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Retro Jammers
Join the Retro Jammers: Carter, Jeff, Jerad, and Tanner as we play through retro games weekly and review how they play today. The podcast is designed to be like a book club in which games are chosen and played through. We highly encourage listeners to join in and play along weekly. We also take suggestions for our gaming wheel for the next game we play on Facebook and Twitter. Jam it in!
Retro Jammers
From the Vault #3 Reel Fishing (PS1) – [2022 Archive]
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From the Vault is our series where we revisit and re-release older episodes from the podcast archive. This previously unreleased episode was recorded back in 2022 and is now finally seeing the light of day.
In this episode, we dive into Reel Fishing on the PS1—discussing its relaxing gameplay, what made it stand out at the time, and how it holds up today as a classic fishing experience.
Welcome back, everybody, to season five, episode three. Today we're going to be talking about our first ever community game this season, real fishing on the PS1 from Mitchell Cook. So last time we covered a fishing game, it was another Natsumi game, uh, the infamous god-awful River King of Wonderful Journey. And I would recommend people listen to that episode as well as this one. Just so because I think in that episode we went more into what, like our start with fishing and how it like began for us and some of our early memories with it. But in this one, I was wanting to focus more on like specific like fishing memories and like I guess preferences, like getting to the nitty-gritty of it. Because I know with Jared with you, for some reason, you've always been the smallmouth bass guy. Like of all the fish, that's the one you always want to go for for some weird reason. Is there any reason why?
SPEAKER_01I think Carter probably is that too, and that's probably just because me and him are like similar fishers. Like we don't have a boat, so we don't go out on these lakes after like largemouth bass or like night fishing for catfish, which Carter does do that and has a good history with that. But like where we're from, like if you want to just go out and fish and like I don't it's it's smallmouth bass. That's your best fish that's like not on a lake that's like really accessible in like rivers and creeks and streams around here.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think that's what it is. Like we can literally go out on our back porch or whatever and literally like walk a few yards and you're in a creek that has some foot-long smallmouths. So I mean, why not?
SPEAKER_00More riveting than catching like a fucking bluegill or something. Oh, you want to go after the smallmouth bass. I okay, I understand it now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. It's it's like our I don't know, it's our best, I want to say game, but like fish that's like local to us. Like it's our thing that we could just go, like Carter said, we've done it in the past years. Like when I was a teacher and had all summers off, me and Carter would meet morning after morning. Like you know over and over.
SPEAKER_02We've covered it all.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and just sometimes slay the smallmouth, sometimes catch one or two apiece. It just depends.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Do you remember that one time, Jerry? Because there was one memory that comes in my mind, and this one will always stick out to me. We was on the Oceana uh Creek or whatever you want to call it, river, whatever, and we was uh fishing one day, and we was listening to our Animal Crossing music. It was a nice day, the water was real clear, just painting the picture a little bit, and then uh we looked to our right, and there's this one long, very long fish that has like this huge snout. I remember looking at you and being like, Jared, what is that? What is that?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I like stood up and got scared, and you were like freaking out too. You're like, what the fuck is this? It it looked like a um like it had like an alligator snout thing, but it had no top fin. That's what it is. Yeah, it was an alligator garden an alligator in West Virginia, and we almost nearly got killed. No, no, no, no. But uh, we were talking about that on the ride home after we were done fishing. We're like, what was that beast that we seen? And I remember going to your house and we we were still talking about it, and your wife was like, What are y'all talking about? And we described the fish. She's like, Oh, you mean a gar? And we were like, What? You know the name of this fucking fish? Like, she's like, Yeah, that's a guard, duh.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. I can remember seeing like when I was with you, I kind of blanked on like what it was, and I but yeah, those those guars, they're rare, they're super rare as far as like in our creek goes. Like mine and Carter's like close to our house, but they're there. I've seen like I saw that one with you that day, and if if I'm not mistaken, it for some reason it was me, you, and DJ Shorter went to this bridge. I say shorter a lot on the podcast, but we went to this bridge. Yeah, you grew up with him, so I mean like totally right beside you. We were fishing at the bridge, what I call Speedway Bridge, which isn't near Speedway at all. I mean, I mean it's kind of close. And we just saw it swimming by, and I was like, holy shit, because it had to be 20, 20 inches plus like 20, 25 inches. Throughout, like, even after that, as far as my experience with cars goes, I've never caught one. But one time randomly, Carter, near a place that me and Carter call Basshole, had three cars that were like like I was by myself or either with my kids or something, but like these three guars were mating in the creek, like they were they were rubbing on each other. There's three of them, it's a it's a damn threesome. And the thing is, is I almost stepped on them, like because I was crossing over to go to our mine and carters like major. They didn't give a shit about you. No, they didn't move at all. But there's three of them laying on top of each other, rubbing back and forth on each other, and I was like, what the fuck? Like a gar threesome.
