One of my fave Xbox Live Indie Games...

I love the graphic style, and it's a great game - simple controls, and addictive gameplay.

For more info, read the reviews by Dhalamar and Smallcavegames - fantastic reviews, guys!

Only 80 points = an absolute must buy :D

Simple, inexpensive, artistic, fun and well thought out, this is a fantastic little gem of a fishing game.
I just love the look and feel of the game, and the control of the fishing casting is very intuitive. There are many different kinds of fish, different upgrades you can get to your rod and lures, and different values based on the rarity of the fish you catch.
Lots of fun to be had here, I'm glad a game like this has surfaced!

This game surprised me. I didn’t think it would be so bloody addictive, and it’s quite possibly one of the more simplest games I’ve ever played as far as concept. It even has a story. When you start the game these two cute little … things … are doing whatever, but then the boy’s island starts moving away. So the girl snatches up a fishing rod and goes fishing to get him back.

Yes, it sounds stupid, but it works well for the game.

And it’s maddeningly addictive. After I went through the trial and unlocked the game I must have sat there for at least an hour just messing around. And it didn’t even feel like an hour, this is one of THOSE games. You reel the girls’ boyfriend back in, and you’re just like “okay, just one more”. And the game’s 10 minute time limit (which can be turned off) is perfect for stuff like that because you can easily play this just to kill a little time, and you can also play it for an hour or two and never get bored.

Graphically, even though it’s pretty simple, it fits perfectly not trying to do anything that doesn’t fit. Put simply, they’re gorgeous for what it is. The stage looks great, the fish look great and have their own cutesy style personalities and everything. Everything works and it works extremely well.

The sound is perfectly suited to this game. There is no music in the game, all you have is the sound of water and waves and whatnot which really lends itself to just how calming the game really is. The sound effects are just as minimal, but it doesn’t need loads of sound effects. What’s there fits perfectly.

The gameplay … you literally use 2 buttons in the entire game. You hold down A to charge up your initial cast, and you hold down A again to reel in your line. With the bigger fish, you have to tap A to reel it in. And it’s not the annoying furious tapping, you just tap the button. You aim for the orange floating balls in the water, and you can use money you’ve gotten from catching fish to get different lures to catch bigger fish and better rods where you can cast out further eventually snagging the island for the boyfriend and reeling IT in to reunite them. And you hit the B button to switch between your different types of lures.

Granted, it’s not much. But there are also badges in the game that you can collect for doing various things. Like buying each of the items from the store, or collecting so much money or catching each type of fish which really extends the gameplay quite a bit.

8.5 – (rounded up to a 9 for XBLARatings) This is a beautifully well done game that deserves your 80 points. That’s all there is to it.

More reviews on Wasted Seconds

How very interesting. For those of you who are familiar with Lost Garden, you may already know the origins of this game. I remember back when that game-making challenge kicked off. This XBLIG release is not the first or only version of "Fishing Girl," but it is the first one I've played - and it's a nice filet of casual gaming.


With graphics courtesy of the Lost Garden guru Daniel Cook, there's no denying the high level of visual appeal. The smooth simple lines, and colorful fish against the neutral background create a beautiful little world that's pleasing to the eye. The clean interface and easy to grasp concept follow suit - creating a casual experience that will appeal to a wide range of gamers.

So what are we talking about here in terms of gameplay? Well, it's time to go fishing - that's right. You're little bear-like creature has access to rods, some lures, and a lake stock full of small, medium, and large fish (along with some superhuge sharks). In general, it's as simple as casting your line and reeling in some fish - you only will use one button (well two, but barely), and you won't be sweating over it. In fact, this game has the opposite effect - it's actually really relaxing and I believe that to be the intent.

There are some intuitive gameplay elements that add to the feeling of progression and reward. Certain lures are better than others, and only work on the appropriate fish. Larger fish will strip you of smaller lures, and weaker fishing rods won't allow you to cast very far or deep into the lake. You eventually need to catch enough fish so that you can earn money to buy upgrades and progress towards the endgame (which I will leave unsaid).

There are varying rarities of fish too, so as you become better at casting, you can attempt to catch the rarest fish and earn more money. This concept taps in to the addictive "collector" mentality, and it's hard to temper the desire grab those fish that are most elusive and hard to come by.


One nice bonus that I appreciate is that there is a little story involved that will help motivate you to keep fishing and progressing - nothing monumental by any means, but effective. Another nice little touch is a built in achievement system that rewards you for hitting certain milestones and achieving perfect casts, etc. They are well-conceived to make you keep playing towards separate goals and had these been real achievements, they'd actually carry some serious weight.

The main issue some players will have with Fishing Girl is that the challenge level is really low, and the overall experience is quite short. Because other Flash versions of the game exist (although most are quite different than this version), I can't imagine this being priced at anything other than 80MP. But at that price, it's a perfect fit and a very worthwhile impulse buy. While nearly polar opposite to I MAED A GAM3 W1TH ZOMBIES 1N IT!!!1 (grrr), it's another great example of simple but well-designed game that will appeal to many at that price. It's a nice trend we're seeing. If you're open to a more casual experience and enjoy a little fishing, I recommend this one.

Fishing Girl is based on a Game Prototyping Challenge set just under a year ago. The idea was to create a game using the available resources (graphics, scripts etc) and some predefined gameplay rules to make a fully playable game, you can read the story in full here. Some months later Fishing Girl is released on the 360 Indie Games featuring most of the ideas found in the challenge.

Fishing Girl puts you in control of a female bear-like character who is split from her boyfriend at the start of the game due to the ground separating and creating a large lake filled with fish. Her aim is to be reunited with her boyfriend, I wont say how you reunite the two but it should not be hard to work out.

Read the rest at Emuholic's Game Blog

Girl and Boy love each other. Some cataclysmic event causes Boy to separate from Girl by deviding the earth below them with a body of water filled by fish. In order for Girl to reunite with Boy, she must catch the fish in order to upgrade her fishing pole to cast to Boy and reel the land back together.

Yeah yeah...sounds simple and dumb, but the relaxing environment and ease of gameplay make this game great. It's not too challenging, Hold A to pull your pole back, and release A to cast. The challenge come in the form of some fish being a little tricky to catch. The only thing what I would ask of this game, is the ability for my young daughters to fish along with me. That aside, one of the better games with a $1 price tag on it.

Priced at just $1 it is games like this that Xbox Live Indie Games was made for. With great graphics, simple controls, and a relaxed playing style there is nothing I can think of that they could add to make Fishing Girl any better.