214 · The Black Bass

• Thug thrashing defender of freedom
• NES Longplay
• Introductions
  • Turns out it’s a fishing game
  • Do we fish?
  • Do you care to fish?
  • TV Fishing
• Overview
  • You’re in Black Bass fishing tournament. You start as a rating C class angler in 200th position. You must catch big prize fish in order to move up through the ratings, positions, and lakes in the tournament.
• Gameplay
  • Forget about all the complications involved, let’s just focus on the fishing for a minute and talk about the particulars of catching a fish
    • First off, Finding a good location for fishing
    • Now that you’ve found fish, let’s talk about casting and catching
      • Casting
      • Getting the attention of a fish
      • Reeling in that fish
        • The mechanics of breaking the lure
      • Lures and Obstacles
  • Variety of fish - Black Bass (big and small), Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout, and Pike
  • The Scoring
    • The player has one day in game time to catch the biggest Black Bass they can find, as at the end of the day the average weight of you caught Black Bass improves or reduces the players rating as well as their overall position. The player's rating determines how much progress in the tournament is made.
  • The Lakes
    • Lake Amada, Japan Lake, Lake More, San Lake
• Sequels and Spinoffs
  • This is actually BLACK BASS 2 in Japan
  • We will also play Blue Marlin on the NES
  • Black Bass has quite a series
    • Super Black Bass (SNES)
    • Blackin’s Black Bass (SNES)
    • And the long awaited crossover Black Bass and Blue Marlin on PSX
• EGL
• NEStalgia Byte - Antarctic Adventure
• Next week - Castlequest

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

00:00 The Black Bass. The rumor is true that they will open the International Anglers Fishing Tournament.

00:21 And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe. Turns out, this is a fishing game. Last week we were wondering if it was going to be a fishing or a music game. Obviously we were mostly joking, but just wanted to get the record straight that all of us pretty much went down saying it was going to be a fishing game. Joe wasn't sure if it was going to be fishing, but it was going to involve fish. Yeah, I thought you would play as the fish, you know, that would have been fun. It is a pretty heroic, like, title for the bass itself. Yes. But unfortunately it's, it isn't the, it's not the main character.

01:05 All right. So here's a couple of quick questions for you guys. Do we fish and do we care about fishing? Okay. Um, I have fished before. Um, I haven't fished in maybe 17 to 18 to 20 years, but I've fished before. We used bread or worms and then I caught fish and I threw them back in the lake. Um, uh, but other than that, that is, that, that is basically my, my entire hands on fishing experience. And I mean, like, I don't, I don't like, I don't say like pish posh to fishing, but I also like, I'm not looking into, uh, all the, the big news. Like, I don't know if the U S open of fishing is happening or not. What's new with fishing these days? Yeah. Uh, yeah, mine's almost the exact same answer. I have fished a long time ago when I was a kid.

02:00 Um, we didn't use bread, but otherwise pretty similar. We also did sometimes when it was the right kind of fish, eat the fish. But otherwise. Eating fish is good. Yeah. That's the most important part of the fishing. Yeah. If you catch a fish. Yeah. I feel like, you know, I might as well eat it now. So it's here. Uh, I, I have fished and I fish, uh, once a year, uh, around the 4th of July, uh, along the, uh, Jersey shore.

02:27 And, um, I don't know, it's relaxing. I get a good time out of it. I don't know if I'd like to go twice a year. I think once a year is more than enough for me, but do I care about fishing? That's a tricky question for anybody, right? I, I don't know where, I don't know what to care about for fishing. And therefore that leads me to, you know, the next topic here of video game fishing.

02:48 This is a genre that, you know, we're playing for the very first time on the NES, but they still get games today. Like there are still like, you know, bass tournament style games with like high fidelity graphics and very like detailed styles of fishing. But it seems like it's one of those things that isn't quite, um, you know, like there are some things like people aren't, people aren't in love with driving, but they love to play Gran Turismo games, right? Because it's like the simulation aspect of it. I don't think so many people who don't like to fish love to play fishing video games where

03:23 they can then like, you know, pursue the idea of being a great fisherman without any of the hassle of real life fishing. It feels like this has very little crossover and you kind of have to, you have to like fishing to like fishing video games. What do you guys think? Well, I think that part of the, what you said about like the, you know, like a Gran Turismo game comparison is that there's a lot more like a grandiose, like romance to the idea of like being like racing cars, doing something much bigger than what you do. Like, it's not like people are playing like a drive to work simulator, but fishing, like

04:01 there's less of a like disconnect there. I feel like when you're in a video game where it's not like you're like, oh, like if I were, you know how badass it would be if I were like an expert fisherman, like, you know, I feel like it's still fundamentally what you're doing when you go fishing, unless you're talking about like, you know, some, some big fish story where you're, you're out on the sea catching some, you know, some gigantic thing or something like that. But I feel like that might be why it doesn't feel as much of like a, like there's not as much wish fulfillment for people who aren't into fishing as there is for something like like a Gran Turismo game.

04:35 I, I've played like, like I think there was a PS2 fishing game that I once played. I have very vague recollections of it more like a fever dream than anything else. But I remember it like having really cool, like cinematic views of when you're fighting the fish and like, you know, they use the analog sticks and you're trying to fight it. And, and it was, it was fun.

04:58 Like I, I enjoyed playing that game in the way that I like to, to play a lot of novelty games. And that's sort of how I view like the entire fishing genre is because I, I don't know how much crossover there is, uh, between, uh, the video game market and the fishing market, uh, that I, that's just how I kind of view it. But when I, when I am playing it, uh, I do feel it feel as if it's sort of going for that same sort of like low stakes, uh, um, idyllic, just hang out and drink a couple brews, uh, thing that's going on, uh, when, you know, for when you're actually going fishing in a non-professional capacity.

05:44 So I, I don't know if, if it's, if that's sort of, uh, I'm the same wavelength as you or not, but that's sort of how I viewed, uh, fishing games. I think you both bring up a good point there. And I'm thinking about, you know, TV fishing, right? Like, uh, if you've ever watched a fishing tournament on ESPN, which they do have on like ESPN three sometimes, uh, you know, that is very comparatively similar to like golf.

06:10 Uh, you know, if you, if you know about the sport, if you care about the sport, it's very exciting to watch. But if you're just kind of, you know, not in the bigger picture of like who's who and like what the stakes are, then it's like, you know, oh, this is kind of boring. But I do think that golf gets the arcade aspect of video games, right? Where fishing doesn't, you know, there's, there's games like everybody golfs, which are like fun takes that like, you don't have to care about golf at all. And it's mostly just like putt putt and stuff like that. And you're just having fun with it.

06:39 Whereas fishing could probably use something, uh, that just makes it more arcadey and less realistic. And just the idea of like the fight between the bait and the fish, like I could see that being fun, but we don't have that, uh, in most of these fishing games and we don't have it here with the black bass on the NES. But this genre is so far the only genre that I can think of that, like we have all played games where there is an arcade fishing part of the game.

07:12 Like unlike golf, which, uh, which is, I guess like sort of the main, uh, comparison here, uh, where if it's, if, if golf's in the game, the game is probably about golf, but there's a lot of games that have like a little fishing aspect that some people like to do more than the game they're playing anyway.