SPEAKER_02If you uh if you touched them, technically that counts.
SPEAKER_01Well, I didn't. I was still a good I was still a good four or five feet away, but the fact that I was like splashing through crossing the creek and like just look down and see them just a little bit to the left. I was like, what the hell is that? Like at the first it was just like a big, I don't know, cluster of fish, and it kind of like shocked me. And then I I like I focus in and see what it is.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they're freaky looking. If anyone doesn't know what they look like, look them up. I mean, they're they're weird looking for sure. And they get monstrously huge. There's another story that comes to my mind. Uh this is a Tennessee story, but uh it was once when I was fishing with my cousins here, Corey and Brandon, obviously, and uh we went to this pond that we'd never been to before. And this is kind of another story where I got scared while fishing. And we were sitting on the edge of this pond, and you you guys are gonna have to help me out here because I don't know what they're called, but you know those things that you like push in the ground, and whenever you catch a fish, you like stick it through their gills and out their mouth and you put them in the pond to keep them alive. Stringer? Yeah, it's true. That's what that's what it is. Yeah, okay. Well, we had we were doing really good this day, and we caught at least eight fish, and we had eight fish on this stringer, and we were just sitting there talking, and uh they were swimming around in the pond or whatever, and but the pond was really, really murky, it was like very muddy, so you can't really see that well. And then I I was changing my bait, and I remember looking at the fish, and all of a sudden this humongous snapping turtle comes out of nowhere and grabs one of the fish, bites it in half, and yanks the entire fucking thing with it and eats all the fish that we caught that day. I was like, oh shoot. We literally just gave this guy this turtle a buffet of fish to eat.
SPEAKER_01Y'all made his job easy, man.
SPEAKER_00I I'm like honestly, I was more scared at that snapping turtle than the gar because it was like a jump scare in a movie.
SPEAKER_02Speaking of uh being scared while fishing, Jared, do you not remember that day we literally like I fucking knew it was coming? Yep. You you seen it. It was a USO, unidentified swimming object. We were literally waiting down in like there was this bend in the river, and did we not sit there and probably catch 20 small mouth a foot long? I mean, just like almost cast after cast after cast. That's the fishing I've ever had in my life to this day.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, one day me and Carter went to an area that we've only I've only done that stretch of like our local stream twice, maybe three times at the most. But one day Carter and I did it, and we went to that spot, and dude, we were slaying the fish in one area.
SPEAKER_02The best day ever, for real, even today. And and and that includes everywhere I've ever fished.
SPEAKER_01I don't think I've ever done that. It was one after another after another in the same small little hole of water. I think we ended up pulling we had to pull at least eight out of there, and Carter's best was a 16-inch smallmouth.
SPEAKER_02They were all 12 to 16, though. It was constant, like almost every cast we were just ripping them out of the water. It was the best thing I've ever had.
SPEAKER_00Insane. It sounds like that King of the Hill episode where they use drugs as bait and fish coming through the hooks. I love that episode, man. Jared's getting out of the U.S. He's like, Oh, you got that bait? And then that drug duo is like, huh, you call it bait.
