I've played a lot of fishing games for various platforms. The latest comes to us from Atlus, called Pro Fishing Challenge. This fishing game is more of a "SIM" than other fishing offerings from previous game creators. PFC is a more in-depth, challenging experience; rather than a simple "cast and catch" game as many in the past have been.

Pro Fishing Challenge starts you with a character creator. You can choose from male or female (sorry, no aliens) with various body styles, haircuts and clothing to embellish yourself with. However, these options are very limited. Despite my efforts, I was unable to create a sportsman that even closely resembled myself. Instead, I looked like a cross between the "Brawny" paper towel guy and and model for The Gap. The selections were just plain bad. Worse were the women. There were plenty of "husky" looking female forms. It was almost stereotypical. You could either play as a butch-haircut biker babe, or a scantily clad tropical model. Neither of whom I have even witnessed fishing in our local lakes. Enough about that.

Like all fishing games, you get to select your mode or transport (that's a fancy phrase for "boat") and your tackle (that's the lures, rod and etc for you non-fishing types). Things cost money. To better your arsenal, you need to be successful. Win some tournaments, get some sponsors, and you'll have the latest and greatest of everything. Simple enough? Not for this game!

There are not many (upfront) places to choose for your fishing experience, though more can be unlocked as you progress. I did not care for the boat handling and lack of subtle movements. I think, perhaps, they tried too hard to create a realistic sim. Steering the boat in full motion was horrible, and subtle movement with the trolling motor was a waste. But, I managed to get where I needed to be, despite these annoyances. They did not get in the way of actually fishing, but worth mentioning as they effect the overall fun-factor.

Once you are in your chosen spot (you can use a fish finder if desired), you just cast out and reel them in at will. OK, not really. Casting is a serious chore in itself. At first, I was annoyed and just plain ticked off by the procedure. Then, my patient-side kicked in and I reminded myself that this was a different type of fishing game than those I had played in the past. Casting, in real life, is not easy at first. Releasing the line more than a foot was a major victory for me when I was young, and the same goes here. Like in most golfing games, you have a meter/bar to watch and "release" at just the right spot for a sweet cast. Despite hours of playing, I never did master that 100%, but did well enough to be successful. The bar-meter moves just too darn fast!! It is very hard to hit the sweet spot on that meter and get the lure just where you want it to go. I just repeated over and over "close enough", in order to keep me sane. There is also a side-cast maneuver which I utilize in real life quite often. In this game, I barely used it at all. It is a valuable tool for getting under brush and man-made objects (ie: docks) to enhance your chances of success. Fish like that kind of cover, and this sim knows it. The big ones live there, but my inability to side-arm cast with accuracy cost me a lot of "winners", I'm sure.

The look of the game, aside from the horrible clothing and characters, is very nice. Unlike all the other games I have played like this, your view is top-water. Every other fishing venture allows you to see your lure hit the water, drop underneath and reveal all of the little fishies swimming about. That allows you to pull a lure right in the face of a bass, which is not real life!  In PFC, you cast, the bait falls underwater and you reel it in with whatever technique is most effective for that lure. You don't no where the lure is, much less IF there are any fish in the vicinity. That, my angling brethren, is real fishing. Even with a fish-finder, real fishing is a blind sport of skill and some luck. Mastery of lure motion (jigging, jerking, dropping) and reel speed make it more than a drunken hobby for a Sunday afternoon. All you see is the (nice!) dark water surface and an occasional thrilling break in the water when a fish thrashes upward trying to free itself. 

The sounds are very nice. The motor of the boat is done very well. Obviously sampled directly from an actual outboard motor. A simple detail, but something I have never understood in previous fishing games that opt for a digital "interpretation" of a motor. The water splashes, trolling motor hum and reeling sounds all sounded real. Again, setting itself apart from other fishing games by insisting that it be taken seriously as a simulation. The music, however, was flat and too generic. A feature that can be ignored. 

It is called Pro Fishing Challenge for a reason. "Challenge" being the operative word. I have played some fishing games that almost guarantee a catch every time you cast, but this is the exact opposite-- and realistic in that aspect. There is nightly online XBL tournament play, but not being a subscriber to that service, I did not experience that. That might be fun, though. You can play against 7 other anglers (fisher-persons). Odd for me is the fact that, without exception, I never lost a single fish I hooked. Freaky. I have mentioned it in previous reviews and will again here-- catching a fish is easy... landing it is not. I paid close attention to the drag meter and took hints from the on-screen prompts which suggest where to point your rod tip. This worked very well for me. I was truly astonished by this feat. I landed some very nice specimens, too. So, as hard as it may be in some areas, I did quite well actually getting them in the boat where they belong. I suppose it has to do with the fact that it is so challenging just to get that strike, I paid superb attention to reeling it in with the utmost caution. 

It's a fun game, though I have to reiterate that it IS a sim. This is not a cast-and-catch easy game a la Bass Fishing for Dreamcast. I have also recently learned that there is a fishing controller for the Xbox. Maybe that's old news to some, but a thrilling attraction to me, as I enjoy this genre so much. I hope it works (well) with this game. Since it is new (I believe), it may not be suited for this game. I'll follow up on my experience once I obtain that controller. I love the one I have for my Dreamcast (and yes, I still play it).