07:29 So I think that, um, it, it's definitely interesting to go into this word where this is the main focus. The black bass in this game, you're in a fishing tournament across like a season, a full season. So you have like 200 people in the tournament. You start at the 200th rank. You're a class C fisherman. And the goal is to catch big bass in order to move up through the ratings positions and go on to different lakes in the tournament.

08:01 There isn't like a, you know, a lot of setup between that. You just kind of either say that you have a ranking in which you have to insert a password to continue on progress, or you say I'm a beginner and they start you over at rank 200 and you're just kind of thrown into this lake. There's a lot of information provided in the manual to kind of like give you, you know, your go at, at trying to move up and catch big fish. But if you're just playing the game and you're just thrown in there, I think there is some kind of like, I don't know, lackluster start here that if you don't know a lot about fishing,

08:38 you, you are kind of confused. You know, you are kind of like, well, what, what's my goal? What should I be doing? What, what am I, what am I pushing to for? Is this the only lake? When does this end? I feel like there's a lot of open-ended questions that yes, the manual can solve, but what did you guys feel about like just the presentation of this tournament when you first booted up the game? I agree that there is very, there's very little setup here and very little personality in this game that sort of sets us up as, as people that aren't into fishing to be welcome into like, to, to, to, to want to learn more about fishing. Like they give you a good rundown of what the best tools are in the manual. Um, but it's very dry.

09:27 And the, the, the most, the most that you get in terms of like framing this game is that like, yeah, you're invited, you're, you're, you're new. So you're going to start at the lowest rank, but you're invited to fish, but I hope you know how to fish. Yeah.

10:13 Forget about all the complications involved in this, this game, right? There's a lot of different moving parts that, uh, even just one particular tournament make up. Uh, remember that it is, uh, it's one tournament. So I don't, I don't know how to quite phrase this cause I don't know fishing rules. It's one tournament, but there are 12 like rounds within that tournament that move across different lakes, depending on which class you're in. So you do have 12 chances to kind of move up to be the, uh, the top rank or class a, there is no like definitive ending of this game. So you kind of just have to decide what your goal is.

10:49 But if you forget about all that stuff for a minute, just focus on the fishing, the particulars of catching a fish. First off, the first thing you got to do in this game is you got to find a good location to fish. They put you in this, uh, you know, map screen where you see your boat and you're free to move around, but even though you're in a lake, it doesn't mean that fish are everywhere.

11:10 And there is a way to figure out like where the fish are. And if you're in a spot that is good for fish. So what did you guys think about the idea of finding a good location for fishing, how that information is communicated to you and, you know, like the payoff that the game gives you for that kind of thing? I think that it, you know, it definitely tries to, in some sense, stimulate what it, what it's like to actually fish and actually like go from spot to spot.

11:41 And like, you have to go to the spot before you can decide if it's a good spot. You can't just select it and see just like in real life, you'd have to go there and like see, are there any fish biting over here? Or what does it look like over here? Go there. You can, you can check then like the data of, of like, is the data being just like a vague sentence of like, there's a, you know, there are some bass here or whatever.

12:04 Um, so like that, I think works for what they're trying to do in the sense that it, it gives you like, I don't know the positive version of tedious, at least that they're attempting. I don't know. Methodical.

12:20 Thank you. I'm talking about what they're attempting. At least I'm not necessarily saying that they succeeded it, but they're, they're attempting to have this methodical satisfaction to like finding your spot and, and, and, you know, the fishing in general in real life seems to be like, it's true. You know, you, you go to it a lot of times to, it's a relaxing experience and it's a, you, you, you think about where you're going and you, you take it slowly. Somebody save me. Cause I don't know where I'm going here.

12:45 I get what you're saying. I'm worried vomiting all my thoughts out. The, the, the patience, the patience of fishing is on display here. And I don't really know if a video game was, was the best way to describe this. Um, but, uh, in terms of the, the competition itself and how you're scored and like, and the, the fishing mechanics that they're all, they all seem to be well and good. But the one thing that I, that, that I'm kind of peeved about in this game is that you only, you, you only want, and it only tracks one kind of fish. And I get that this is a fishing tournament that is about catching one kind of fish.

13:27 Um, but when I see a big shadow under the water and I'm like, oh, it's gonna, gonna come get me. I'm gonna get it. Uh, and then I see that it's orange or something and like immediately, like just disappointed. And even though this might be a very engaging bite with the fish trying to reel it in, uh, I know that in the context of the game, this is doing nothing for me. And, and I don't even know why it's included sometimes.

13:56 And, um, if, if, if it's really all for nothing. Yeah. Sean, that's a great point because, uh, you know, the manual even, uh, tells you in the hint section to just like give up on those fish. It's not, you know, it's not even like worth catching them in the game's, uh, eyes because they're not going to count towards your score. Again, this is a game and a tournament about around bass catching.

14:19 So it's kind of interesting, you know, they included them obviously. Cause it's like, yeah, there's going to be other fish in this lake, but from a video game perspective, right. From a, from a usefulness of our time and a strategy of this game, the idea that you would catch something just to give it up, right. Just to be like, ah, I'm not interested because it literally serves no other purpose. Even though there is a total, like, you know, a strength to that fish, a, a journey to catching that fish. They just tell you to abandon it. And I'm not quite sure.

14:48 Um, you know, it's, it's like, there's two trade-offs there. There's the, you can only have bass in the lake, right. Which is fine, right. No one's losing their immersion because otherwise you just, you know what, because now there's no pikes and trouts. It's like, it's fine. Uh, you know, I think, I think that's really all you can catch otherwise. So yeah, if it was just bass, it would be better off.

15:08 But you know, the fact that they're, um, they're not scored is weird because it even like gives you stats. It stays part of your record. You get a little congratulations for it. Right. I was very surprised by that before, um, before we continue on that idea though, I do just want to wrap up the location, uh, grabbing for fish for fishing because, uh, I don't think we, we finished that yet. And I think the most important thing about that is that you have to take your boat around the lake,

15:39 find the locations where the, uh, first off the graphics probably look different. You'll start to notice like lily pads or seaweed or just a, you know, just a different layout than, um, a lake. But you won't know even then that this is a good location for fishing because every time you park your boat, you go to the casting screen and then you have to leave the casting screen to go to the main menu to then check with the, like a guide, I suppose, uh, you know, what, what did we say about fish at this area? And it'll tell you like, there, this is not a good area for fish or this is not a good area for bass. Yeah. For bass fish. Um, and you know, and they keep doing that throughout each time.

16:20 I don't know why that information couldn't either just be in the boat screen, right? You'd still have to like stop at a point and register on the, on the map, you know, like, Hey, I want to check out this spot right here. But even, even if you didn't want to do that, right, because you want to make them commit to the area to then change screens to the casting screen. You can't just go back to the main menu. You do have to cast out for a fish, however pathetically you want to reel it back in. And then you get the opportunity to back out.

