Isle of Jura Fishing Trip review for Nintendo Switch, PC

As I see it, Isle of Jura Fishing Trip has two problems. One is fixable, the other isn?t.

I?ll start with the bigger problem: it?s a 3D game where you can?t control the camera. While plenty of games have figured out how to work around this limitation, Isle of Jura Fishing Trip has not. In fact, not only can you not see where you?re going half the time, there?s also no map, so you basically have to memorize the island and hope you don?t get stuck running into things that are just off camera. Thankfully the island isn?t particularly big, and your only goal here is to fish, but it still makes for gameplay that can occasionally be pretty frustrating.

As for the fixable problem: it costs more than twice as much on the Switch as it does on Steam. While I know that we all just accept the Nintendo tax as a thing, seeing it in action once again here is frustrating. Admittedly, given the publisher?s track record, I expect Isle of Jura Fishing Trip will go on sale for a more reasonable price regularly, but that still means you shouldn?t consider this game at full price under any circumstances.

At a (much) cheaper price, though? In that case, absolutely, as long as you?re not expecting too much. Isle of Jura Fishing Trip is exactly what its name suggests: a relaxing fishing trip. You walk out into the sea armed with a net and a fishing rod, and you catch undersea creatures of all sorts, then you go to the island restaurant and sell them. You occasionally reel in strange artifacts, which you then give to the island?s resident academic, but generally speaking, the point of the game is to fish.

And the fishing isn?t too bad, either. With a net, it?s as simple as waiting to spot something and then grabbing it, while with the main rod you just wait for something to nibble on your lure, then you (very slowly) reel it in. The only annoyance is when you get into fly fishing, and you have to start using the shoulder buttons to keep your lure in the right spot, but after some practice it becomes pretty doable.

Obviously, ?pretty doable? isn?t exactly glowing praise ? nor does a game with such a lousy camera deserve glowing praise. But Isle of Jura Fishing Trip is still decent enough if you just feel like fishing, assuming you get it at the right price.

Red Deer Games provided us with an Isle of Jura Fishing Trip Nintendo Switch code for review purposes.