Topic: Fishing Derby

Activision is a good video game company, whose roots come from alllllllllllllllllllllllllll the way back to 1980. The Atari 2600 was Activision's birthplace, and Fishing Derby was one of their first games. And a great one at that!

Shortly before I graduated the 7th grade in 2004, I had tried a GBA cartridge called Activision Anthology. I had bought it because I loved the classics, and it was an anthology; a decent one too. This was one of those games, and I have so much fun with it today. Anyway, I digress; the object of the game is to fish up (heh) to 99 points before the adversary does. The scoring system is quite simple: the bottom two rows of fish are worth six points, the middle two rows are worth four, and the top two are (well) two. But just because it sounds that simple, doesn't mean that there's not an obstacle to beware of: the shark! If you fish up the fish before the shark gobbles it up, you're all good. But be careful, 'cause the shark will move from slow to fast or vice versa.
Every once in awhile, I play this game and I have fun with it from beginning to end. The graphics I thought looked good when I saw them back then, and I like them so much right now. I love how the fishing line just fluidly swings when you move the fishing rod forward or backward. So cool. The gameplay is very intuitive, and it's quite easy to follow. The shark looks good and black, like a real shark. I like to attempt to get the bottom fish and raise them before the shark gets a chance to eat them. I also appreciate how some fish will fight off your rod. I like little details like that.
Okay, so it sounds like the most simplistic thing yet. But it's the good type of simplistic, and I have fun with this game every time I play. When I feel like taking a (brief) break from platformers and/or RPGs, I go to revisit these classics, and the majority of them I like so much. One of Activision's best, right up there with Keystone Kapers (among others). A little short, yeah, but I don't mind.
Here's a video:
[youtube:cV9d-qD1eug&feature=related]
Peace!

Another great Crane game.

David Crane was a true genius.

Yeah this is a gem. I remember a video game shop in Chicago (well, an Atari shop -- not like there were any other consoles of note at the time -- take that Intellivsion!) that had a couple dozen 2600s connected to TVs and games on demo you could play, kind of like a free arcade! This game always had a crowd.