16:50 So it's, it's even tedious just to get the information, forget about the pace of the game or the, um, you know, the style of the game in the sense of like, Hey, you're going to be out here for a couple, uh, you know, a couple hours in game time, right. Where you're just like trying to catch as many fish as you can to move up ranks.

17:08 The way that they give you the menus and the context is also kind of like held back by particular steps that you must take. So it's just a slow game in general, in terms of finding the right location and then, you know, getting the information and then casting and waiting for a fish to bite. Like overall, the pace of this game is very slow. So I, and I get that with like a, with a fishing game, but in terms of the whole menu debacle and that debacle is a strong word, but that whole situation where you have to go to the casting screen and go back, I get it.

17:44 Um, I like to like in my headcanon, just think that, uh, you are, you're dousing for fish and in order to divine where bass are, you have to throw your, um, you have to throw your lure into there just for a second. Um, and then it'll, you know, you'll know if it's a good bass spot or not.

18:28 All right. So say you found a good location where they finally say like, yeah, there's some fish around here, you know, like this is a good spot to fish. Now you've, now you, let's talk about like casting and catching that fish. There's, um, there's a, it, it changes views now so that you see your fishermen and do, you know, you can watch him with the power meter, cast out his rod and then, uh, watch the lure go out into, into the lake. And then it just sits out there and it's up to you to kind of reel it in or play with the bait to figure out like, you know, how am I going to get fish attracted here?

19:03 And I don't know about you guys. This was a section for me that just required a lot of trial and error, but with no conclusive results on like, if the fish are like predetermined to, to, to catch your lure or not. Um, I definitely noticed that like, if you get their attention and then stop playing,

19:22 they'll probably get suspicious, but there were some fish that like, no matter what, they weren't going to bite that, uh, that lure at the end of the day, you know, uh, whatever the bait was. So what were your guys, you know, let's, let's call them strategies, but just overall feelings about the casting. I, I, so, I mean, the casting itself, like just getting it out there, like the power meter is just giving you more time to, to, to finagle around with your lure.

19:49 Um, so that's not entirely too important, but when you're actually, when it's actually out there and you start to see the fish coming around, I tried several different, uh, strategies to try and get them. And it, like it's some, all of them seem to work sometimes and all of them seem to fail most of the time. Like I would, uh, I would do the back and forth thing. I would do the reel it in a straight line thing. I would alternate between the two. I let it sort of just, just drop dead and let it come to me. And it seems that like 70 something percent of the time didn't matter which way I was going about it. Maybe I needed a different lure color or something.

20:29 Um, it would just give up and go away. And it just says like the fish turns around and leaves. And I was, it's, it's frustrating, but I think that that just also means that I don't know how to fish. So I, but also the, the fact that I'm not getting any feedback about whether I should be doing one way or the other. Um, and maybe I'm misconstruing the ways that different fish react to stuff and thinking that everything's a bass and it's actually a pike that reacts to this way differently. I don't know. I just felt like I needed more information.

21:03 Yeah. I feel like everything that I, every time I would start to feel like I got close to a strategy that was working for me, suddenly it would completely reverse. And like, that would never work for me. Like right when I start to feel like, okay, I'm seeing the pattern here. Every time I do this, they catch on the pattern would totally change.

21:20 So like, I think it was to my, at least from my perspective of also not knowing how to fish totally random. Maybe there were some patterns that I wasn't picking up on, but I agree. I was actually thinking that when we talked about the manual a little bit too, that I feel like, you know, 1989, you know, before the age of the internet, you could just look up, you know, the black bass NES game and figure out like what the more intricate details of how this works are.

21:50 I feel like this manual needed to be like, I know we already said it is kind of like not super interesting of a read, but it would, it should almost be like a reference that I could like look back and be like, okay, so how am I, how do I catch this? And like, how, what does this do? I should be able to look at each of those things and get like a little bit of a, a little bit of detail on how to do this stuff rather than feeling like, oh, well now, yeah, in 2022, I could Google it. And there's probably some information on how the game works. Um, I feel like you're, you're asking your players to really just kind of figure it out sort of blindly otherwise.

22:24 Yeah. And I, I gotta say like, I've got, I got golf on the mind here, but the golf manual, and he has golf, the, one of the original black box games that has in the manual, even just how much, you know, like how much power each club has and at max power, like how far it would take the ball, you know? And if you knew how many yards away you were from the hole, you could use that information to make a more educated guess on how much power you should use this game.

22:53 There's not much you can change, right? Uh, in terms of strategy for catching a fish, but even the, like most, the most obvious example, changing the lore, right? So the lore has like, you know, it comes down to the color of the lore is what matters.

23:07 And it depends on the weather condition. So if there's, if it's a clear day, cloudy day, or if it's light or heavy rain, those are the things that change. And that's when you, uh, by the manual are suggested that you need to change your lore color. However, they don't give you a comprehensive guide into which lore you need for which weather condition. They just, you know, they, they give you an example of like a silver lore is good in clear weather, but that doesn't mean that like, I now figured out like the code. Like, I don't know why silver is good in clear. Like now I'm supposed to know like, oh, well it light rains. So I better grab the frog. Like, I don't know.

23:43 Yeah. One thing that I did, um, end up sort of being like, oh, this has a stronger correlation than the rest is when I was using the lures that you can sort of drag underneath. Like it seemed that once I was able to get maybe a few feet under the water, I was, I was hitting a bit more successfully. But other than that, it didn't matter if it was red, blue, silver, green.

24:09 Uh, I was having trouble seeing the pattern. Yeah. I would use that same lure and found that that was really the only one I could catch anything with. But whenever I tried to go like, take it like further under the water, never caught anything that way. So, so I still don't know what the, what the pattern is. I mean, it's just, it's, it's so random. Um, and you know, I, I didn't chime in before when we were talking about, uh, the different fish that you can catch, but you know, obviously most of the fish I caught were not bass and those were like the big battles that I had.

24:41 And I, I just want to put in my two cents there that I also think that that is such a shame that they have, that they, that these are in the game and I can't like in any way, even a different game motor in some way have like some, some reason to record catching these other fish. And I can look back and like, they can, it just feels weird that you can get all that stuff. And, uh, and it means nothing. It means nothing. Like there's, you have no incentive to do any of that, but they still put like the data for it all in there. Yeah. They should have put a boot in there.

25:12 That's what I was, I was going to say, like, if you're going to have stuff that you can catch that's bad, then just put boots and garbage in the, in the lake. But I think that if, if you want to still do it this way, like have different lures that,

25:28 uh, that are like marginally better than the ones that you have just like unlocked by like, uh, catching a large pike or something. I know that doesn't make any sense in the terms of like a, a real, uh, a real competition, but it's a video game. Do video game things with it. Yeah. Or just give yourself like some other, give your player some other objective or some, some side objective or something, like anything to make that worth it. Cause like, I get excited. I'm like, Oh, this fish is huge. And like, that's all I know about what makes a fish good.

25:58 But like, there's like, this fish is huge. Like, Oh, but like, it doesn't matter because it's not, it's not a bass. So like, no matter what all this information that gives me my like stat screen of all the things I caught that day, throw it out the window. Why do I need that? It doesn't matter. I caught nothing unless I caught a bass.

