Fishing Games

Fishing Without The Water

You don’t have to know anything about the sport of fishing to love fishing games! Fishing games bring the relaxation and focused practice of fishing to the convenience of the small screen and can be a real oasis of calm in your hectic life.

Fishing Games, Fish Games and Fishy Games

Classic fishing games are simply a sub-type of the sports or simulation genres — they try to emulate some aspect of the sport of fishing in game form. Of course, if you fish, you’ll know that “the sport of fishing” is a very wide category! There’s seawater and freshwater, each with many different methods of bringing in your catch. Once you factor in the enormous variety of fish there are in the world, you have enough material for all the fishing sims you could ever want!

Then, of course, there are the games that incorporate fishing mini-games. From Grand Theft Auto to Zelda, fishing has been a staple of RPG side-quest missions for years. And even those simple fishing games can be more absorbing than you’d think — Many a player has found themself behind on a main story quest because they’re hopelessly caught up with their pole and line!

Finally, there are the games which are just plain fishy! Maybe they feature fish or are about fish. They can be as simple as a fun, fishy theme to a classic puzzle or tile-matching game or they can go further and be completely about fish. The famously weird SeaMan on the Sega Dreamcast was just that — an ever-evolving, fish-like virtual pet that you could talk to with a microphone.

Whatever the type, all fishing games have that magic ability to hold your attention despite not promising any action. That’s perhaps the secret of their enduring attraction. It’s the enjoyment of time that moves to a different rhythm. It’s a chance to interact with the world of water.

At First There Were Fish

You might think fishing is a strange subject for video games. After all, games are usually thought of as fast-paced and adrenaline-fueled. Nevertheless, fishing games have been a regular fixture in video game line-ups since the very beginning of the games industry.

In fact, fishing games have been around since before we really had true video games at all. The very first was a text adventure released back in 1977, which ran on the TRS-80, an ancient home “microcomputer” that was launched that year. It was an entirely text-based black-and-white experience and closer to a tabletop game like Dungeons and Dragons than to anything we’d call a game today.

Then There Were More Fish

True fishing games have been present on every console released since then. By the early eighties, better graphics meant that fishing games could start to simulate more and more of the real-life fishing experience. Controls became rapidly more complex and nuanced and gave players a real challenge. Indeed, the ill-fated Sega Dreamcast once thought so much of its Sega Bass Fishing game that it included a fishing rod peripheral in the box!

The Zelda franchise was a major leader in fishing side games. The introduction of the fishing mini-games wasn’t planned for the games. They were first thought up by a Nintendo game designer who was supposed to be working on boss encounters. He built the earliest version of the fishing mini-games as a break! It wasn’t until his bosses caught him that they decided to add the element to the actual game. That tells you all you need to know about the relaxing power of fishing, even in game form!

The games industry moves quickly, of course, and games about fish have also expanded and mutated in every direction and all at once. Today games like Dredge take the idea of pulling things from the water into entirely new and spooky directions, while games like Spiritfarer wrap fishing up with other gathering and crafting mechanics to take fishing games in a more cozy direction.

Fishing Games Forever

All these games take some part of the satisfaction of fishing as a sport and distill it into a gamified experience, offering some instant rewards. Some strip the sport back to the essential ingredients to focus on technique and timing. Others try and recreate the slow, meditative experience of open ended, calm focus.

Fishing Games Here On GamePix

Fishing games are a natural fit for totally free, in-browser gaming. At Gamepix, we’ve collected many of the best fishing games around and present them all here, ready to play on any device with no downloads or installs needed. Among others in our huge selection are;

Straight, arcade-style fishing games like Novice Fisherman, which focus on precision and timing
In-depth simulations games like Azure Sea Fishing, which offer realistic cast mechanics, wide open skies and the sounds of the sea
Games that take virtual fishing off in strange and wonderful new directions — maybe you want to try Ice Fishing or become a predatory fish in the pitch-black depths, looking for Abyssal Fish to eat?
Fish-themed versions of classic game types. Maybe you want to try an Io game like Fishing Io or Oceanar Io?

There really is something for you, no matter what kind of gamer you are. All of our fishing games are and ready to go — just click (or tap) to play on any device and browser. So, whether you’re an experienced fisherman looking to work on your game during the working week or a soccer mom trying to kill a few minutes while waiting to pick up the kids, our fishing games might just be your catch of the day!

FAQs

How do you play fishing games?

Like most types of game now, fishing games come in a very wide range of styles and genres, as well as every tone from serious sim to light-hearted idle game. As you’d expect, the controls are just as varied. Some are simple, swipe-friendly mobile games. Others need you to master very complex controls or even use a specialized peripheral. All of the browser fishing games we have here on GamePix are easy to play as well as being free and working on any device with a browser.

Are fishing games fun?

Absolutely! There are fishing games of every type and tone out there, so there’s one for you, whatever kind of action you like to play. And while some of them might lean towards faster-paced action, they all have fish in them, which keeps them relaxing.