Today’s Game – 9/9/09 : SEGA Bass Fishing (Dreamcast)

It just happened that I started this little blog project on the 10th anniversary of the American Dreamcast launch. Every year I get sentimental about how I sat outside the Funcoland in Mount Laurel, NJ, with a loaf of French Bread and a 1/2 gallon of iced tea so I could have my console at midnight on 9/9/99. While I’ve had many consoles before the Dreamcast, this was the first time I got wrapped up in the hype, and it just makes it very special. Now onto the game.

Sega Bass Fishing (Dreamcast)

I wanted to do an entry on a launch title, but looking back, there weren’t anything that now makes me say “Hey, this was one groundbreaking title!” So I looked through my library, and the one that brought back the fondest memories was Sega Bass Fishing. This really was one of the two things that sold me on the system, the other being the port of Marvel v Capcom. The game is a really simple concept to convey – Catch Fish!

The appeal of the game doesn’t lie in the simplicity of the catching the fish, but in the controller (which of course was a separate add-on). While flailing about the living room is now seen as commonplace due to the Wii making the activity socially acceptable, it was Bass Fishing that opened the door, with reeling and and moving the rod up and down, and left and right. The introduction to motion control was able to have the game played by core gamers, but also made it accessible for those who didn’t regularly play.

The game is very short, kind of like the Angels Flight in Los Angeles. After about 8 minutes of gameplay, the game is over, you’ve caught about 10 fish, and one of those is quite the lunker. However, since it really is an arcade style experience, this doesn’t hinder the gameplay, as if you want to fish all afternoon, you really can. The average game time is that short because of the stress factor a clock induces. The stress is relayed into the reeling speed and tension control which force player actions.

As a nearly decade old game, this still holds up very nicely, however there are some interlacing issues on my LCD TV. As an added testament, the game was ported to the Wii, however the flailing of the rod is substituted with a fake rod. The game accomplishes what it set out to do, with a little flash and sizzle, and a rock solid foundation.