26:15 All right. So before we talk about reeling in the fish that you, uh, managed to catch on your line, I wanted to just call attention to the, the, the layout of the screen for the whole casting and reeling section. Like it's a top down view of the lake. And so you see, you know, you see yourself and then you throw it out there and now you see this view of, uh, you know, the lake from like what the, where the like lily pads are and stuff like that. But otherwise it's kind of uninteresting.

26:46 And then when a fish decides to come into the screen, it's the shadow of that fish. And you know, they do have different sizes or whatever. So that's good for at least some kind of variety. But then once they bite onto the, um, you know, the lore, that's when you know what kind of fish you've caught and whether you just want to give it up or, or go for it.

27:06 I'm not sure if that was like the best view for this fishing game. And if they could have taken more of like a, what it looks like underwater and seeing all, you know, like maybe many fish and you know, like you're trying to get not too many, obviously, but like just trying to get the attention of those fishes. They're just kind of minding their own business, doing their thing. And you could see maybe one gets like its attention, tries to come up toward closer to the bait doesn't take it or for whatever reason. And you just keep working that way. I feel like that would have worked better than keeping it all continuously on one top down screen that, um, that just makes it for a kind of like uninteresting, uh, viewpoint of like what's under the lake.

27:48 Obviously like the coolest part of fishing is the, you know, the, the possibilities of what you'll catch. And maybe it's like better off that way because they're going for an immersion kind of standpoint. So it doesn't make sense to give away like, you know, where the fish are or how many fish there are, if they're coming to you or not, maybe it was better to keep it from like a human's eyes kind of thing where you, you know, you never know if a fish is about to catch on or not. I just thought for a video game thing, it continued to just lack any kind of presentational flair by choosing to do this top down. You can only see the water angle. Well, I, so I think that, um, on the, yes, I think that in terms of this whole, uh, immersion

28:32 simulation aspect that they, that, that was a, that would have been a bad idea, but even at the most base level of why fishing is, uh, uh, like interesting at all is sort of like that mystery of what you might find. And I think that even though it might be more visually interesting, the mystery of what you might find kind of gets ruined when you do like this cross section below the water where you see a bunch of fish and now you're just sort of like hoping that you can like

29:05 precisely target one of them. Um, I don't really think that's what fishing is about, even in an arcade setting. Um, maybe that it would work in if, if this were about something else, but, um, I, I think that the way that they have it here, uh, is fine and probably shouldn't be changed in my opinion. Yeah. I also think that like, if you're, if you're coming from the underwater view, that could make an interesting game, but it would be a totally different kind of game and, and like weird analogy here. But for me, it's like the idea of, of like playing a shmup, you're at this weird angle where you're actually seeing from outside the ship, you know, the ship is in third person

29:46 and, and you're moving and you're not controlling like a, like a, like a spaceship. And that's very different from playing something like star Voyager where it's like trying to almost simulate being in a spaceship. And this is clearly trying to like, uh, you know, trying to, trying to gather these like fish, the fishing crowd who want to like, you know, who want to simulate the experience of fishing in some way. Uh, I don't think that that means that they shouldn't have done something to spice this game up a little bit more, but, but I think, yeah, changing the perspective of that makes you not feel like you're fishing. It makes it feel more like this arcade experience that's translated much more into like traditional video game style.

30:38 All right. So you've got the attention of the fish and now it's on your lore. So you have now seen that it's a, let's say it's a bass this way you're interested and not like a Pike's this way. You're like, Oh, turn this game off. So now you've got the bass on the line and now you have to reel that fish in.

30:53 There's, there's not much to this, but there is still like a good amount. This is where the beef of the gameplay is, right? Like the idea of once that fish is on the hook, how do I get it in? If it was just something where it's like, now that you've caught it, it's a sure get, that's not entertaining because that's just not even close to how real life fishing is. But it's also like, this is the challenge now. So what they've decided to do is you have, um, um, like an endurance meter for the fish in the bottom left where you can see like visually if it's, um, if it's like strong and ready to fight or if it's really weak and it's probably not going to give much fight to it.

31:29 You have that going on. You have this sound cue that basically tells you if your reel is about to break or not. Uh, the line, I guess, uh, that you cast, whether that's going to break off and, uh, the fish is going to get away with the bait. So you have to kind of worry about like the sound cue. You have the visual cue of the fish. And then you have to think about how far away from the boat you are, because if you threw like a full line out there and you're all the way at the other end of the, you know,

31:58 the screen, you've got a long battle with this fish coming up. So you can't afford to just reel them in, uh, at constant speed because it's going to then cause the sound effect cue to start, you know, ticking faster and faster and faster until it eventually breaks off.

32:13 The only other obstacle in your way are the actual obstacles on the screen. Probably why they chose this top down view that I was fighting against, uh, in the previous segment, but you know, now you have lily pads and seaweeds and stuff, uh, not seaweed. Um, what is that? What is that stuff? Uh, the weeds. Yeah, sure. They're just growing out from the, from the lake, that stuff you can't pass by obviously. So you have to go around it.

32:37 So now there's like a steering mechanic going on here too, while you're also trying to reel it in. I think they gave more than enough options here for like an intense fishing fight, um, you know, with the bass, but I'm not sure, you know, if you guys felt like a like this was something that could easily be gamed by just waiting out the fish's endurance or, um, you know, just kind of timing your, your reelings this way, you're not ever pulling in too much, but you're pulling in ever so slowly that it really is just kind of a waiting game. Uh, you know, eventually you will get this fish. Well, yeah. Full disclosure.

33:13 I, uh, I never got past the first lake. Um, so I never really had to deal with any actual obstacles, um, because I was so bad at hooking fish that it didn't really matter how good I was at reeling them in. Um, but in terms of like actually reeling in a fish, I think this is the most, uh, legible part of the game where like you have those sound cues, you have those visual cues, you have the kind of, uh, um, what's the word I'm looking for, uh, the intuitiveness of how you're, how you're fighting with the fish. Um, you want to kind of like, uh, drag it left and right. You want to keep pulling on it until you hear, uh, that high pitched, uh, almost break noise.

33:59 And then when that happens, you want to let go for a bit. And like, so, so that, uh, the fish will get a bit more energy back, but your line will become more secure. I don't know how it works, but so it, it ended up being a lot. Like I had all the information that I needed in order to, to reel this fish in. Um, so I think this was the most, the best executed part of it. Um, that said, uh, the sound effect for reeling in the fish is the worst sound I've heard ever. Um, and I don't want to play that again. Wait, the sound effect when you're reeling it in and, and it's okay. Or the sound effect that tells you like danger, like stop reeling. Oh, like the combination of the two, because you're always going to hear both.

34:44 Yeah, that's true. I mean, I particularly don't like the second one, but neither of them. Yes. You're right. Um, but I, I unfortunately also had a similar situation where I really, uh, only spend any time in that first lake, which, uh, which means I didn't get it. Obstacle free. What's that? That it's obstacle free. Yeah. Yeah. So I didn't really get to experience with the obstacles. I will say that in the first lake, you know, I realized that this may be anyone who's played past this will be like, well, okay, that's because you're in the first lake. But, but in the first lake, I do not, I do not think reeling in the fish presented really any challenge at all because it was just too, it was too simple to, to hear those audio cues.

