Still, the fishing game also has a rightful home in the "hunting" genre, after all, it’s just hunting for fish. And, as we all know, the hunting genre was created by Wal-Mart for the PC with two explicit goals in mind: 1) Create cheap games that everybody can afford (especially kids shopping for Dad); and 2) Create games with low system requirements so everybody’s PCs can run them. Wal-Mart succeeded, and the low-cost, low-reqs scheme has since been adopted by many software publishers. And, of course, a few have chosen to go the opposite route, figuring that these games have been popular enough to generate a fan base with better computers and more cash to spend on software.

Take Two Interactive has been pursuing a somewhat similar line of thought with their series of $9.99 titles. The first two, Grudge Warriors and Spec Ops, met with resoundingly bad reviews, and, in truth, deservedly so. Grudge Warriors offered first-gen PSX graphics and extremely limited variety in play, and Spec Ops, well, when you could see what was going on, it really wasn’t worth looking at. And the gameplay… It looks like Take Two has learned from their initial foray, and their latest offerings, Ball Breakers and Action Bass, are significantly better than the forebears.

Action Bass feels like those initial hunting games that were targeted for non-gamers. Sure, it’s no Sega Bass Fishing or Big Bass Fishing or Black Bass Fishing (see a trend here?), but it’s not bad at all. And if you consider just who is looking for a cheap fishing game, odds are the target audience will be impressed.

Action Bass looks like an older PSX game than it is. That’s probably to be expected. If the cost on these suckers is any indication, they are most likely being developed at an accelerated pace and relying on tried-and-true methods of programming and game construction, rather than fiddling and tweaking with them to squeeze out every last drop of graphical capabilities from the PlayStation. Still, the game doesn’t suffer from the same lighting problems of Spec Ops, so everything is easy to see. The worst graphical offense in this game is its sparse 2D scenery – flora look like cardboard standies, and you won’t be seeing any crawdads or turtles cruising around these areas.

There are four modes of play. In Arcade mode you participate in a series of bass fishing competitions in four areas. The numbers are pretty realistic (at least from, my limited survey of bass fishing competitions on the Outdoor Life network they seemed realistic), so you have to catch a lot of bass to move on. That will take quite a bit of practice in the Free mode, so you better start working out your reel hand. Free mode, as in most other games, allows you to cruise the areas of competition and spend as much time as you’d like honing your skills. When you catch big fish, you can add them to your aquarium and view them in Aquarium mode. While this mode is fairly innovative, it’s also pretty boring. As I said before, the graphics in Action Bass aren’t exactly "to die for," so looking at your blocky fish swim in and out of totally 2D seaweed is less than thrilling. Once you’ve beaten the Arcade competition, you’re rewarded with a new area to fish in, new lures, and the Extra mode, which is pretty much an expert competition.

You begin the game with five lures available, including the minnow, rattling minnow, diving minnow, and spinner. Throughout the course of the game you can unlock four more, for a grand total of nine lures to choose from, which ain’t bad at all. I expected that Action Bass might be so cheap that they didn’t really incorporate lure technique, but to my surprise and joy, each one really must be used quite differently.