You might enjoy this fishing roguelike shooting game if you enjoyed Webfishing. Your catches will mercilessly shoot you down.

Recently, I've enjoyed Webfishing quite a bit. It's a neat, little multiplayer fishing game that lets you customize your pixelated dog (or cat). As I had interesting conversations with strangers along the river, I couldn't resist wondering if the experience would be enhanced if the catches were able to shoot bullets out of their eyes. The answer is: Sorta.

Lake of Creatures, a new roguelike by Antenna Games is a solid game. It does exactly what it says: you swoop through a series of lakes full of mutant fish, alternately shooting them down and catching them.

It's an interesting concept that works well in execution. While the gunplay is pretty standard, the fishing mechanism adds a new layer to your standard top-down shoot 'em up. To extend your casting line you must swing it around, then click the bobber to stop it mid-swing. It's a bit like having a flail that has a button to freeze its head in mid-air. A fish can bite the button. I've lost all control of this metaphor.

After you've cleared out a room, fish will appear. Sometimes there'll even be multiples. This turns fishing into its own cute combat challenge, as the remaining ones will often try to mercilessly shoot you down. The minigame of catching them is a timing game where you have to click at just the right time to deal critical damage. A whiffed reel will still hurt them slightly.

You can also pick up a gun and an arsenal of weapons. There are also Binding of Isaac upgrades, such as a boat speed boost, poison bullets and a floating tridents to stab your opponents. There's a melee weapon, which highlights the flaws in Lake of Creatures.

It's possible that I am not using my skills correctly, but the game feels appropriately floaty. The boat's speed can be increased with upgrades, but it steers like molasses. This can be frustrating in a bullet-hell. This gives the game charm but it doesn't work with the roguelike aspects, where even one heart of damage can put you in serious trouble. I would often cut down a fish with my machete, as you do, and send my boat careening into a bullet that was fired by my opponent just nanoseconds earlier.

I also noticed some strange framerate slowdowns, which is concerning, given that this is a pixel art game and I do not have an horriblePC. I checked the options to see if I had uncapped the framerate. I nearly melted my new PC by not doing this when I played Moonlighter at 400 frames per seconds.

As this is the first commercial venture of the solo developer, I'm willing to chalk it up as something that will be fixed in the future. Lake of Creatures is a cheap roguelike with a novel idea. Now excuse me, I have mutant tuna to slay.