35:25 And, you know, in the manual does nicely explain what you're doing that changes when the audio cue happens. And I don't, uh, even as I was playing, like I kind of, kind of let that information go to the wayside. It just remembered, like, if it beeps like this, I hold B and then when it beeps like this, I stop holding B and press A to steer them in the direction I want them to or whatever. And you just do that over and over again. It's like really, really, it's very obvious when you're supposed to do what at that point, once you like understand that stuff. So I felt like it was, um, it could have used a little more challenge, but then again, maybe those obstacles provide that challenge.

35:59 There's also something in the manual that caught my eye about the select button when you're in the fight with the fish. And, uh, it says to take the hook off the fish. If you don't want to fight with a worthless fish, press the select button. A class anglers will always be able to take off the hook. B class anglers will be more successful than C class anglers. However, B and C class anglers will not be able to attempt it if they fail on their first try. I didn't really try this out, but I can't figure out why you wouldn't be able to take the line to cut the line. Like why anybody wouldn't be able to cut the line? Well, you know, you got to hold it with one hand while you take a very sharp knife with the other and you, you might just cut yourself.

36:42 Got it. And then, yeah, that's like game over. That's game. Yeah. Cut yourself. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I think the Sega version has a lot of blood involved. Yeah. Right. Right. Um, also, you know, there's the one thing I didn't mention in this very detailed, uh, segment of the fight with the fish, you know, where there's so much going on is there's also like a, uh, you know, a depth meter of like where the fish is in the water. Um, I did, did that matter at all? Yeah. Like if it gets too deep, you're going to lose your bait. Got it. Okay. So I never really had that issue where like, it was getting like really deep, but I guess like really deep would be like five feet or so for the most part, as long as you like

37:26 are continuously reeling in at some kind of interval, right? Like you can't always be doing it, but if you're just, you're just working on it, I never really even saw it get to like,

37:35 you know, any lower than a foot. So I guess like it really does have a question, Mike, how big is the biggest fish that you were able to reel in? You know, I thought I was doing a good job until I watched a YouTube video on this. I thought like, wow, I'm catching big fish. Cause they're telling me it's big, but I never caught a fish bigger than five pounds. I think. Yeah. I think once it gets a bit larger than that, then your probability of losing your hook or whatever goes up once it gets deeper.

38:02 And like, I was watching a, a YouTube video of just a single fish that was like 20 something pounds. And he fought this thing for like four and a half minutes. And I did not think that that was possible. Um, but I also saw that the fish was dragging it pretty low at certain points. And I imagine that's when that mechanic really comes into play.

38:26 Yeah, that's a good idea. I guess I didn't think about that. Um, because you know, the, it's big thing is like, that's to me, that's like the definitive statement. Like you, the whole goal of the game is yeah, the whole goal of the game is to collect big fish. And then they take your average bass caught. And then that's like what matters towards moving up into the next rank. So for like, it's big to have a threshold of three pounds and above, and just knowing that you can catch something that's 20 pounds later in the game. I just feel like they, you know, they went all out too early.

39:00 Yeah. Now you guys said there were no obstacles in the, um, in the first lake. And you know, I'm, I'm, I'm definitely saying like, you know, there, there were obstacles in the first lake for me, but maybe they're, they're not what I'm thinking of as the obstacles. Now, granted later that yes, the map is more littered with like even tree branches and, and, you know, large lily pads and stuff like that. But where I was fishing in the very first location, um, there was, there was some, some scattered obstacles throughout. Are you guys saying you were able to catch in just plain water? I never saw one obstacle in that first lake everywhere I went.

39:37 Yeah. I'm watching a playthrough and I'm seeing obstacles. It looks like they're playing a different game than me, but, but they're not. I was going to the places that were circled on the map and the manual as like places of interest. And it seemed that all of those places were pretty clear.

39:58 Um, but no, I, I do see it now. I'm looking at, uh, footage of the first, the first lake and I was just going to places that didn't have anything in them. Yeah. The only, the only thing that I saw that was close to it was like, I would come up near like the shore a lot of the time, but, but never, and never anything like in my way while reeling in. Got it.

40:17 Yeah. I, I did go to game FAQs for this because I couldn't be bothered with the constant tedious, like, you know, is this a good spot? No, Mike, this sucks. Like, okay, thanks game. Like where's a good spot. So I just went to game FAQs and they, they showed me the way, which led me to where these obstacles were. But I, I guess like that does make sense that, um, you know, there would be fish are pre-placed.

40:41 Yeah. Where, where they're, where the good ones are, like where the locations are. Absolutely. That's not randomized. Okay. But like, are, are they always the same weight? Like, no, no, no, no. They're not always the same weight. And when they appear and stuff is not the same, it's just what is a good location to be fishing in. And what is a, like, not a good location, I guess, like a place where they wouldn't be. In the game, it's saying that, yep, there's bass here.

41:06 Um, I imagine there's better places that have bass. Okay. Yes, exactly. Right. But you're still not guaranteed to get anything great, um, from, from those locations. It's just that, you know, I would notice that if I went to where game FAQs suggested that would lead to a location where I would get more fish to even just be interested,

41:28 you know, coming towards the screen. Whereas if I was in a location that said like, oh yeah, there's some fish here. It would be like, you know, oh, I'd see a fish, a shadow of a fish or two. And then I'd have to like, you know, either nobody was interested in reel back in and cast it out again, or, um, go to another location. Those locations that, you know, the guide suggested are much better because it's just like, you know, almost always there's going to be enough fish around that area that come out that one of them is going to bite. Wow. That's, uh, that's dating in a nutshell.

42:21 And that leads us to the scoring. You know, uh, the player has one day in game time to catch the biggest black bass that they can find, but it doesn't really matter. The biggest one you catch, it's the average weight of, uh, all the black bass that you caught, which improves or reduces your rating. And again, your overall position out of the 200.

42:43 So I think, you know, the, in my mind, that's like a trade-off. Like I'm sure this is like a real rule or whatever, but I don't like that. I could be reeling in a fish that looks exactly the same as the heavy fish I just caught earlier, but it's nowhere near the same weight. And now it's bringing my average down several pounds. Uh, and now I have to stay out even longer to try to bring that back up with the risk that I might even continue to catch significantly smaller fish as time goes by. It seems like you should just be rewarded based on the heaviest fish that you catch.

43:17 Now, is it, um, the first of all is the, like the pike and the trout, like they take, there's no bearing on the score. Yeah. It doesn't affect your average. It doesn't, it doesn't count as zero when you bring it in and lower you that. Now, does that also mean that if you, if your first fish is like an eight pound black bass, should you just stop playing for the day and just like move on? Is, is that how it works?

43:43 It seems like that's how, well, that's how it should work, which is weird. Yes. That, that is theoretically how it would work. Now I bet the game is banking on you not being able to get an eight pound fish right away. But yes, theoretically, then all you would have to do is the annoying task of, you know, sitting there waiting for a full day of game time to pass in order to move on. You can end, you can just stop. Yeah. You can just end the day. I think. Oh, that's true. Yeah. If you end though, right.

