Sega Marine Fishing

Released on October 19, 2000 for the Sega Dreamcast, Sega Marine Fishing is an arcade-style, saltwater fishing game.

For some reason, after my kid was born in late 2009, I decided to pull my Sega Dreamcast out of storage. Maybe it was because most of the games, excluding some rarities, had starting selling for under $10 on eBay. Whatever the case, in about three months, I doubled the size of my original Dreamcast collection. I only tested most of the games out for a few minutes, but for some reason, I decided to play Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future all the way through. Maybe it was the incredible graphics and all-time great soundtrack. Whatever the case (a theme is appearing here), when I was about 3/4 of the way through the game, my almost one year-old son started sitting on my lap and watching me play. It should have been no surprise that a few months after we completed Ecco, my son yanked a tub full of toy sea creatures into the buggy at Toys "R" Us. This turned into a full-blown sea creature obsession, and I hope you can see where this is going...

Hopefully, for time's sake, to a review of Sega Marine Fishing!

After hours of sea creature based entertainment, including a trip to Sea World, we started playing Sega Marine Fishing for the Sega Dreamcast together...and soon enough, the kid was playing the game himself. He even started sleeping with the manual for "fishing game," like it was a stuffed animal.
Over the last decade, even with non-20-year-old video game systems in our house, Sega Marine Fishing, which I got eBay for $5, has been omnipresent. Though my son's sea creature fixation has faded, Sega Marine Fishing has hung around It's just a great game.

Wow, the review is actually starting!

Sega Marine Fishing started out as a Sega arcade game. As a sunny, optimistic, high-energy experience, it was tailor-made to come to Dreamcast...in fact, this, along with Crazy Taxi, might as well be called Dreamcast: The Game.
There's so much synergy involved with the individual elements of Sega Marine Fishing, its tough to pull them apart. The graphics are bright and pleasant, and the fish models still look fresh almost 19-years later. They move realistically, and every one of the vast assortment of catch-able species is fairly faithfully designed on their real-life counterparts: blue marlins, tarpons, yellow-fin tunas, they all look and swim great. The environments, from a shallow bay, to a coral reef, to a deep sea oil rig, all have a distinctly different design, with fish swimming everywhere, non-catchable sea turtles, dolphins, and even a whale swimming about. Seeing it all in motion is beautiful, though very arcade-like, as no area of the real ocean is as vastly populated as these. The game also features an insanely large assortment of eye-poppingly colorful lures.

The only bait named after the dance they do at Irish metal clubs. Also, after all these years, I just noticed they spelled "quickly" wrong. It's alright, Sega, I forgive you.

As for sound, you've got a classic, techno-based, turn-of-the-century Sega Arcade soundtrack, all high energy, sometimes dancey, sometimes more ambient. Generally, fishing games have either no music in the background, or something relaxing, but Sega Marine Fishing is, in a good way, loud and in-your-face, and quiet just wouldn't suit...though you can earn a music-free option a little way into the game. There's also an announcer on his 500th cup of coffee, and his ridiculous excitement when you hook a fish is contagious. Also, is "oh no!" when you lose one sounds like a fantastic Arnold Schwarzenegger imitation.

Looks like this Blue Marlin's trying to "GET TO THE CHOPPA!"

Speaking of earn, in Sega Marine Fishing, you can earn a seemingly infinite amount of things. Sega could have just ported over the arcade experience, where the player has to catch 3000 points worth of fish in under two minutes across three stages, to earn access to one final, difficult stage, and a chance at a huge fish. That experience is here, and as you can't put a quarter in a Dreamcast, Sega Marine Fishing just assumes you have an infinite supply, and lets you continue as much as you want. A lazy developer would have programmed only that experience onto this disc, but Sega AM1, at this point called WOW Entertainment, went more than the extra mile. They filled out Sega Marine Fishing into a full-blown, addictive, hours-eating experience.

This Picture: starring "The Fish" as Sega Marine Fishing, and "The Bait" as your free time.

Sega Marine Fishing includes a mode called "Original." In this mode, you play your choice of five mini-games to earn points. There's anything from a casting training involving moving targets, to a spin-the-wheel and catch whatever fish it lands on in 90-seconds challenge. You can then take whatever points you've earned into the fishing stage of your choice.These are the stages from the arcade mode (plus an additional bonus stage you can unlock), but with no time limit attached, so that you can fish at your own pace. When you catch fish in the stages, you then unlock items, with each costing one of your points. There are 266 items to collect in all, from new lures and rods, to new, selectable background music for the stages, to new boats, to new dogs to hang out on your boats, to new clothes and accessories for the player character, the boat captain, or the first mate (which also makes them player characters!), to special assist items, to marine creatures and decorations to fill your massive, personal aquarium. Yes, you get your own customizable, building-sized aquarium, and filling it up with every possible applicable item is addictive.

