0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Bass Rise

       

Bass Rise also know as Fishing Freaks BassRise in Japan, is a single and multiplayer licensed fishing game developed by BEC and published by Bandai for the Playstation. The game released first in Japan on the 25^th of March 1999, with a North American release coming on the 26^th of October that same year.

The game has two modes to choose from the first is the single player mode, with the player choosing their player character either a man or a woman, with some minor customisation options for the character with clothing colour changeable. The game is a licensed game featuring the Megabass branding on the various lures that are available in the game

 

Once your character has been chosen and their outfit colour decided you can set out for one of two currently available lakes, more can be unlocked by competing various challenges in the game, such as catching a certain number of fish in a limited number of casts. These challenges are presented to the player by other anglers in the game, these anglers also provide tips to the player.

 

The second mode is vs mode for between 2 and 4 players, while this is a vs mode it does not appear as a split screen view, with each player going in turn, to prevent this from dragging out into day long games the players can decided on a cast limit from 1 to 5 before the next player has their turn. 

In addition to this you can set the number of rounds that will be played again from 1 to 5 as well as what the scores will be measured on such as length of the fish, most weight or the total number of fish caught.

Once you have chosen a lake to compete on the players will rotate around fixed positions around the lake, one a player has cast their line into the water the camera will switch to an underwater shot. The player uses the left analogue stick to move the rod while the reel can be controlled by the right analogue stick or square, or the triangle and circle buttons, using a combination of these moves the lure in the water to attract fish.

  

For the handful of reviews that are available the game did not do too badly receiving a few decent scores as well as a few above average scores, with just one review score falling into the below average range, as usual though we will start with the best which comes from PSX Nation who scored the game at a 73.

The reviewer calling the game a good buy for a child or someone who can’t go fishing outside, with it being a good way to spend a bad weather day, however the review couldn't recommend the game to most people, with the review saying it will fall short of the mark and have you wishing for more.

GamePro (US) were the next highest scoring review coming in at a respectable 70, with the review calling Bass Rise a decent fishing game for console fishers, who don’t feel the need for a Dreamcast. Concluding the review said this is about as good as Bass gets on the Playstation.

Gaming Age were next up with their 67 rated review, the review who is not much of a fisher and has never taken an interest in fishing did enjoy Bass Rise. However the review did begin to suffer fatigue after about 3 or 4 hours with the game, with their interest subsiding a little each time they went back to the game, They concluded by recommending the game to fishing fans, for everyone else a rental first before spending your money. 

Review scores for the game take a bit of a jump down from here with IGN up next with an average 55 review score. The review stating that games of this sort can be entertaining, however most seem to suffer from a lack of long term play value, with Bass Rise falling into this typecast according to the reviewer.

The game is definitely not for everyone according to the reviewer, even for fans of fishing games there are better options available on Playstation, the review concluded by saying fishing fans may want to give this game a rental, however those not interested in the genre, this won’t win you over.

Lastly we have the lowest review score for the game which comes from GameSpot who rated the game at an average as you can get 50. with the review calling the game an amusing diversion best suited to casual fishing fans, however more hardcore bass anglers will be left screaming for more features to spice up the gameplay.

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 if you are looking to trade in your copy of Bass Rise, you will be looking at just 50 cents for your copy from Gamedude. If on the other hand you are in the market for a copy of the game, it will set you back $4.

 

Retrogames.co.uk are up next and unsurprisingly this Japan and North American only release are not stocked by them. So quickly we move on to eStarland.com, where we find the game is listed but sadly at the time of writing is currently out of stock. 

The game is usually priced at between $3.48 and $6.95 this price is dependent on the quality of the copy you are trading in, at the time of writing eStarland do not accept trade-ins for the game unless it is a complete copy.

 

Lastly we head to Amazon.com where we find a decent supply of the game available, with the first copy on offer being a complete copy in very good condition and priced at $3.99. This copy does come with free shipping but is shipped by Amazon so a minimum spend of $25 or prime membership is required.

Another shipped by Amazon copy in very good condition is available and priced at $4.99. For the first non Amazon shipped and complete copy we find one priced at $10.49 once shipping costs have been factored in, A good condition copy is also available and priced at $13.53.

For a few cents more at $13.96 you can picked up a like new and complete Black Label version of the game, from here used prices pass the $20 mark peaking at around $25. A few new copies of the game are also available, these start around the $28.50 price range with the majority priced from this point up to around $34, a single new copy is priced well above this and comes in at over $50.

Written by

P J Gibbon