SPEAKER_01Like Yeah, Carter, go ahead and finish the story, man.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So I moved Jared like, did you get hung up or something? And we stopped the bite slowed down. It was getting something happened. And you were crossing the river there, right where we were at, and all of a sudden Jared takes off running out of the water, screaming. And I'm like, what the hell did you see? And he was like, he described it no shit as an alien. That's what I see an alien in the water. There was a fucking alien right there. I was like, what? I was like, was it a catfish or what? You're like, no, it was a fucking alien.
SPEAKER_01Like described, go into detail, what'd it look like? Dude, I look down to the right of me and there's like a fucking big white ass fucking head. I mean, it looks like your typical alien laying in the fucking creek, like beside my foot. So I like I had no time but to just run out. Oh my god, that's fucking terrifying. I mean, it looks like shit, it could have been a dead body now, and I'm sitting here saying this shit, but it was like a fucking like massive fucking shovel head with a little skinny neck to a body, and then like it's just like laying in the creek. Like that's that's what I see.
SPEAKER_00It could have just probably a UFO crash landed next to that creek, and that's its body.
SPEAKER_02If it was, Carter, it was it was like four feet long if it was something like that. I guess they can do that. I don't know. I wish I would have got I wanted to see it so bad, but I mean it probably was it probably took the hell off because you you got out of there so fast and Raymond. I was running on top of the water, Tanner, out of the creek. It made me scared because I thought I didn't know what was going on. Because like, you know, if you see a snake or something, you get scared, but Jared was there's something there was something going on that we never saw before.
SPEAKER_00Because there there's been numerous times where me and Jared have been wading through water, and then there's been like snakes like they swim right past you, and it it does freak you out because you don't know if they're venomous or not. But Jared never reacts, so it must have been something crazy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And it may have been nothing is the thing, but it in my mind it was the form of like I I can't say anything other than an alien, like a head and a fucking little skinny neck down to it. I'm gonna take your word for it. You saw an alien that day. I I don't think so, because I don't bel I mean, I guess I do believe in that kind of shit, but like I don't believe that like there's one laying in a creek in Oceana.
SPEAKER_02That's what they want you to think.
SPEAKER_01Well, they found a good spot to come.
SPEAKER_00I hope people have been enjoying these stories, these stories because I mean whenever you're fishing, I mean, l random shit like this can happen all the time, and you never know what to expect. And I love talking about this stuff.
SPEAKER_02Most fishing is just hanging out talking stories while you're waiting on something to bite. This is it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, those that was one more thing I was wanting to ask you about. Uh, how did you get into like fish tanks and shit? Like, because you you have a fish tank in your house full of fish. Yeah oh, was it for from Carter?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Carter's the fish tank guy. He's the deuce bigelow. I'm just like uh I tried it because Owen loves fish, but we got him one for his birthday one like last year, over a year and a half ago. And we're just not I don't know, we're not good fish keepers. Like, I mean, we get some and they die, we get some, they die. Like it we don't we don't keep a good aquarium. Carter's the fucking, like I said, deuce bigolo meldjigolo on as far as fish tanks go.
SPEAKER_02I've had a fish tank since I was I mean, my my my mom had one, I guess, before I was born, and it's always been there, and I've always had one forever.
SPEAKER_00I've never had one, man, because I I have those memories of walking in Walmart and seeing that like wall of fish tank, or like how when they used to carry goldfish. Yeah. So I would go over there every time with my dad and just stare at it, being like, man, I want some fish right now.
SPEAKER_01I just think it's so relaxing to have a fish tank, like I don't know, I could just sit there and watch them and just but but Carter's like selling himself short, like his aquariums last like multiple generations of fish, like they reproduce in his aquariums and like they just sell them. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Okay, everybody. I do I have bred fish and I've kept them for generation over generation.
SPEAKER_01And uh that's like a true fisher, like fish aquarium keeper to me. It's like when you get into the breeding aspect of your fish.