It's not an aquarium without a whale and a submarine.

As you get closer to collecting all 266 items, the items grow harder and harder to come by. You've got to use every bait you unlock to catch whatever fish they're best geared toward, experimenting with different rods and string, poking and prodding at the game until you've got all 266. It is a supremely enjoyable and addictive experience, and my son and I deleted our save file multiple times, just so we could collect all 266 items again.

The captain is even more excited than I am that I've earned a scuba diver for a lifetime enslavement in my aquarium.

Of course, all of this would be for naught if the actual experience of catching the fish wasn't pleasant. Thankfully, it is extremely fun, and as addictive as the item collecting. First, you go to the bait selection screen, and choose the cadre of baits best-geared to catch the fish you are looking for (you're told which baits attract which fish). Then you pick your stage and go to work.
Casting aiming is intuitive and simple. You then find a rhythm in reeling in, while jerking your bait from side-to-side to attract fish. Once your finned friends bite, you've got to jerk the joystick up and hit the reel button.This hooks the fish, and the battle begins.

Wait, aren't hammerhead sharks undangered?

A meter appears on screen that shows the slack in your line. Reel too quickly, and the meter goes to the right (and turns red), keep reeling, and your string breaks. Reel too slowly, and you get too much slack, and the fish swims away. You've got to figure out which way to angle the joystick (you get periodic hints on screen), and balance that with the right reeling speed. It all happens quickly, and becomes a glorious, chaotic, yet easily learned dance.

And you've got friends to help you who will wear whatever your kid tell them to!

Thankfully, the package this is all wrapped up in fits the gameplay to a T. The menu, mode selection, and loading screens all give the impression that you're on an endless vacation at a fishing paradise, hanging out with your two greatest buddies, the captain and Masala, the first mate. It's the perfect balance of chill, relaxation, and high energy thrills, just brimming with positivity. Really, that sunny, optimistic, uniquely early 00's, yet pre-9/11 Sega vibe goes for this entire game.
I'm glad my kid got me into Sega Marine Fishing. I'm looking forward to playing it on my surely still operational Dreamcast with my future grandkids.

9.5

Graphics

Bright, colorful, sunny, essentially trademarked Dreamcast graphics, with great fish design and animations.

8.5

Music and Sound

High energy insanity in both the announcer and the soundtrack, yet also highly customizable to suit your tastes as the game goes on.

9.5

Gameplay

Insanely addictive, easy to pick up, fast-paced arcade fishing action, with hidden depth that rewards long-time players.

10.0

Lasting Value

So many things to do, so much stuff to collect, so addictive.

9.5  FINAL SCORE

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sega Genesis, Sega Technical Institute, 1992

Nostalgia can interact with our opinions in interesting ways. Last summer, when I reviewed 1991's Sonic the Hedgehog during my summer review marathon, I was bummed I didn't get to 1992's technically and creatively superior Sonic the Hedgehog 2. After all, I thought, that game is perfect. Indeed, in the year since, and really, in the intervening years since my cousin Adrian and I played Sonic the Hedgehog 2 time after time in the early-to-mid-90's, I've been thinking about just how much I love that game. The stages, the backgrounds, the music, all so memorable. The simple plot, as Sonic and his flying fox buddy Tails try to free all of the other animals from the evil Dr. Robotnik's machines, so charming. I made it a point to get to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 this summer, and get to it I did.

So nostalgic, I missed the corkscrew.

I was immediately taken by just how soon my memory was proved correct. Starting off in Emerald Hill Zone 1, gazing upon those green rollers, and that distant, beautiful blue sea, clouds submerging into and reflecting from its sunny surface, I felt at home. That bouncy, energetic, unmistakably Sega Genesis music hit my ears, and it was like I had never left.

I even died a couple of times in the submerged part of the Chemical Zone, just for old times sake.

