
Sega Bass Fishing for the Nintendo Wii is a port of the arcade and Dreamcast title of the same name, only with the obvious addition of Wii Remote controls. The game wears its arcade heritage on its sleeve with the relative simplicity of the gameplay and its non-simulation style. But more obvious than its roots are the flaws made apparent by plucking this fish out of its 1999 waters and dumping it upstream onto a current game console in 2008.
Click here for an explanation of our review and scoring format.
Sega Bass Fishing services Wii anglers with a standard
variety of modes.

Unfortunately you'll quickly discover that catching fish is
not the deepest of activities; you just cast, wait, and reel in, ad nauseam. While
the audio cues of the announcer can add some unintended humor and immediate
urgency to the action of reeling in a bass, the game's dated presentation with
its smarmy textures and simple environments reeks of a shoddy Dreamcast port
that Sega didn't feel the need to update for this Wii release. While some parts
of the presentation are period turn-of-the-century Sega including the
aforementioned overly joyous announcer and some rather out of place female
vocals in the options music, any points gained by this quaintness are easily
negated by its sloppy visuals.
Controlling the game with the Wii Remote may seem like an
intuitive setup at first. The Wii Remote acts as the fishing rod, which you can
flick back and forth to cast the line and tug it left or right while in the
water; conversely, the Nunchuk reels in the line. The truth of the matter is
that these motion controls were essentially ported over wholesale from the
game's previous analog scheme, so waggling the Wii Remote or Nunchuk in any
direction will have the same effect as pressing a button. That being said, the
game does not control poorly, but seems gimmicky.
Some good can be said of Sega Bass Fishing, primarily its lower price-point, which may actually be $10 more than it warrants in light of its pre-twenty-first century origins. If the Wii Remote controls were incorporated more appropriately it would deserve a better recommendation, but its nostalgic Sega presentation can't hide its relative mediocrity.
Reviews
