Shigesato Itoi’s most famous contribution to gaming is the Mother/Earthbound series. However, he also loved the concept of a game that allowed fishing to be casual, but also needed skills of people who were into fishing. No. 1 Bass Fishing was originally on the SNES, with Satellaview compatibility to download extra content to take part in online tournaments, with some real-life prizes. The N64 version (sometimes referred to as the “Definitive Version”) is a remake that brings it into 3D.

No 1 Bass Fishing is a game you play at your own pace. The aim is to collect big fish to amass acorns (currency) to buy new stuff, and you can do this at three difficulty levels. Easy makes it easier to lure and catch fish, but the bigger fish will be much harder to find. You can also pick between when you’re allowed to fish – either weekdays or just weekends, based on the in-game clock. You can walk around a little village, or take a boat onto a lake.

The difficult part is finding a fish. You’ll need to learn about the lake’s conditions and where fish are likely to be, either from talking to the animal NPCs, or based on your own knowledge of fishing (which, for me, is zero). One of the marketing parts of the game is that it’s like real life fishing: a child can catch a few fish by being lucky, but it takes someone who knows what to do to be able to catch them consistently.

Being a child when it comes to fishing, I was able only able to catch one fish. The controls are quite easy, and you don’t need to do technical stuff like managing tension. The lure camera helps you track the fish’s progress (as well as seeing around the lure when looking for fish).

For what the game sets out to do, it does it well. It’s just that a game for families where the kids will play a bit and then get someone that knows about fishing to help them out is a very niche market.

Fun

Remake or remaster?

With some more difficulty settings, this could do well on Switch – it has some Animal Crossing vibes.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Shigesato Itoi’s No. 1 Bass Fishing