How to Fish has a simple way of making fishing interesting: let players fight their catch. Released on 20 August 2026 by Dazed Games, the game quickly attracted attention. Dazed Games reported that it sold more than one million copies in two days. Its strange mix of fishing and weapons makes that popularity understandable, but the experience left me wanting better pacing.
According to its Steam page, How to Fish is a physics-based game for one to four players. After a boating accident leaves them stranded, players catch and sell fish, buy equipment, complete quests and fight bosses to reach new islands. Dazed Games describes the basic loop simply:
“Fish fish, kill fish, sell fish.”
The most enjoyable part for me was the unusual idea behind it. I have seen funny videos online where someone catches nothing after a whole day of fishing and finally reaches for a gun. The sudden change from patience to frustration is what makes those videos amusing. How to Fish lets players take part in that kind of joke. Catching a fish does not mean the fight is over. Fish continue moving after they are brought onto land, and players must kill them. A familiar activity becomes a funny fight. This game gives players something unexpected to do with their catch, making its humour part of the action.
That is why this style of gameplay is so popular among players; it allows them to do somethings that would be completely illogical in conventional fishing. “How to Fish” clearly conveys its core concept without the need for a complex storyline. However, the game also reveals its greatest weakness when it comes to combat. An online clip only needs one good punchline to be funny. A game has to give players reasons to repeat its actions. Once the surprise becomes familiar, new weapon should help player keep the idea entertaining. This makes the timing of weapon upgrades especially important, because they are part of how the game delivers more of its promised fun.
During the early part of my playthrough, I mainly relied on my fists or a small knife. Guns in the shop were expensive compared with what I could afford. That made them something to work towards, but it also kept the more unusual fishing methods out of reach. Buying the noob pistol did not deliver the improvement I expected. In my experience, it seemed to do less damage than the knife I already had. After working towards a gun, I expected a more useful tool for fighting fish. Instead, the purchase made me question whether the upgrade had been worth the money. Of course, damage is not the only thing that matters. A gun lets players attack from a distance, which can make it useful even when each hit is weaker. Still, that advantage did not make the purchase feel rewarding to me. Progress should encourage players to try new equipment, rather than make them miss their cheaper weapon. The game’s short length makes this problem more noticeable. By the time I had powerful weapons that felt satisfying to use, the game was already approaching its ending. There was too little time left to enjoy the equipment I had been working towards. A short game can still feel complete. My disappointment came from how the available time was used. More affordable early guns, a more rewarding starter pistol, or additional challenges after obtaining stronger equipment could give the adventure a better rhythm. Simply adding more repetitive tasks would not solve that problem.
How to Fish succeeds at turning an absurd fishing joke into something enjoyable to play. Its strange idea was enough to keep me interested, but its equipment system and short length did not give that idea enough room to develop. Overall, I wanted more time with the best parts, especially the weapons I had spent the game trying to obtain.
Holly Martin 
Mei 
Kourosh