44:11 You, you go to the ceremony then, is that what you do? You just think so. Yeah. Okay. Got it. So, okay. I, I, for some reason, I just would draw out the full day, but I, that sounds terrible, but only because the first time I did it when I tried to end the game and maybe this is just a, you know, it was either confusing for me or confusing the way they worded it. The first time I tried to end the game thinking like, Oh, I've got a good, I got a good average. I bet I've moved up some ranks based on this.

44:39 Instead, I was just given a very long password and taken back to the main menu. And then I was like, wait a minute, what am I doing with this now? You want me to put in that whole password that I did just to get back into the very same game that I was doing. All I said was that I wanted to end this day of fishing, not end my entire game. And then for the game without even having a reset button, right? Like I didn't reset the console.

45:05 I didn't do anything funky with it. Just take me back to the main menu and completely forget who I am as a player is crazy because that's also the only way to check like your record for the day of like your various fish stats is to then like quit out and receive a password and then have to type in that long password all over again. So again, just another thing that's just encouraging taking your time.

45:29 Have a notebook ready. But that does make sense. That is good to know that you don't have to wait out the full day because that was going to be another complaint of mine. However, I do think there's something cool to the idea of, you know, a starting time and it's early in the morning and then you're out there and you know, you don't see the clock actually tick up or anything.

45:49 But when you're after you've cast it and caught a fish and then you go back to the map screen, you'll notice that, you know, it might have been like an hour has passed or so or, you know, maybe less, maybe more. But I thought that that was like a nice touch to make it feel like the tournament is moving, even if I can't see all the other fishers and their boats on the map as well. Yeah, I thought that was useful.

46:13 I think it could have used a bit more dynamics in that. Like, I'd like to see what some of the computer players with randomly generated names or something like what what kind of fish they were catching like that would add to it.

46:28 But at least it's got the clock. Yeah, I'd say like that kind of that kind of sums up how I feel about a lot of the game that like there's yeah, there's there's these nice little things that are that add to it a bit already. But but I almost everything in this game, I want a little more out of, you know, I want to see those other those other, you know, contestants, their scores and their stats and who I'm competing against. I want the other fish to matter or to mean something. I want a little more information on

46:57 things. I feel, you know, obviously, I'm not like someone who's into like a fishing game in general. I've not really played any other fishing games. But like, I feel like this should do the same thing that like I want out of like sports games where like, you know, I'd like to be able to do more than just play the sport, but also maybe manage the stats a little bit and see the players and things like that. And I feel like there's some way to translate that into this that that it just didn't do quite so much of.

47:32 And I know you guys didn't get to the other lakes, but there are four lakes that you can go to Lake Amada, the one that you start on Japan Lake, Lake Moore and Sand Lake.

47:43 I think I got to Japan Lake, which I believe is the second stage. But other than that, there's nothing really changing here other than, you know, probably the sizes of the fish get bigger because now you've moved up in rank or class or whatever. And so now, you know, the fish are tougher or stronger, or there's, you know, maybe, you know, more obstacles or different types of obstacles. But there's nothing really that can change otherwise in a game where the goal is to catch black bass, you know, like they played their hand at the beginning, essentially, of the game when you when you have to catch black bass throughout the entirety of the game.

48:22 So the lakes just are different graphical designs of a lake, you know, but the idea of catching the same fish over and over again is just something that continues to happen. And so that's where I kind of wonder, like, you know, you guys didn't even make it to the next lake, but I feel like you didn't miss any of the experience. You know, like, I don't think anything really changed other than, as you guys mentioned, probably the size of the fish. But that just makes for longer battles. It doesn't make for tougher battles. It just makes them take longer to reel in.

48:54 Yeah, I feel like what they could have done, and maybe they did, but just because the how the weather mechanics in this game are kind of hard to decipher because you don't see the effects that you don't see rain, like you just told that it's raining. Maybe the color is different. I just didn't pay attention. But like what they could have done with these different locations is just have different weather patterns.

49:16 Like maybe the first lake is it's always clear because that's just, you know, the biome that that lake is in and maybe the next lake it's raining all the time, but it's actually showing rain and that's giving you a bit more a bit more feedback as to how you should be using your your lures. I don't know, but I think it could have added more personality and more variety to this game in the long run. Speaking as somebody that didn't even play these levels, but I'm just throwing stuff out there.

49:46 Yeah, I can see that too, or have, you know, just having anything. I mean, you know, I keep going back to something that fundamentally changes what the game would be, but like, or, you know, maybe this doesn't translate nicely to like a real life fishing competition. I don't know, but like, couldn't it just be the next level? You got to catch a different kind of fish and it's different to catch that kind of fish.

50:07 Again, it probably has to do with something in the actual world of fishing, but it's just not to beat a dead horse, but it's such a weird decision that in every stage of this game and every time you play this game, you have one objective. It's the same objective. There are other things you can do in this game, but there's just one objective. It just feels like the simple way to make things feel different is like, okay, now on to the next lake and the next tournament. And in this tournament, you got to catch, I don't know, trout. I don't know.

50:35 Yeah. It's a very low stakes tournament. Otherwise, you know, and I think you guys are both hinting towards other things they could have added into that tournament, but even just the idea of like the information that they gave you, right. That you've now moved up to rank B, like it doesn't, or class B, it doesn't feel any different. It's just a new like title on the screen. And I know like, you know, some games today, you could say that that's kind of the same thing, right? Don't they just, you know, you've prestiged, you just get a new title or whatever.

51:06 There's obviously a lot more going on in those games, but just that idea that like, that would be enough. I don't think that that's ever going to be enough for a game to just say like, you've moved up without making you feel like you moved up at all. Even the ceremonies feel like a, like a class graduation.

51:23 I don't know. Like, you know, I don't know if you guys saw the screen or not since you didn't move on, but like, it just feels, it just has like all the wrong kind of emotion. Like it should have had you like with your prize fish, like in your hand or something for that day and some stats for that fish maybe or something, you know, anything cooler to make the tournament feel more alive.

51:45 Nothing about the tournament. It makes me, you know, throughout the entirety of the game, it makes me feel like I'm actually in it against other people. Instead, it just feels like a computer telling me, watch out about all these other people who are also competing because they're, you know, they're gunning for the same thing you are. And it's like, are they? I don't even know what I'm gunning for.

52:06 Do you really want to be, you know, like number one class A? Like, is, is that the end goal? And then like, in that case, is it just about how fast you do it? Because if you do it by like the sixth or seventh round of the tournament, you still have to play all the other rounds and maintain your number one spot. So I guess this is more of a dilemma for like speed runners of this game. But like, what is the completion threshold? Like, what is the moment where you say I'm done? For me, it should be after I've caught the first black bass, because that's all the game wants me to do anyway. Well, this is just a, yeah, this is just, you know, a, this is just how fishing is. Like, are you just done with fishing after you catch one fish?

52:47 I think that they have to add like an economy to this so that you actually have to like make some money off of your, your sponsorships or make it not a competition anymore. And you're just like a hunter gatherer and you have to watch your calories.

