'Bass Fishing' reels in fun by the ton

Sega Bass Fishing

Dreamcast

Sega

Fishing is probably one of the strangest genres of video games to have made it to this country, at least until the Japanese fish/man crossbreeding simulator "Seaman" comes over. The really weird thing about "Bass Fishing" is it's really fun.

This incarnation is not a simple simulation of sitting on the back of a rowboat and waiting for something you can't see to take your bait; you can see the lure under the water and the fish around it. A disembodied voice, presumably a backseat angler, rambles on about fish within striking distance. While this commentary on proximity is pretty good, he's dead wrong most of the time on how to move your rod. That's not a problem, however, because the game's learning curve is pleasantly low.

Arcade mode is a simple set of four stages requiring you to catch a certain amount of pounds of fish in a limited amount of time at each location. Since the "Average Size" fish can be under two pounds and you need 13 pounds in one minute, the fishing is a mad dash much of the time. Don't worry, you can keep on going when time runs out by pressing the start button. And when you continue while a bass is hooked, you get the incongruous command "Fight!!" It would make more sense if you had to beat a huge, vicious fish with an oar or risk being pushed into the lake, but it's still pretty fun. And if it happens while a fish is being hooked, you get to stare at the red innards of the bass. Freaky.

Original mode adds ways of playing and new environments. Competition enters the mix as you must be in the top 10 out of 40 fisherman in terms of bass weight to continue, with increasingly more stringent standards as you progress. And given a bad round of fishing, you may easily fall back in the pack. To be competitive you need to catch big fish quickly in fishing spots you haven't been to before and hopefully with special lures that have been awarded to you but you have not used yet. Fear of getting knocked out of competition as well as the boat rocking glee of pulling in a lot of big fish and ending up with 20 more pounds of bass than anyone else can make the game strangely exciting. And you'll be proud to display the plaques you win in your virtual trophy room if you're good enough to place first in a tournament.

"Sega Bass Fishing" is the surprise of the current crop of Dreamcast games. Fun, addictive and full of continuing playability, the disc will complement Sega's newest platform quite nicely. Like the game says, enjoy your fishing.

- Ted Watts

11-29-99