Fishing games are commonly overlooked on the next generation systems, but THQ and Pai want to change that with BASS Strike for the PS2. Sounds kind of fishy considering that the genre is untapped on the PS2, and this is the team's first time on the water, but if they got the right lures in the tackle box, this game could end up being a lunker.

Fishing games have been around dating all to way back to the Super Nintendo and Game Boy, and there have been a few of them since then for the PC and even Dreamcast (N64 too, if you include Zelda), but BASS Strike is hands down the best looking game out of all of them. The most important part of the game, the fish, are quite amazing with realistic looking textures for scales and fins and even above that, they move realistically and bend convincingly as they swim around in their cute little fishlike manner. The second most important part of the game is probably the water, and it also looks great. Other than that, the rest of the game sparkles and shines with a certain graphical splendor that the PS2 deserves. But while most of the game is fantastic, there are definite graphical problems with BASS Strike. First off, the camera is terrible. Once you pitch in your lure, the camera automatically switches to the side of the lure rendering the fish invisible to your line of sight. The worst part is that the camera can't be adjusted, so you can see anything other than the lure and the fish that you have already passed. The best option would be if the camera followed behind the lure in line with the pole so you could see what is ahead. The second big problem with the graphics is that the fish jump out of the water a lot once you hook them. This doesn't sound like a big deal, but when you consider that the fish just come up to the surface and do a little ugly splash instead of a proper jump, it becomes repulsive. Anyone that has ever seen a fish jump knows that they come up fast and and flop down on the surface. Really an amazing sight, but BASS Strike reduces it to a slow rise to the top with a tiny splash.

Adding insult to injury, the sound of the jump is even worse. Instead of a simple splashing sound, you get something that sounds like a mechanical dog barking. The other sounds are done well however, but they can become stale and overused quite quickly. Our terrible jump is only worsened by the fact that every time it occurs, the fisherman says 'Put the tip down!' It is nice to have helpful tips like that, but a bigger fish can jump upwards of 15 times before you land it- and all of those jumps have our friendly little tip in them. The other voice overs are more tolerable, but can severely dummy down the experience. Example - Anytime a fish is thinking of striking the lure, the fisherman says 'Come on, take it.' To me this means 'Come on, don't touch the controller,' because if you do just that the fish is sure to take it. The other sounds are slightly better, like the light techno music that accompanies your fishing trip. I know that every time I load up the boat, I make sure to include a small CD player and my European Dance Mix CD to get me in the fishing mood.

BASS Strike offers it's players a true fishing experience, but is still able to keep it easy enough to be fun instead of boring. There are five well designed lakes to choose from, all of which are varied and fun to explore. To get to one of these great lakes (no pun intended) you first have to select one of the game's eight players. All of them play pretty much the same, but they do a good job of letting you try out a fresh face. Once you are on the lake, the choice of where you want to toss a line in is yours. I like the fact that you get to actually drive a boat around to find the fish instead of selecting a bunch of different points on a map like in other games, but the controls for the boat are unbearable. My first mistake was using the analog stick. It is common to have the boat kick into reverse when trying to take a shallow turn. After running into the bank more than 10 times, I switched to the D-Pad and solved the problem by only pushing in one of the four directions at a time. Pushing up and left at the same time is like asking the boat to stop and and then go in the complete wrong direction. While the controls may have stunk like a carp, I wouldn't have traded the boat for anything simply because of the split screen view you get underwater so you can spot the fish. Having a split screen means that you don't have to watch The In-Fisherman on TNN to learn about a bass' spawning habits, April. Instead, you simply get to zoom around till you find a nice little school. After that, it is simply a matter of selecting a lure and making a cast. Each character has their own set of lures that he or she can use. The tackle boxes are pretty well stocked and are able to offer you most any type of lure that you would need in any situation, but they must be bottomless because anytime you lose a lure, it still appears in your list. The casting/reeling process works fairly smoothly. While casting, you merely move a cursor to select a target and after that the computer takes over . Reeling however is a lot more fun because instead of just holding down a button, you have to spin the left analog stick in a circle, which allows you to precisely control the speed of the lure. Also just like the boat, before you make your cast, you get a split screen so you can home in on the lunkers.

BASS Strike offers a lot of different modes of play, but because you do the same thing in all of them - fishing, they all end up playing almost the same. Tournament Mode lets you go out on each lake for two days against 50 other players to try to get the highest weight out of five fish. Arcade Mode pits you against one other fisherman and works the same way, but adds a time limit. Practice Mode is just that - practice. Choose a player and a lake and go out and practice. Some of the gameplay bonuses include control over the time of day and weather conditions.

Initially, I thought that BASS Strike would be an insanely hard game. Each of the modes of play have their own difficulty settings and I chose the Arcade Mode first. Arcade is the hardest because you can't move the boat and you don't have the split screen mode on either the boat or the casting. This means that you have to blindly try to find the fish. Add a time limit of 5 minutes and it is a wonder that I was able to catch any fish at all. Tournament Mode however, is like shooting fish in a barrel when compared to Arcade Mode. Sure, you are competing against 50 other people, but you have all day to catch the lunker and if you bomb on your first day, there is always the next. My first time trying a Tournament, I placed first with 82lbs and the guy in second only got 64lbs. That's the way it was for all of the lakes and I found myself disappointed that the game didn't get any harder as I progressed. It would have been nice to give the other fishermen a handicap to balance out the difficulty and provide more of a challenge.

There are definite problems with BASS Strike. Most notably, the previously mentioned camera problems and the pathetic jumping action of the fish. Aside from that, the game ran rather smoothly without any slowdown or bugs. Auto-saving is not included as it is in a lot of other PS2 games, which means you will be prompted if you want to overwrite the previously saved data. One of the technical plusses is that BASS Strike loads the levels quite quickly considering how huge they are. I also found that the controls worked nicely and the spinning of the left stick to reel in made the controller feel less like a controller and more like a reel peripheral, like the one for the Dreamcast.

What Guys thinks: I want to say that you should only play BASS Strike if you are an avid fan of fishing games. But if you are, then you most likely will be offended by this one. Then again if you aren't an avid fan, you most likely won't be too inclined to get into this game. I guess what I would recommend is that you rent this game and find out for yourself. The main thing is that if you can stick it out, you may find that underneath the problems, BASS Strike offers a solid, fun fishing experience.