SPEAKER_02I I've made a hobby out of it. I even use live plants and stuff and literally kept them trim and stuff like that. Like it's like I said, I find it relaxing. I enjoy it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, no, it's awesome, dude.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's a cool hobby because uh Jared, you've sent us videos several times. Like you had a female fish that was pregnant once, and didn't it like lose all of its babies?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was one of the weirdest things ever. Like it Carter, you know, fish expert, Deuce Bigelow, came over and gave me this like little net that I could if I haven't gave you that back, let me get it back to you, Carter. I don't remember or not. But basically, like it was like a separator for the pregnant female. It's like a small net that attaches on the side, and you put her in there, and then you know, she can give birth or whatever, so that the babies don't get destroyed by all the other fish. So I put her in there, and then she had a bunch of babies, but they were all dead. Like, I was like, what the hell happened? Like she was spitting them out, but they were all dead. It I don't know, creepy, crazy man.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, sad. I don't know what happened there unless there was some type of temperature shock or something, but I don't want to get too Aquarian uh expertise on this show. You know, it could have been a movie H shock, you know, it could have been a number of things.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I guess like to light in the mood a bit after that, like the sad story. Uh real fishing, guys. Like, what how did did you all play this growing up, like this series, or was this a new thing for you all?
SPEAKER_02Oh, I absolutely played it growing up. I remember I used to rent it a lot because we used to rent uh Bassmaster Classics, and this was another game I remember my dad playing. I didn't realize how much I remembered it until I got to the uh Bitterling stream because I guess it's harder, so I just remember fishing that a lot growing up. And I don't know, I just remembered that big time. Me and my dad would just sit there and play this over and over and over forever.
SPEAKER_01I'm in the same boat as Carter. Uh no pun intended there in the boat, but uh I like it. Yeah, dude, like this is what I remember. I remember playing with this with my dad. Like I and the it's almost the same story. Like I don't maybe my dad bought it later on, but I don't have it in my collection, which means like maybe it stayed at his house and got lost or something like that. I'm not sure. But I remember renting it, and I remember him playing it and him freaking loving it. This was right up my dad's alley as far as games go. And me just watching it, and I'm just like Carter, except it wasn't the bitterling, it was that first level. Like, you know, once you walked in and it's got the nice like intro movie slash whatever thing.
SPEAKER_00Please write your name.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, all that kind of sparks a memory, but when I went fishing for the trout, and it's like that music, like music did get me like that dun dun dun dun dun dun that way. That fucking hit me hard, man. And like, you know how smell has like a strong tie to memory? Like that music like instantly took me back to probably 96, 97, whenever I played this. Yep, same for me, man. I had the same feeling.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it was just huge. Like I didn't expect it, like it was like waves coming back every time we get to a new level. I was like, oh my god.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I could not believe it. Like it as soon as the music started, I was like, God, dog, I I'm back in you know, Collinsville, Virginia in my dad's house, like watching him play this as a seven-year-old.
SPEAKER_00Those are always the most nostalgic games are the ones that you haven't played in a while, and the one or the ones that you don't think about, because obviously like Mario 64, I mean, you that game's been kind of beat over your head to this point, like you've played it numerous times throughout your adulthood, but something like this where you haven't touched it literally since '96, and when you go back to it, it's just the biggest hit of nostalgia ever. I know exactly what you're saying.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's what it was. That's what this is.
SPEAKER_00I wonder, honestly, you said '96, Jared. Maybe this was the start of your Natsumi Love. This could have been the game. It would have been the first.
SPEAKER_01And you know what's crazy is I do, I don't know why. I strangely remember remember seeing that serious fun, like little logo by them. Or not logo, but like catchphrase, like serious fun. Is that on this game? Yeah, it is. Okay, so I I can remember seeing my dad like seeing that with this game. Serious fun. Natsumi, serious fun.
