Fisherman and MagicLine are the first games specially developed for 9210/9290 by Digital-Red. After being tested by internal personnel and our net friends (I could feel the quality of the games have been improved myself during the testing process), the games were finally announced a few days ago. They are the first 9210/9290 softwares developed for the Chinese market. Therefore, the release of games is worthy of cheering. In addition, the company has been contacting with our website for a long time and they also bring much convenience to users by helping our website to establish the on-line shop (available for users in China @ epocn.com). After experiencing these two games after they are formally released and testing period earlier, I hereby present you with the reviews on these two games.

Fisherman is a game combining intelligence and action and it can be said to be designed for experienced players. We must look out for information of left and right side as playing; meanwhile, our actions must be accorded with information of both sides so as to win against other (computer) opponents as soon as possible within the time.

With the startup of fishing game, players need different barges and fees in different places and skills of every computer player differ, too. Prize also differs from the fish we get from the same place. The goal is to see which player can be the first to get the regulated gross weight of fish. Users have to gain the money by winning the game to purchase better barges and fishing poles in order to join the higher level games, to challenge tougher competitors and to enjoy the real fun in fishing. The game itself has three different levels of fish corresponding three different baits. Also, those three different fish differ in the three fishing places. Choosing the right bait can shorten the time of struggling with fish and increase the probabilities in catching fish. High-level fishing poles can help decrease the difficulties in fishing.

Let’s see how to catch fish by a brief run through:

We have to select the right bait before fishing and wait for fish. Once the fish bites the bait, we can see the blood tube at right below and the rolling tube at left on the screen. The blood tube stands for the ratio of vitality of fish and durability of fishing line. When it moves to the green end, the fishing line breaks. When it moves to the red end, the fish will be angled. The left rolling tube means struggling of fish. When the red dobber moves to undertone area, it means that the fish stops struggling and rests. In this case, the player can continuously press the spacebar to roll back the fishing line; thus, it can hurry to reduce the vitality of fish. Otherwise, if we roll back fishing line as the fish is struggling, the durability of our fishing line will be decreased. On the screen, fish will move from side to side. The player must judge the location of the fish through the fishing line and adjust the fisher’s position. By doing so, the vitality of the fishing will decrease gradually; otherwise, the fishing line will be snapped because of too much pressure. If the fish is moving out of the screen, the player can’t chase it. But we can press the spacebar to keep the fish on the screen.

All right, after discussing the play mode and instructions, let’s begin to fish. First, start the game, this is the loading screen of the view of dusk with a few anglers standing by the riverside, and it’s very beautiful.

Press any key to continue to enter the main screen. You will discover that the functional buttons, Network and Settings, are still grey. According to engineers from Digital- Red, this current module is yet waiting for the wider testing and it will be added to the next version. Well, until then, we can sense the experts through the busy network and don’t feel a notch above other people any more.

Press Play to start the game. First, give yourself a player’s name and later the system will dispatch 2000 dollars as the participation fund. Hence, that’s all what you can get from the beginning, so be careful of using it if you want to get the champion. Press Next to go on.

Here is the selection of places and the shop where you can buy fishing poles and luxury barges. With the less money, all you can join is the competition for amateurs and all you can afford is a fishing pole. Therefore, you have to win out the amateur game so as to get the good points, to make your advantages, and to purchase the better equipment for the advantageous position in the next competition. The three places are for amateur, professional, and world class. You can press up and down of arrow key or Down button to switch and if you are prepared, press Start to begin!

The upper three buttons are three sorts of baits that are for easy, average, and difficult levels. The distinction of difficulties depends on the speed of the left side’s rolling tube: The faster it moves, the harder it becomes. The lowest button is quit. So, let’s begin after selecting the right bait!

Standing on the bow, you are facing the vast ocean with flying sea birds like sea gulls above, the rolling tube in the left side, blood tube of fish in the right bottom, and results of four competitors including yourself are in the right top (I leave out the details being mentioned above). In general, the main experience of this game relies on eyesight, reaction, and accordance (left hand press spacebar to withdraw the line, right hand press arrow key to track fish). As a result, the player must practice for several times to win out the game.

If we are unheeding, the fish will escape. This is the screenshot: Of course, we can gain more by putting the theory into practice and with some luck. Here is the screenshot of angling the 118-pound fish: After many tries, we win!

After winning, we can go on join the competition of the next level, the professional level. The championship is awaiting us!

In a nutshell, Fisherman is a fairly good game. It fully utilizes the accordance of eyesight and movement of the player. It’s full of challenge! After being used to it, the player can enjoy the success, especially from the designs of the different levels. Its graphics are richly colorful and also fully support the 4096-color TFT display of 9210. Yet, because the current version is still 1.0, the functional panels are still simple. Moreover, its readme file is not fully illustrated. In addition, even the player selects the easier level; the game is still hard to control. For the general players, success only comes out through trials and errors. It is suggested to adjust the levels of difficulties as to make the player enjoy success instead of losing patience after a few first rounds. As for the places, they seem monotonous. I recommend that some other tropical scenes or other places should be added. And so far, we players can only use its default keys, spacebar for withdrawing the line and arrow key for moving, self-defined keys for the player are also recommended. If being the case, it can cater to the player’s favors and also can also reduce the possibilities of consuming the keys. But as the version 1.0 like this software, it’s very excellent for the new release game to reach such a higher level. I feel genuinely happy and wish everyone can try this splendid game!

Fisherman can be downloaded from Digital Red's website.

Hope is the webmaster of Epocn, a Chinese (with an English translation) site for Nokia 9210 users. He kindly allowed the syndication of his review on All About ER6. The review has been translated from the Chinese orignal by Mac (a helper on Epocn), I have made a few changes, but wanted to leave it with the sentiments of the original reviewer and translator. Once again thanks to Hope.

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