Towards the beginning of the year, I reviewed the Dreamcast Collection – a single disc that contained four classic Dreamcast titles: Sonic Adventure, Space Channel 5 Part 2, Crazy Taxi and Sega Bass Fishing.  Out of all four of these games, I found myself enjoying Sega Bass Fishing the most… but I am not sure on the quality of that compliment.

Fishing games can usually fit into one of two categories: boring but realistic or fast and arcadey.  Sega, bringing that arcade experience home, definitely had a fast paced fishing game in mind when releasing Sega Bass Fishing and this XBLA/PSN revival introduces higher res visuals.

There really is no skill involved with Sega Bass Fishing, only random luck.  Pretty much every time you chuck your lure in the water, you are going to catch something.  Lures, environment, weather, time of day… none of these things really matter and you are bound to pull in fish of random size.  The biggest competition isn't necessarily the pretend A.I. opponents that are fighting for the top position, but rather the limited clock will always force haste.  You only get a few minutes to catch as many fish as you can, hence the arcade fishing experience. 

The speed of the game isn't considered a flaw as creating a fast paced arcade fishing experience was the goal.  While it is possible to fish a couple hours of enjoyment from Sega Bass Fishing, there really isn't staying power.  Sure hunting for that bigger fish for bragging rights on the leaderboard helps to add replay value but once you played each mode a couple of times and experienced each stage there isn't a whole lot of incentive to keep that virtual rod in your hands. 

Speaking of virtual rods, it is worth mentioning that the PS3 version supports the Move controller to give an added sense of realism.  Unfortunately, I was unable to test out this feature but this is probably the closest way to experiencing the original Dreamcast fishing rod controller without searching through eBay.

Sega Bass Fishing is fun for a couple hours and will bring back Dreamcast nostalgia.  But buyers should be aware of the $10 price point for the full version download.  For around $20, it isn't hard to find the Dreamcast Collection which features much more value. 

Dear Sega, 

Now that these titles are out of the way, can we please have Chu Chu Rocket and the PowerStone games with full online support? Thanks!

Signed,

The MyGamer Staff

(And every other Dreamcast, 360, and PS3 owner)

Not As Good As: you remember

Also Try: Legend of River King (original GB)

Wait For It: other Dreamcast titles

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