In real life, fishing is generally considered a tranquil activity. After plunging your hook into the water, all you can do is wait around, eating sandwiches and drinking tea out of a thermos flask.

But in the world of videogames, fishing is about as exciting as it gets. Power Fishing – the latest arcade fishing sim from developer Purple Ocean – is proof of this, with its gleaming hi-res presentation, addictive RPG gameplay, and blistering pace.

The whole business of casting out a line and reeling in a fish works in a similar way to a golf game, with a meter and a moving power bar that you need to stop in the right place. The difference is that the power bar jerks and slides around, while the stopping places appear and disappear at random.

In other words, it’s a bit like playing a golf game on a rollercoaster, which just makes it all the more satisfying when you successfully reel in a gleaming, beautifully detailed and slickly animated clownfish, or jon dory, or pacific hake, or whatever.

There’s a huge number of fish to collect, level-up, and register in your own personal fish tank. Why would you want to level-up a fish? Because players can raid each other’s fish tanks, and the stronger you make your fish the better their chances of escaping the hook.

Power Fishing has global leaderboards, countless rewards, tons of equipment, daily, weekly, and monthly missions, and a huge single player campaign that sees you working your way through several different environments.

Purple Ocean’s last fishing game, Fishing Hook, has been downloaded well over 50 million times, and boasts 600,000 daily active users. With that kind of pedigree, it’s safe to say that Power Fishing is worth a download.

Grab Power Fishing for free on Google Play right now.