Sega Bass Fishing first appeared on Sega's unlucky Dreamcast. It was also a succes in the arcades and served to be one of the most popular fishing games ever. Give or take ten years later, the fishing game experience comes to the Nintendo Wii and little has changed. You're still a daffy looking idiot with a hat and you're still fishing for bass. Only this time, you have to swing the lure with your Wii-mote and you get fish in by moving the nunchuk.

When I say not much has changed you could say nothing has changed since Sega Bass Fishing's last appearance. The graphics, the music and the gameplay is an exact copy of the latest arcade version. In ten years time, you could at least expect some progress from a company like Sega. It still can be considered as the reference for any fan of fishing games but that has more to do with the lack of good fishing games in general than with the quality of Sega Bass Fishing. Or do you know any other good fishing games? Didn't think so.

You can choose from Arcade Mode (fishing on time), Tournament Mode (what do you expect?) or Nature Trip Mode. The latter offers you the core of fishing, namely just fishing without time restrictions or music. Just you and the bass having a good time. Only the Tournament Mode is really enjoyable, while Arcade Mode has a lack of tension and the Nature Trip is nothing to be excited about; you have to catch an amount of fish in time but when you don't make it on time, you don't loose, you just get extra seconds to complete the task, making it unnecessary to go all the way.

Although the game is very arcade minded, it has some deep shores (boy o boy). Depending on the weather or the depth of where you're fishing, you can choose from a wide range of fishing lure. Catching more fish means discovering more lure, you know the drill.

You can play this game in two ways, the hard way or the easy way. The hard way is using the nunchuk. This may become painful after playing longer than one hour. While you have to keep swinging the nunchuk, some might get painful wrists. The easy way is just using the normal buttons on the Wii-mote.

Sega Bass Fishing is entertaining at best. I will not deny that I had a feeling of pride when I caught my first huge bass. The typical nineties arcade style has its charms, but it only shows Sega hasn't put too much effort in to this one. Everybody who has already played Sega Bass Fishing knows what to expect from the Wii version. If you've never played this series it might be worth to rent this, but that's not helping Sega either.