If you have an Android phone and spend any amount of time on Google Play, you’ve probably heard of Desert Island Fishing. It’s been an Early Access game for a while, so it’s been on my radar for months. I finally decided to try it to see what all the hype was about, and let me tell you, it’s absolutely worth a download.
Solitude
Desert Island Fishing begins by opening up on someone stranded on a desert island armed only with a fishing rod. The game then tells you how to cast your line and wait for a bite. Once you’ve gotten a bite, you’ll learn how to reel it in. Before long, you’ll have caught your very first fish.
Fish aren’t the only thing you can catch in Desert Island Fishing, though. You can also catch a PDA, a globe, a game cartridge, and a few other items which end up being game features. For example, the globe lets you switch to other islands with other stranded fishers with their own backstories. The game cartridge installs a minigame you can play whenever you want. After a few minutes of fishing your game will stop looking like it does in the above pictures, and will start looking like this:
Still all about the fish
At the end of the day, though, Desert Island Fishing is all about the fish. There are all sorts of fish (and non-fish things, like driftwood) you can catch, depending on how deep you cast your line. While you can catch and sell as many fish as you want to build up money, there are also sets you can complete (which are kind of like missions or quests) for rewards. When you do complete a set (say, catching four different types of Angelfish), you have the opportunity to read a self-improvement book (in other words, you can level up).
To complete some of these sets, you’ll need to fish different areas. There are two ways to do this: you can either move to a different person on a different island, or buy a new fishing pole (or upgrade your current one). You can also buy different types of baits to attract more rare types of fish. Aside from buying bait and poles, you can also buy hooks, which make it easier to catch fish once they’ve bitten.
Switching to a different person on a different island doesn’t just give you a different pool of fish, it also gives you a different story. That’s because Desert Island Fishing has an interesting story for each character which unfolds through social media. This just adds to the charm and feeling of depth.
While the story adds intrigue to the game, at the end of the day it is an excellent way to unwind and catch some virtual fish. You can play with one hand at your own pace, and you can fish all day long if you want, since there is no energy system or anything like that. Desert Island Fishing is an excellent fishing simulator for your smartphone, and is one of the most relaxing mobile games you can play. It’s free to play, so go ahead and give it a try if you have an Android, as it is unfortunately not on iPhone yet. Happy fishing!
Download Desert Island Fishing for Android