SPEAKER_00Also, like he commented on it, like the serious fun thing. Like he worked out loud.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because I can like I very distinctly remember like him focusing in on that because he was probably, you know, 30 at the time, 31, 32, and like me being a six, seven year old, like me getting hung on up on that because I could read, and then him like saying it out loud, like serious fun. That's awesome. Yeah, could you imagine?
SPEAKER_00Like, how are they still using that same exact tagline when you look at the modern day Harvest Moon games? It could be called serious shit or something. Like, there's no way.
SPEAKER_04Well, serious shit.
SPEAKER_01I don't they don't use that as much anymore. Like, that's I I guess that's still on their websites and shit, but like they were pushing that hard on their games back then.
SPEAKER_00Well, real quick before you get into the actual gameplay of it, I know that you have the uh there's a peripheral for this game where it's literally like a fishing rod controller.
SPEAKER_01Like you got a reel, you have like a reel on the controller, and you have all the buttons too, X, Circle, Triangle, Square, and you have an analog stick in the middle of the one that I have.
SPEAKER_00Did your dad buy that or did you buy that later in life for the uh like sequels?
SPEAKER_01Uh my dad bought that for one of his favorite games of all times. Like, I'm sure the podcast I've said like my dad passed away kind of young. He died in like 2004, early 04. So he was a pretty I don't want to say heavy gamer. I mean he worked like a production type job in like a uh insulation and window store. But like the times I remember with dad we're playing video games, but he had a bass fishing game that was on PS1. I have it, and I don't know the exact name of it right now. I think it's called Bass Landing, and that's what he got that controller for. And he loved that game so much, like later on in the PS2's life, like he was still living, the controller went bad on us, and he got another one just to play that game. That game's a bass fishing game. I mean, real fishing is two, but damn, that bass landing's good.
SPEAKER_00This one only has the bass in one level, which I think is the fifth level in the game.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's let's hop in the uh real fishing. Let's let's get into the the specifics of it. So yeah, you walk in this this house and you basically are given seven different levels, right? Like uh in the game. There's seven levels in total. Well, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Carter fucking changed my opinion on that today. I don't uh well what I did was uh so you start out, you just have like the one level, right? With the trout. Yeah, you gotta meet certain requirements before you can get to the next one. I was tired of uh not catching fish. Or like I was catching them, but like once you get to like around the carp and then the bass, I'm just like there's gotta be an easier way from fighting these fish. There's gotta be some instructions somewhere. And you know, we don't like looking stuff up on this show. So I decided I I had the manual, so I was just like, let me just read the manual. And I pulled that open and I pulled up the official fishing licensing requirements for the game. And uh it literally went over like what you had to do to get to the next stage. And I thought there was five, like I think that's what you thought, Jerry. There was five, like you catch the bass and the or maybe the uh It's called the cutthroat trout, it's on the beaver damage. Yeah, that I thought that was the last one. But um, if you look at it, there's seven stages. There's a salmon stage too, so you can catch the salmon or salmon.
SPEAKER_00Uh so here, I'll go over quickly uh each yeah, because each individual level just has one fish on it, and like Carter said, you gotta meet a certain requirement to move on to the next level. So you start out at the brook with the trout, then you go to the stream with the char. The third level is the creek with the bitterlings, the fourth level is the pond with carp, then you go to the lake, which has black bass, then the beaver dam, which has the cutthroat trout, and then lastly the waterfall, which has salmon. So you're never seven in total.
SPEAKER_02I've never once seen the waterfall before, and I'm really probably going to go back and play it until I can see it. I just want to see it.
SPEAKER_00Honestly, whenever I went into this game, I was figuring it would be more of a game where you're in a boat and you kind of move around and you pick your fish spot and that kind of thing. That's what I had pictured in my head. But essentially, when you get in this thing, you're looking at a gif or a gif, however you want to say it, of like a water stream, and you have a fishing pole and you just cast over these like fish shadows. And that sounds kind of lame uh at first, but until you play the game, uh the fishing in the game is super deep. Like the like, I mean, there's so many different things that you can change and add. Like you can change your rod, your floats, your hook, and your bait. You could even have a fly rod, right, Jared?
