Vlambeer’s Ridiculous Fishing — previously referred to as Radical Fishing — has already had one unlikely rebirth. The Dutch duo of arcade specialists was nonetheless within the strategy of turning their Flash sport Radical Fishing right into a fleshed-out model for iOS once they have been gazumped by the launch of successful clone on the App Retailer… after which one other… after which one other. One among them, Ninja Fishing, was a giant hit. However Vlambeer persevered, turning the combat in opposition to clones within the cellular gaming Wild West right into a trigger célèbre for the indie developer group, and ultimately launched Ridiculous Fishing into instant-classic standing in 2013.
Ten years later, Ridiculous Fishing wanted one other save. The sport hadn’t been up to date since 2017 and had compatibility points with trendy units, however Vlambeer had disbanded in 2020. What to do? Enter Apple Arcade. Apple’s cellular gaming subscription service supplied Vlambeer a possibility to get the band — Rami Ismail and Jan Willem Nijman, plus collaborators Zach Gage (SpellTower) and Greg Wohlwend (Threes!) — again collectively for one final job: transforming their cellular stalwart in time for its tenth anniversary.
The end result, Ridiculous Fishing EX, belongs to that particular class of remakes that play precisely as the unique does in your reminiscence; solely while you examine them facet by facet do you notice how far superior the brand new incarnation is. Wohlwend’s distinctively angular artwork has been fully redrawn in 3D with out shedding any of its chunky, irreverent fashion. The sport’s foolish world of bizarro marine life and closely armed sport fishing has been fleshed out by way of the medium of an in-universe TikTok parody. And there’s an expanded new sport plus mode. However better of all, there’s a brand new, aggressive every day problem mode — the Professional Fishing Tour — that deconstructs, rewires, and remixes the sport in a approach that’s endlessly refreshing, whereas underlining the good simplicity at its core.
In Ridiculous Fishing, you fish, ridiculously. The sport has a quick, elastic, see-saw gameplay loop that’s laborious to place down. Forged your line into the water, tilting your cellphone to keep away from the swarms of fish because it plunges down, sending your lure as deep as you possibly can. Once you hit a fish, run out of line, or attain the underside, the lure begins to ascend — now the purpose is to snag as many fish as attainable on the way in which up. When your haul reaches the floor, the fish are forged excessive into the air, at which level you whip out your chosen firearm (a blunderbuss, maybe, or twin Uzis) and blast them to items earlier than they fall again into the ocean. Spend your earnings to unlock upgrades (longer line, new weapons, a useful chainsaw lure that may chew by way of fish on the way in which down, extra gasoline for mentioned chainsaw, and so forth). Then go once more. Regularly, you progress to new areas and deeper waters, bringing in additional fish with every haul.
![A stylized hand holds up a rough wooden iPhone in front of a fishing scene, the screen showing several destinations with names like Stormy Scenes listed](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/flnp4la_giACN9qizeHpp3KGdpw=/0x0:2048x2732/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:2048x2732):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24842374/Ridiculous_Fishing_EX_Screenshot_2048x2732_02.png)
Picture: Vlambeer/Apple
![A portrait oriented screen shows a lure plunging down a narrow channel full of fish, all drawn in an angular style](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zmVAvW3pJWmohjWJGoJbA78YQ5A=/0x0:2048x2732/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:2048x2732):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24842380/Ridiculous_Fishing_EX_Screenshot_2048x2732_06.png)
Picture: Vlambeer/Apple
The Professional Fishing Tour introduces preset every day challenges, organized into seasons, and growing in size and (typically) issue all through the course of every week. Every single day there’s a unique depth, and a rotating set of local weather results: Examples embody robust currents that tug at your line, trash that reinforces the pace of your hook when hit, a restricted variety of casts, no reload in your weapons, and heavy fish that don’t fly excessive. There are additionally results utilized to sure fish: They could inflict darkness when touched, be value extra if hit with the chainsaw, or flip into time bombs that may take out different fish. Lastly, there are every day quests that provide additional money rewards for sure meta-goals.
Mixed with two main rule modifications — finite ammo for the weapons, and finite fish within the sea — these modifiers rework Ridiculous Fishing EX. Typically they make the sport tougher, typically they make it extra gratifying. However they all the time make you rethink your ways and re-engage with the design of a sport that, on the floor, operates at a fundamental, lizard-brain degree. The seasons even have Diablo vitality in the way in which they periodically reset all of your upgrades and ask you to earn all of them from scratch. There’s a newly strategic angle to picking your upgrades every time, as you reply to the brand new parameters set every day.
Oh, and all of the money rewards have been dramatically elevated, so you possibly can earn tens of millions of {dollars} from a single forged, moderately than simply 1000’s. It’s meaningless, as a result of all of the upgrades price extra, too, but it surely’s a enjoyable little bit of overkill.
Ridiculous Fishing EX’s Professional Fishing Tour is designed round aggressive leaderboards, however to be trustworthy, I’ve by no means checked out them. It’s sufficient for me to log in and discover a decade-old, traditional piece of sport design twisted into an thrilling new form, each day.