53:02 Um, and so that you have to keep, you have to keep yourself alive by catching fish. Yeah. I don't know what the black bass like auction houses are like. Is there anything like the tuna auctions that go on in Japan, but that would have been cool, right? Yeah. You, you're cashing in money to then like sell these bass to then like get better lores that you have to buy in between tournaments. Yeah. Be great. Wow. We did it. We solved the game. Solved the game. I can't wait to play it. Open world, the black bass. Bass of the wild.

53:47 All right. On the sequels and spinoff side, I promise you guys are in for a real treat right now. You, you have no idea how excited I was to get to the sequels and spinoff section. So, you know, just enjoy the ride and, um, you know, keep commentary to the absolute maximum that you possibly can. I want to hear every thought about the games I'm about to describe to you.

54:08 Okay. So this is actually black bass too, even though it's just called the black bass, this is the black bass too. And the black bass, it was a Famicom game that never came, uh, you know, to the NES. So I went and checked that version out and the, you know, the startup screen, the splash screen, if you will, because it's a fishing game. So the splash screen has a giant bass with like a pimp suit on and a cigar in his mouth. And it just says the black bass.

54:42 All right. All right. I saw this. Yeah. Yeah. So that's, that's good enough as it is. However, I played this version of the black bass in Japanese to the best of my abilities, uh, because it is all in Japanese this time. It's not like one of our nostalgia bites episodes where it's playable, even if you don't know any Japanese, but I made it to the point where you get to the fishing. I got to say, this is already the better game. Uh, and it's the prequel. So that's like, it's, it's interesting.

55:10 What's different is one, it takes place entirely all on one screen. So you're able to see the map where you are. And then when you select your spot, you get to select your lore right there. And then you immediately go into the, um, you know, like a subscreen opens up with the fishing. So this way you're able to cast your line right there. And then once you've cast your line, it takes you to get ready for it.

55:34 That view of the like underwater where that view of the underwater, where you have the fish and you're able to see them go by and there's not many of them. It's just like one or two fish at a time, but now you're able to see them get interested in your bait. And, um, you know, you can choose to reel them in and it just feels a little more, um, complete in that regards.

55:55 So I'm a little surprised that this game chose to remove most of the features that I liked. Um, granted I'm sure, you know, not, not everybody liked them and there's a case for the other features, but just remove them in terms of making more menus and more button pushes instead. It just takes longer to do the fishing experience in the black bass too. While it's basically the same game as the black bass one.

56:18 However, I'm looking at, I'm looking at a video of, of this original, the black bass right now. And I I'll say that this side view, while I still do not think it's better than the overview as far as immersion doesn't do what I thought it was going to do by like totally make it a different type of game because it's still just, you just see one fish at a time or whatever coming kind of close.

56:40 It's weird. Cause that's not the angle you'd see it from in real life, but that doesn't, you know, it doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would, but it looks like this is, it looks like it's like maybe in 1989, they were like, well, you know, the, this whole screen, everything is like a little too simple, a little too basic. We can make it look cooler. We can make it look better.

57:00 And, and maybe they did make it look better, but they took away a lot from it in this game we're playing now. Whereas like, I feel like now in 2022, people would probably rather just get this like simpler version of this overworld screen and of this data on the screen, which obviously I can't read because it's in Japanese, but it feels like, uh, it feels like it's like a little more of a, like a systems based numbers monitoring game, which like now is like, that might be what we would look back to. Cause it's like, we don't need some high fidelity fishing game. And this isn't it for the black bass line of games that we'll be playing on the NES.

57:39 Even though we didn't get to play the first one, we did get to play the black bass too, otherwise known as black bass. We will also play blue Marlin on the NES, which you're saying to yourself, well, that's not black bass, but it is, it's the same company and it's a spinoff game where I can pretty much guarantee right now, even though I haven't looked at a manual or a let's play or anything, I'm sure they just want you to catch blue Marlin in that game. Not any, not any other kinds of fish. It's going to be swimming with black bass. So you're going to want to throw back every time. Right. And you're going to be seeing yourself from the other, from the previous game, trying to catch those black bass, but you're this time you want the blue Marlins.

58:18 Well, if you get both games though, then you can, they can get that variety. It's like Pokemon red version and Pokemon blue version. You got to get them both and trade. Right, right. But black bass has quite a series of, of games on the Game Boy and on the Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo DS. It's like just a long running franchise, but I just wanted to call out,

58:38 you know, super black bass on the SNES for one, just being like that lazy thing of just throwing super in front of it. And now it's awesome. Right. Like the, Oh, black bass on the NES. I sleep, but super black bass. It's like, yo, get in that. I want that game right now. It's going to be intense. I don't really know if it's any more intense. I don't really know what they changed. I saw some screenshots. It looks nice. I like that title. Super black bass. Yeah. But I don't like that title as much as the other super Nintendo black bass game, which is blackens black bass. Blackens black bass. Bassens black bass is what I meant to say, but I, I flubbed the title there because it's just Bassens black bass, Bassens black bass, Bassens black bass.

59:23 Who is Bassen? I don't know, but I guess he was a fisher. Is that like the tiger woods of fishing? And how funny is that? That his name was Bassen. Yeah. It sounds too, it sounds too themed. I think he's not real.

59:34 He's probably not real, but the game itself looks beautiful. Honestly, includes like a radar on your boat. So this way you can actually see if there's like fish and how deep the water is in the particular area that you're in. You can have a guide who looks just like the like main side character from home improvement. You can have him be your guide on the first, on the first tournament. So he'll actually tell you like, here's how you need to fish. Here's, here's like a good spot for fishing. He's very helpful in that regard. Something that this manual for this NES game wasn't, but also it does kind of take the, um, you know, like the arcade approach to the fishing aspect.

1:00:12 Once you do get into the fight with the fish, it also has some beautiful, like, I'm not sure if it's mode seven stuff or just a parallax feature, but it looks awesome in particular moments. So if you're going to play like one game in the sequels and spinoff section, I think it's got to be, uh, Bassens Black Bass just from the, the title, the home improvement guy and the, and the, and the graphics. All right. You heard it here first, but it's not the end. The long awaited crossover

1:00:43 Black Bass and Blue Marlin will come out on the PlayStation one, uh, and you can play it there. Finally, Joe, you don't need to just have Pokemon blue, Pokemon red. It's like Pokemon crystal now or Pokemon yellow, right? You finally have the complete picture of Black Bass and Blue Marlin. The funny thing though, if you can believe it, because they're so true to their, uh, to their origins, you cannot play one fishing game where you catch both. You must select at the main menu, whether you are going to play Black Bass or Blue Marlin. God damn it.

1:01:19 Now they're not the, like, you know, they're not the old versions emulated on PlayStation. They're entirely new 3d games. It's just that they refuse to include a world where Black Bass and Blue Marlins would both be on the same lake, which makes sense. You know? Yeah. I can't think of many, uh, you know, what does that say about the ecosystem if they're together? But here we are. Nevertheless, uh, I, I think that this is one of the sequels and spinoff sections that I'm the most proud of. I'm proud of you, Joe, Mike, Joe, Mike, Joe, Mike. Thank you. I tried. I tried. I, when I coached Mike through that earlier today, I was hoping he would nail it.

