Sega Marine Fishing for Dreamcast Review

Gameplay

The fishing flow in all the modes work like this: first, pick a lure; cast your line; then jerk or twist your lure to attract fish. Hopefully, a fish will fall for the bait and hook up. Next, you fight for the fish and eventually, if you follow the onscreen prompts for compensation and keep an eye on your line tension, you’ll catch the fish. When that’s all done, you do it again.

• Arcade Mode is a direct port from the arcade version. You pick a field and are given point comparisons for the available fish in that area. There’s a minimum point total you have to reach in a certain amount of time in order to clear the area. If the time runs out, they give you the option of continuing without having to plunk in more quarters.
• Original Mode was made for the Dreamcast and has 3 modes in itself.
• Free Fishing allows you to fish without any quota to meet. The flow of fishing runs the same as Arcade, except if you catch a fish, it may contain an item card. You can collect items to add to your Aquarium. You can also earn new lures and some items are given special abilities.
• The Mini Game Mode in Original mode gives you a few games to improve your fishing skills.
• Fight training helps you hone your skill to control line tension and rod movement.
• Fishing training helps you by letting you catch a specific kind of fish. You’ll learn what lure attracts them and how to hook them up properly.
• Weight training is the kind of training you did in High School. You have to catch as many fish as you can to get a high total weight.
• Casting training is, you guessed it, help in casting. Lure action training allows you to practice how to move your lures more realistically.
• Aquarium mode lets you set up your own aquarium with the items, like stone and coral, you acquire in Free Fishing mode.

Sega gives you lots to do and Original Mode is where you’ll spend most of your time. Arcade mode, even on the middle difficulty, is short, especially if you don’t continue a lot. The last area is where you’re suppose to catch the biggest fish of your life, but all I managed to catch was a long Piranha worth half the points I expected.

The Graphics

Even though the arcade version was out way before the Dreamcast version, the graphics remain the same. The best part of the graphics are the fish. They look more realistic than anything in the game. The atmosphere is bright and cheery, but better character models would have been nice. The areas are landscaped good, but the water didn’t act or react with any realism.

The Controls

If you use the controller, you’ll find that Sega did a good job making the controller act like a fishing reel. The right trigger, brings in your line and the analog stick acts as your rod. I prefer the fishing controller and if you want to do the same, you’ll probably have to go on Ebay to find one.

Thompson’s Two Cents

Sega Marine Fishing doesn’t take the place of real fishing, but you can get the intensity of the competition with time limits and quotas. There are a lot of fish to catch and if you’re a stickler for getting everything, a goal you should have to catch one kind of each fish. While the graphics don’t impress, it’s the gameplay that will keep you coming back.