I blazed through that first level as the titular hedgehog, a blazing speedster who can run, jump, and spin through the air. This time around, Sonic's even got a new move, the super spin, where you make Sonic crouch, then tap-tap-tap the button until he takes off like a balled up, razor-sharp rocket. This move can not only be used as an attack, but as a way to surmount perilously sharp inclines.
Sonic controls like a 16-bit dream, and it's tough to fight the urge to just run full-speed through all of the game's levels. Of course, if you do that, you'll succumb to Sonic 2's many spike-laden traps, or get hit by a foe who seems to come from out of nowhere. Take it slow, and Sonic almost feels a bit unwieldy, like he's just meant to move quickly. Leave him still for too long, and he'll start tapping his toes!

Though for some reason, he's always got time for the slots.

Finding the balance between running full tilt, and taking your time takes practice. You'll also notice with practice that most, if not all of the 2D, side-scrolling levels feature multiple paths to their ends There's generally a low, medium, and high path, with the high path generally featuring the most rewards, in the form of rings (collect 100, get an extra life added to your original tally of 3), shields, invincibility (only lasts a few moments), and power sneakers (for a limited time, they make you run even faster!). Get hit, and all your rings come shooting out of you. Get hit when you're not carrying any rings, and you're dead. Get crushed between two objects, and you're dead.
Sticking to the high path is a fun challenge, and greatly increases Sonic the Hedgehog 2's replay value. This time through, I made a point to try to stay on the high paths, remembering just how frustrating it is to miss a jump and get knocked down to the medium path. Still, though, fair is fair. To a point. And the point is this...

Oil companies are responsible for systemically destroying our Earth's environment.

In the early 90's, many video game publishers began adding save files to their games (Nintendo actually pioneered the idea with Zelda in the mid-80's). Make progress in a game, save, and if you get a game over, you can start right back where you left off, any time. Few Sega Genesis games feature this attribute. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 does not. When I played for 90 minutes this time, to the final level, then got a game over, meaning I'd have to start the ENTIRE GAME OVER, I suddenly felt a rush of horrible repressed memories: Adrian and I punching the floor after pouring the only two free hours of our Saturday into Sonic the Hedgehog 2, only to get a game over at the final boss.

Hi, we haven't met yet, I'm...dead. Oh. Huh. Didn't realize doing that would kill me. Time to play another 90 minutes just to get back to this one moment. No big deal.

If you make it to the final boss, who kills you in one hit, and you have one remaining life, you have literally no chance at learning his pattern and defeating him. You've got to do better the next time you play through the game, and try to get to him with multiple lives. Thankfully, you can earn continues as you play through the game. If you finish a zone with more than 100 rings, or in less than a minute, you get a continue (three more lives), which sets you at the start of the zone you game over'd in. If you get almost 100 rings, while simultaneously beating a zone in almost under a minute, you'll get a continue. Thus, early in the game, you can rack up a decent amount of continues. You can also earn the helpful "Super Sonic" by collecting seven Chaos Emeralds.

Chaos Emeralds live in this nice, psuedo-3D space, where nothing can hurt you, just like how nothing can hurt Sonic the Hedgehog 2's 10/10 score in my Nostalgia Zone.

Chaos Emeralds are acquired after completing bonus pseudo-3D courses only accessible when you reach one of a stage's save point lamps (thankfully there are save points within zones) with 50 rings. If you're really focused on this, you can get all seven emeralds in the game's first few stages. Of course, then you've got to get 50 more rings to transform into Super Sonic, a buffed out, near-invincible version of Sonic, a metamorphosis that's only temporary. Thankfully, there's also a debug cheat code that opens up a level select, so you can always pick up where you left off by...cheating. It feels dirty.

There's also a multiplayer mode that's so inconsequential, I forgot to mention it in the body of this review. There's one set in the Chaos Emerald levels that's a little more fun, though the most fun is just the single player, where someone can grab the second controller to control the hapless Tails, who can't keep up with Sonic and just dies over and over again. If no one grabs the controller, CPU-Tails follows Sonic on his own, doing something useful like grabbing a ring or hitting an enemy maybe once every six or seven minutes.

So there you have it, a game with bright, eye-popping graphics, an excellent, upbeat soundtrack, tight controls, and memorable levels. It's nearly perfect. In fact, without some cheap enemies popping out to hit you from nowhere, and the fact that you can spend hours of your life playing it, only to have to start the game over after losing to the final boss, it would be. It's still, due to nostalgia, one of my all-time favorites.

Nailed it

Graphics: 9.5/10.0
Sound: 9.0/10.0
Gameplay: 9.5/10.0
Lasting Value: 9.0/10.0
Overall (Not an Average): 9.5/10.0