1:01:57 And Joe also coached me on how to say this next section of the podcast, which is very important because we say it every single week. It is the one thing that we do every single episode. And that is the essential games list.

1:02:12 Sean, your vote. I think you can gather from the way we've been talking about this game that, uh, it, there's a lot to be desired here, even for a, a new genre that we're playing. Um, so without repeating anything, I'll just say that this is not an essential game, but I look forward to playing, uh, black bass X blue Marlin remix sometime later to play a fishing game. At least for me, this is just a personal preference, but I imagine a lot of people feel this way. Like a fishing game has to have something to, to make that meticulous nature of it feel interesting.

1:02:49 Even if it's just this like relaxing calmness of like playing a fishing game and seeing what you catch and, and comparing or trying to catch something bigger or whatever, but like, this doesn't even really lend itself to being relaxing because of the like competition nature of it. And the music, which is good is not like the, like a cathartic experience. It doesn't like lend itself to the cathartic experience. It's a little more, um, I don't know, a little more exciting to use for lack of a better word. But earlier in the, um, earlier in the episode, I was kind of dancing around the word tedious. Don't be, uh, you know, don't get me wrong.

1:03:30 This game is tedious. And I think that it didn't have to be like, I guess I just didn't want to, to make it feel like a fishing game has to be tedious because fishing is like a slow drawn out activity. I think a fishing game could be interesting or fun or have some sort of cathartic nature to it, but this did not, um, did not get there for me even remotely. So I'm going to say not essential.

1:03:57 Well, you know, there's no bass with a cigar in his mouth on the title screen. So automatically it's off the essential games list for me, but I know people come here for real content too, and they want to know why we won't put these on the list. So the actual reason of why black bass is not on the essential games list to me is that there's a, you know, real life fishing for all of its flaws. And, you know, some people love it. Some people hate it, right?

1:04:21 The, the slow pace of it, the early, like, you know, okay, you got to get up at like four in the morning. We got to beat everybody out there before the sun gets up, you know, and like make sure that we catch the best fish. And it's like, why there's more than enough fish. And we're also probably not going to catch any, don't worry, pack the cooler anyway.

1:04:38 Let's have a day out that whole like feel, uh, and pace of that stuff. When you try to take that and put it in video game form, I feel like you do need to also include like that computer quality of life stuff as well. Right? Like those, those improvements that actually do something to enhance the experience that I would otherwise get outside. You know, um, I think about other things that I do in my life that have not yet been translated into video games that I, or at least I haven't been translated well.

1:05:11 And, you know, this, this is something that I feel like we already know that there are games later on that will get closer to getting it right. But ultimately what black bass gets wrong, isn't just the fact that it's limited to NES hardware. It's that presentationally, it doesn't do anything to make this feel exciting. I was never actually excited about reeling in a fish. It didn't feel like a proud moment where, you know, regardless of how easy or hard the fight was,

1:05:41 once I had the bass, it, the, it basically robbed all sense of achievement from me because you just have to, okay, now go catch another one. Now go catch another one. Now go catch another one. And I don't think real fishing is like that. I think most people who go out there and fish are excited just to catch one fish, you know, just even to have that, that tango where they first realize that they've got a bite on the line.

1:06:02 This game doesn't give you that. I don't know most people, Mike. Well, I don't know most people, but I do think that that's exciting in real life. Even just the, the idea of a catch. Whereas in this game, the idea of like seeing a shadow of a fish and being like, is he going to bite? Is he going to bite? Like they give it to you so often. And there is so little like in between that experience that that's just like, it gets stale so fast and you can't have an essential game get stale. Like no aspect of an essential game should be something that you wouldn't recommend to another person.

1:06:35 So it's off. Do you guys remember like there were those late nineties, like handheld fishing games where you actually have to like make the casting motion and it had tiny little like LCD screen on it? Oh yeah. Didn't it have the, uh, the reel on it too? Yeah. Yeah. It had the reel, you had a reel thing. Then that was, I mean, obviously there's a, there's a level of, uh, of interaction there, but, uh, you know, just that little LCD screen, I think it was a more robust experience than this game.

1:07:01 I agree. Vaguely remembering this time in my life. I can't remember it right now, but there's some company that's making a new handheld that has a reel on it as like one of its main elements of its controller. Um, do you guys know what I'm talking about? That's putting a lot of, uh, that's putting a lot of stock into fishing games. Well, that's why not many fishing, you know, that you get one of those in every household. Now suddenly everything's going to be fishing. So, so look this up. It's called play date and it's made by panic Inc who, um, I believe they make like, I believe they made at least a few games,

1:07:40 but, um, yeah, it's like it has a normal A and B button. Kind of looks like a game boy in that regards. And then there's just a reel on the side. I gotta say, this looks like a, a knockoff of something. It looks like a knockoff of like the game boy advance. Yeah. Yeah. Not a plug for it. I'm not at all interested, but I've just, I've heard a lot of hype around this particular device, but you know, if I'm getting a, if I'm buying a handheld in this day and age, it's going to be that new analog pocket.

1:08:05 That thing looks sweet. And you know what else sounds sweet or I said, look sweet, but now I'm going to talk about things that sound sweet. Our voices, the podcast, we're still doing it every week. You just heard this episode. So now you're going to hear another episode next week. That's castle quest. You're probably on a quest to go to a castle or your castle is leaving you to go on a quest. Maybe you just play as a giant castle on a walk on a quest. Who knows? We'll find out next week. Uh, in the meantime, if you want more nostalgia,

1:08:31 why don't you check out the website, www.nostalgiacast.com or the Twitter, NostalgiaCast. See, it's just like they interchange, not nostalgia by itself, but you put a little cast on it. Like you're casting for a fish and all of a sudden it's like, now you've got a website and a Twitter. That's why we did that for this episode. That's why we did that. So we put cast on there because we knew we were going to play this game.

1:08:54 Yeah. Well that, when I, when I said, I want to make a podcast where we play every NES game in chronological order, Sean said, fine, but only if we eventually get to the black bass. Right. And I would stop once we got there. So this is my last episode. This is Sean's retirement episode. Thanks for, thanks for listening, guys. Luckily we already pre-recorded all the episodes after this. So he'll still be in all those episodes. All right. So me and Joe, we'll see you guys next week. Uh, please, you know, if you're, if you're not on our discord, which is for Patreon members only, remember you can subscribe, uh, patreon.com slash nostalgia.

1:09:30 If you're not on that discord and you can't talk to Sean directly, just maybe throw us on the Twitter, give us a little tweet saying, you know, I will miss Sean. Maybe those exact words, maybe you can guess finally, like how Sean spells his name. Because there are many interpretations of Sean's name and none of them have ever been correct. Sean has a very, no, that's not true. He doesn't have a very unique name. There's only one, one correct way. And we'll take all the people that say, I will miss Sean and subtract that from the population of the world. And we'll know how many people won't miss Sean. So make sure you get those in. That's true. Yep. And we will post a tweet that says how many people we know won't miss Sean. All right. See you, everybody. c c! c c c c c c