Fishing master is an arcade-style fishing game that centers on your progression from a fishing novice to a master of the sport under the tutelage of your grandfather. You'll begin each day at grandpa's house and then venture out for a day of fishing the rivers, lakes, and seashores of Japan. At the end of the day grandpa tallies your catch for the day, pays you for your fish, and gives you some words of encouragement which are occasionally followed by a promotion to a new fisherman rank. You'll occasionally be given goals by your grandpa and have opportunities to enter into fishing tournaments, but for the most part you'll spend the virtual day trying to land as many different fish as possible.

The fishing itself takes full advantage of the Wii's motion-sensing controls and the remote and numchuck do a good job of simulating a real rod, minus the tug on the line from the fish. To cast you flick the remote forward much as you would with a real rod, pressing the B button to release the line. When you hook a fish you need to jerk up on the remote and then rotate the nunchuck in a circular motion just as if you were turning the crank on a reel. To help prevent you from giving yourself Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from constantly moving your wrist in tight circles, you can also wiggle the nunchuck or simply use the C and Z buttons to reel the line in quickly or slowly. As you're reeling in the fish you'll need to keep an eye on a meter at the top of the screen that monitors the tension on the line. Too much tension and the line will snap, too little and the fish will get away. To control the tension you'll need to adjust the speed at which you're reeling in the line or by flicking the rod to the side. Occasionally the fish will dart to one side, and you'll need to flick the remote to the side indicated on the screen. Miss too many of these flicks and you can kiss your catch goodbye. When you finally get the fish close to shore a jerk of the rod will pull it out of the water and you'll get to see what you've caught.

Each fishing area features a short stretch of shoreline which you can move along to pick your spot to cast. Since you can see the location of the fish from shore, it's pretty easy to choose where you want to drop a line. The biggest challenge in the game comes from having the right bait on hand to try and land the rare fish, because unless you purposely cast your line to a completely open area of water you're sure to catch something within a few seconds. There is a certain amount of thrill and excitement to the fishing, but it soon begins to feel repetitive. The only gamers who will be able to stick with the game for more than short stretches at a time are those driven to complete the game's collection of fish. With 100 types of fish in the game of varying degrees of rarity, it will take some time to catch them all and complete your book of fish. Generally the only ones who have the patience for that sort of thing are those gamers that fall squarely in the preteen Pokemon club, so you'll get a lot more mileage out of the game if you're an 8 year old rather than a 28 year old.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 70%. Fishing Master is more akin to Pokemon than it is to a simulation of fishing, and will probably appeal the most to the "gotta catch them all" crowd.