Dynamite Fishing - World Games Review (PS4)

Fish, eh? Sitting under the water, frustrating fishermen by only nibbling their bait once every few hours. Well, no more. A dedicated lowbrow crew of virtual fishers who include Redneck Joe and Wild Wendy are taking the fight back to the fish – with dynamite. And you're invited to throw caution - and large amounts of highly powerful explosives - to the wind with the special PlayStation 4 version of Dynamite Fishing - World Games.

This is a game that lives exactly up to its name. You 'fish' by taking to the waters in an assortment of boats and lobbing dynamite at the creatures beneath you. There's also an opponent, either human or artificial intelligence, who'll try to beat you by blowing up more fish than you can. A simple premise, and one that simulates the illegal and massively non-politically correct 'sport' in colourful HD graphics.

The controls, as you can perhaps imagine, are of the equally simple sort; move left or right and throw explosives to your heart's content. That said, there are some tactics to master, and fun super weapons to unlock and wield that include an electrocuting toaster, a crazy squirrel bomb, a gatling gun and, yes, even a nuke. Needless to say that the fish are in all sorts of trouble.

The action gets frantic in an arcade style as you race to rack up the biggest haul of fish. You can work your way up the leaderboards of several different cups, each set in varying locales, and there are 10 different boats to upgrade, too. Speaking of role-playing game elements, in a very broad sense, each character has their own unique super power that can lay a world of hurt on the underwater critters – which includes the ability to call in a fully-fledged air strike. No, Dynamite Fishing - World Games isn't exactly subtle.

What adds a little spice to what would otherwise be a massively one sided slaughter is that some of the fish can fight back – so you'll have to dodge as gangster fish packing guns take pot shots at you or launch floating barrels of TNT to try and sink your boat. The multiplayer element, meanwhile, sees you able to underhandedly attack your opponents by unleashing you super weapon against them in a bid to sink their vessel. The competitive side of things requires limited brain power, but is surprisingly entertaining when down to your last bar of boat health and try to nab that last big catch.