In Trophy Bass 3D, the third-person perspectives gave you a chance to see weather effects and watch your rod bend as your angler struggled to reel in a trophy fish. When casting, you're presented with a behind-the-angler view - but once the lure hits the lake you're switched to an underwater view similar to Trophy Bass 3D's "lurecam." There's nothing wrong with that except for the fact that there's no way to switch back to a perspective from the boat, so you never really get the sensation of being outdoors. These are all top-notch bass lakes, but they're few, compared with the 15 in Trophy Bass 3D. Only six lakes are featured in Championship Bass - Buggs Island and Lake Lanier in Georgia, Sam Rayburn Reservoir in Texas, Lake Mead in Nevada, Lake Toho in Florida (where's Lake Okeechobee when you need it?), and Table Rock Lake in Missouri and Arkansas. However, there's no way to turn off the power-ups, so hard-core simulation players or bass-fishing veterans will probably bypass the challenge mode and head straight for a fishing trip or a tournament - and it's here that it becomes apparent that the game is no serious match for the ultrarealistic Trophy Bass 3D. The bonuses are all very silly, but they'll probably appeal to casual gamers. The bonuses include bonus timers that give you more time to find that monster bass to jack up your total poundage bonus casts that increase accuracy or distance, or that provide you with specialized techniques like skipping or "no splash" landings bonus boat modes that endow you with stealth or the ability to navigate shallow water fish flags that point you to where really big bass are hanging out and bonus lures that expand the contents of your tackle box, usually with just the right lure for the situation. They're the fishing equivalent of power-ups, and you earn them by catching a "bonus bass" - they're the ones with fiery red eyes. Finish in the top three at the end of a five outings, and you move on to more challenges - and hopefully pick up even more knowledge and skills that you can use when you decide to enter a tournament against computer opponents or against real folks over the Internet.īut while these fast-paced angling sessions result in plenty of bites and catches, they start to veer away from anything even remotely realistic because of the addition of 27 challenge bonuses.
Bass-fishing novices can access pro tips on all this stuff, but the text and audio presentation is a little bland compared with Trophy Bass 3D's video clips. All you've got to do is figure out which one you should use, where to cast, and what type of retrieval is best for the situation. With each outing, you're given access to a limited number of lures, but there's no need to worry you don't have the right rig - there's always something in the virtual tackle box that'll get the attention of those lunkers. And for the most part it achieves exactly what EA Sports probably hoped it would: It gradually introduces bass-fishing techniques while stripping away long stretches of inactivity by placing you right where the big ones are biting. But the game's Bass challenge mode, comprising a sequence of five-event "levels," is the game's most unique feature.
Championship Bass still gives cyber-anglers the usual options of heading out for single-day fishing trips and competing in bass tournaments lasting from one to three days. Nevertheless, the overall response to this twist must have been fairly positive, as the same feature is a major component of Championship Bass. Not every hunting-sim fan enjoyed these quick-and-dirty levels, largely because of the linear design - if you didn't win a mission, you couldn't move on to the next one.
Its first effort was Deer Hunt Challenge, which tried to jazz things up for hunters by adding a series of arcade-style "missions." These missions were quick, point-and-shoot affairs that started out with the prey in sight and that placed a premium on a quick, accurate trigger finger.
You'd think EA Sports would have challenged Sierra's supremacy in this subgenre a long time ago, but it's been only in the last few months that the company decided to venture from the world of big-time spectator sports into the great outdoors. But even without the pressure of serious competition, each iteration in the Trophy Bass series has featured significant improvements, culminating in last year's stellar Trophy Bass 3D.
About the only other PC bass-fishing sims have come from budget-software king WizardWorks. Since the inception of its Trophy Bass line five years ago, Sierra Sports has been the proverbial big fish in the relatively small pond of fresh-water fishing simulations.