0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Big Bass World Championship

      

Big Bass World Championship is a licensed sports simulation game based around fishing, the game was developed by Starfish Inc, and published by HOT-B USA for it’s North American release, on the 15^th of March 1997.

The game also received a Japanese and Chinese release, again developed by Starfish Inc and published by them. The game released in both regions on the 7^th of August 1997, the game did not go by the title Big Bass Word Championship, instead the game went under the title Super Black Bass X. and is a part of the long running The Black Bass series of fishing games that date back to the MSX era in the mid eighties.

 

The game has two modes for the player to choose from, the first is a practice mode, this is where the player can hone their skills and practice their casting, reeling, a selection of rods and lures are available for the player to use in this mode.

 

The player also has a couple of options they can change in this mode with the month and time changeable which effects the size and quantity of fish available. The game also provides profiles for the fish species that are available in the game, these profiles describe the colouration of the fish and the preferred conditions that the species prefer to live in. The practice lake also allows the player to get a fish eye view of their behaviour.

 

The main mode to the game is the tournament mode, this mode allows the player to choose between a male or female character and name them, as they compete on four different lakes and have the use of over 15 different lures to choose from as you your way up the angling ranks to compete with angling legend Hank Parker

The game allows the player to navigate themselves around the four lakes that are on offer using a boat, when in control of the boat, the D-Pad is used to accelerate and decelerate the boat using the up and down direction, with the left and right D-Pad used to steer the boat.

 

While traversing the lake in the boat you can access the map window by pressing the L1 shoulder button, The R1 shoulder button is used to toggle the fish finder range. Moving on the actual fishing, you can change your casting style by pressing either up or down on the D-Pad, with either overhead or underhand casting available.

Moving the angler position can be done by pressing either left or right on the D-Pad, to initiate a casting you press the square button, when casting a bar will fill for the distance that you will cast, once the square button has been hit the bar will go the opposite direction to decide which direction your cast will go in.

The player is also able to toggle the camera angle, above the water your have the choice of either the left of right of the angler, the player can also switch to an underwater view of your bait. Reeling in your line is done with the square button, this is both for helping attract the fish and reel in a fish that has taken the bait, to set the hook the D-Pad is called into operation again with the up direction used to set the hook, if you are wanting to reel in quickly the circle button can be used.

 

Critic review for this game are very light on the ground with just two available on the site I use, these range from a good solid review score to an above average score. As usual though we will start with the best of them, which comes from GamePro (US) who scored the game at a solid 80.

The review commented on games like bowling, golf and fishing games may appear boring to many games, however when done right they can turn into sleeper hits, they game Ten Pin Alley as an example, as well as Big Bass, the reviewer commented that this is one of those games, and deserves a look. The reviewer saying You'll be surprised at the enjoyment you get from trolling the lake and outsmarting the fish that nibble at your line.

The second and final review which is a 60 rated review and comes from IGN, the reviewer commenting that Big Bass World Championship isn’t the best fishing game sim on the market. They continued however by saying it is the best fishing game available for next generation console (or it was).

They continued by saying, are there problems, yes, the reviewer finding clipping to be an issue both above and below the water, loading between every action was another downer for them. The reviewer continued by saying that they think the next game from Hot B’s will probably be a big improvement. Concluding the review said, but for now, if you're looking for some fishing on your PlayStation, here's your best bet.

 

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

So lets get down to business with Gamedude, where we find that they offer just 5 cents when you trade in a copy of Big Bass World Championship. The game is clearly quite common, on the plus side though if you are in the market for a copy of the game from Gamedude, you will not have to spend much on it with a price of just $2..

 

Heading over to Retrogames.co.uk we sadly don’t find the game available or even listed, no surprise really this being a North America, Chinese and Japanese only release. So we will quickly move on to eStarland.com where we find two copies of the game available.

The first copy is a used complete copy of the game, this copy is priced up at $6.75. the second copy of the game that is on offer is a used copy, that comes without a manual, this copy is priced at $3.71. Also on offer is a trade in for the game, with eStarland offering up to $2 for a complete copy, this price will decrease to just 70 cents for a disc only copy of the game.

 

Moving on to Amazon.com where we find a pretty decent number of copies available, the first one that catches the eye is a collectable copy in like new condition, caution is advised on this one however with not information on completeness, this copy is priced at $4.99, contact with seller advised before buying.

Another couple of copies in good and very good condition are priced at $5.48 and $5.98, but again no information is give on the completeness of these copies, so again contact with the seller is advised before buying.

The first confirmed complete copy is an acceptable condition copy, which is priced up at $5.98, this copy however can currently be ignored as a very good condition and complete copy is priced at just $6.61. Three move very good condition copies are available for either $6.98 or $6.99, these however do not state the completeness of the copy, for just $1 more a like new copies can be picked up.

If you are in the market for a new copy of the game, you will find a limited stock of new copies on the market, these have a starting price of $28.98, another couple of new copies are priced at $32.98 and $35.23, the current peak price for a new copy of the game comes in at $44.61.

Written by

P J Gibbon