Sega Bass Fishing

"Fishing is fun"

Sega bass fishing's effort to capture the naturalistic innocence of fishing earns respect with simple controls and admirable fishing graphics, but hardcore music and a too difficult tournament mode slice through the attempt like a fisherman gutting a prod. In real life, fishing allows you a lapse in reality foregoing the rigors of daily life. The peaceful, serenity of sitting on a still lake, listening to birds chirp, frogs croak, smelling the sweet morning dew of wet vegetation is an experience many cherish. Wouldn't it seem strange if a big galut brought along a gigantic stereo system, blasting out heavy metal?

Sega Bass Fishing strips away the beauty of fishing. Instead, it injects heavy metal to match the confined fishing area that turns the fishing into an arcade game rather than a leisure sport. With areas so small, you won't strategize too often, in fact the boats anchor themselves to one location. You cannot travel to a different part of the lake if the current spot lacks any fish. Sega Bass Fishing forces you to sit in one stagnate spot, only able to move left or right until a sea rock or bordering dock prohibits movement. It's like fishing inside of a big bathtub with fish swimming around just a few feet from you.

While you may be fishing in a cramped bathtub, and strategy isn't important, exciting, tension-filled moments reign heavily throughout the experience. For sure, staring at fish as it slowly nudges its way to your lure, your eyes almost willing the fish to bite, brings a heightened sense of anticipation seldom felt in other games. The underwater camera zooms on the lure, and for a brief second you'll ignore the ridiculous punk music, urging that fish to bite. Sometimes it'll bite causing your held breath to rush out from relief; sometimes it doesn't. You'll soon find yourself hurling insults at the screen when you notice the big blocky numbers counting down to 0, and a huge fish roams nearby, toying with your lure, but won't bite. Sega Bass Fishing draws out heavy emotion when you play, but to achieve those highs and lows, you need to utilize a childish engine that's too easy.

Since not much holds on the strategy side, you'll hope Sega bass Fishing provides a deep cast/lure engine to capture the little idiosyncrasies of fishing. Depending on the size and power, real anglers strenuously wrestle with fish as the sweat pours from their face, teeth clenching in stress trying to pull that stubborn fish in the boat. Here, the game uses a “tension” bar that rises whenever the fish threatens to demolish the line, along with a “hold the line!” quip from a some hidden voice. All you have to do is reel until the bar spazzes upward, wait for the meter to drop back down, then continue reeling. That's it. That's the extent of the engine. Numerous and different lures fail to provide any significant interest to the lackluster fishing mechanism because they all perform the same purpose; planting the bait in the water and reeling.

Even the tournament mode, full of a gigantic list of competitors delivers nothing but statistical numbers to compete with. You'll still find yourself alone in a tub, fighting against the clock, except the time is split up in sessions. Tournament members must perform some sort of magic on the water, as they'll continually dominate your score no matter how well you perform. If you had a great round able to pluck three 10 pound beasts out the water, the rest of the field will effortlessly destroy that great round. Among the 40 entries, you'll only end up somewhere in the middle and each round you will sink further and further until you eventually give up.

Hardcore, 80's rock music drones throughout the entire game, chucking the innocent nature of fishing overboard. Guitar riffs and chaotic drum rolls don't quite fit the soft, serene sounds of waves softly bumping the dock walls, or the “zip!” of a line reeling out into the water. It attempts to convey the notion that this is an arcade game, where fast music is necessary to complete the mood, but the fishing engine is too weak to establish Sega Bass Fishing's purpose. Either the music should have been more woolly, or the action more frenetic so that everything balances out.

Games with such hardcore music bring up a fishing scene of wild piranhas who would savagely devour bait held in wild warrior's hand. No water jackets, no puny single engine boats, no cute frogs croaking their love songs, no calm serene waters to gently bob up an down---the music is too rugged. But, that's exactly what Sega Bass Fishing looks like. The overall look of the game simply doesn't match the music. Bass fish hardly look menacing among the soft roundness of the face and chubby body resembling the smiling bald-headed Buddhist of Chinese religion. You'll notice cute dragon flies dancing on the water, turtles hanging out, little snakes performing fancy spirals, even the childhood favorite lightning bug makes an appearance, displaying its cool neon green prosthetic. Each fishing bathtub reside on peaceful locations, like the backyard lake of a large country summer home, or the typical fishing lodge complete with log cabins. Your fishing character probably works insurance in the daytime, or some safe 9-5 job. The game is just a few splashes away from a children's title.

Admittedly, its difficult translating that relaxing-but-edgy nature of fishing into a videogame. The effort is sound; the game nails the tension exuding from the confused hungry fish while reeling and casting remain simple enough to execute. But, there's nothing to flesh out the experience since the tournament mode swims in a pool of unwarranted headache. Not to mention the sludge that resides all over the music; 80's rock is a horrible selection for a fishing game. The sport of fishing holds little weight except to true fans and this title represents the casual gamer's perspective. If that's your position, then cast away.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 06/20/04