Ninja Fishing

Ninja Fishing is a fun new game from Gamenauts. In it, you take control of a simple ninja who is fishing, if that wasn't obvious. Your goal is to catch and slice up as many fish as you can, earning plenty of money for upgrades and better equipment.

The game is split into two basic sections. The first is the fishing section. Using tilt controls, you guide the hook as low as you can possibly get it. You can somehow turn your hook into a drill to go through fish rather than hook them, but have a limited amount of fuel to do so. At the end of your line, you will come across a treasure chest which can also be hooked somehow. As soon as you hook one fish, the line gets reeled in. As that happens, you can continue to hook more fish, with a starting cap of 25. Once you reach the top, you move into the second phase of the game, which involves using your katana to slice the fish up. This is basically Fruit Ninja, except that several fish will take more than one hit to kill. You have to avoid slicing dynamite as all of this occurs, which begs the question…Who the heck is throwing all of that dynamite anyway?

After successfully catching and chopping your fish, you are given money to spend on upgrades. These upgrades range from a longer fishing line, more drill fuel, a higher return rate on fish, a stronger katana, among many others. Every upgrade feels like it impacts game play significantly, and none of them feel like a waste. The rate at which you can buy them is spaced out pretty well, adding a lot of longevity to the game.

The art is simple but great, and I loved the sound effects and music in this game. It's full of humor and charm. As you play, the Ninja is constantly making references to pop culture and other popular mobile titles, as well as giving the player tons of useful hints. Not only is the game all around well made and amusing, but it also supports just about everything. Game Center, OpenFeint, Facebook, and Twitter support are here, but unfortunately there are no achievements; only leader boards. The game can be extremely frustrating at times. Like if you mess up the fishing section several times, only to finally succeed and get the treasure chest, to then mess up the slicing section by hitting some dynamite early on. That kind of thing happens a little too often, but that was mostly my fault. I also have to note that it crashed on me a handful of times when I played it, and it was a little too frequent. Still, This is an awesome game for only one dollar. Check it out.