinds of sea life, like crabs and snails. The only thing he doesn’t want on his line is a jellyfish. For whatever reason, Billy hates jellyfish.

When the fish eventually reach the surface, Billy doesn’t keep them for food or weigh them for competition. Instead, he launches them high into the air and shoots them. Every fish shot earns Billy cash. If he accidentally blasts a jellyfish, he loses money. Billy uses a pistol from the outset, but can eventually upgrade to more ridiculous killing means, like a bazooka or orbital ray.

Billy is also somewhat of a collector. He keeps a Fish-o-pedia of all of the sea life he kills. In a way, this aspect of the game is like Pokémon. Rarer fish are found at greater depths, thus the reason you want to get your line as deep as you can.
If you want to get to know Billy a little more, you can read his Byrdr (Twitter) timeline. He’s the kind of guy who posts tweets like “Now this is a line. #rollindeep.”

Ridiculous Fishing: A Tale of Redemption is a great game. The gameplay is fun, and the unlockable items and new fishing spots give it legs. You can grab it now for $2.99.