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, you can fly, fly real, fly fish it, but I've never fly fished in real life. Have you, Carter?
SPEAKER_02I've tried it. I actually bought a little cheap setup because I didn't know if I'd like it. It's a skill, isn't it? Oh yeah, it's something that I would like. I'd still like to learn how to do it. Um it's it's a it's like one of those sports they're trying to get people into because it's kind of like going away.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, maybe the generic rundown of what is fly fishing again, just so I know.
SPEAKER_01Fly fishing is like where you and correct me if I'm wrong, Carter, because I literally only know this from video games. Like you cast and then you pull back and you cast and you pull back. Basically, you're it's almost like top water fishing for regular reels, but you're just hitting that water. Is that about right?
SPEAKER_00The fish will see or hear the movement or whatever, and then they'll just go for it, and then you may hook them while you bring them back.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, sort of. Like from what I gather from the little bit I did, and I never really actually went except for a time or two, and I definitely never caught anything. And if you're listening to this and you're a fly fisherman, I mean, correct me. Love to know. You got like your regular line or your uh fly fishing line, which is like really big and thick. That's why you see them like go back and forth with it to get it like really far out there. That's why they have like this cadence where they like whip it one way, then they pull it back, then they whip it back forward, they're getting the line out further and further and further. Yeah. And then there's a lead on the end of it that has like regular fishing line. And what you do is you lay the uh once you get it out so far, you can drop the line in the water, and then that flies at the end of it and it drops off, right? So they see like it looks like a little bug hitting the water, so that's what they're coming to eat. Essentially the uh fly fishing line uh just floats on top of the water, it's supposed to, I believe, because it just kind of lays on top of the water and then kind of gets that out. So I'm not exactly sure the mechanics of it that great. I was able to cast pretty decently, but I never caught anything, so I never really went back to it. But I'd love to be able to do it just because it just seems I don't know, it's it's an actual skill I'd like to have.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's an own it it's like its own thing. Back real quick, Tander. You mentioned like you have so many levels and you only catch one fish. On the bass fishing level, there's also bluegill. Like on the lake. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I didn't make it that far, uh, just to preface. I only made it to the fourth level, which has carp.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so there's two fish there. It seemed like the game had it kind of programmed to further out our bass and closer in our bluegill. But yeah, everything else you said spot on. The game I mentioned earlier, the bass landing game that I'm like kind of familiar with because of my dad, that game is like what you said. Like you get in a boat and you set up well, actually you spend 20, 30, 40 minutes if you're more experienced, like setting up your poles and like all your setups before the tournament, like because you'll have nine different poles on your boat, but yeah, you set up all your stuff and you drive a boat and you pick a location and you got a certain amount of time. This real fishing is more I would say more arcade and more like just user-friendly, like you can just kind of jump into it.
SPEAKER_00So it's it's an in-depth arcade game. In terms of the mechanics, it's very in-depth, but in terms of the presentation and the way that you like would see the fish, it's very arcadey. You're just looking at one single screen. Yeah, you don't move around or nothing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and you're just fishing right there, like you're fish, fish, fish, same after the same fish.
SPEAKER_00I mean, it might sound boring, and this is like a game like River King. I feel like if that was done executed correctly, I feel like that game, more people who aren't fishermen could get some enjoyment out of it, if it makes sense, because it has some RPG elements and stuff. I feel or it even hotshots golf, for instance. Like if you're not into golf, I feel like you can play that and it might even get you into golf. It's that good and that like user-friendly and has something for everybody. But this game, I feel like you have to be into fishing right off the rip to even get something out of it. If you don't like fishing, I would not even bother with this. No, if you're not if you're not into fishing right off the bat, like if you have zero interest in it, I would not recommend anyone to play this. I would like something like River King, where it has the more anime art style and something like that, if that was done well, I feel like uh someone could get into fishing through that, but not through this game. At least I don't know what you're saying.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, Nikki, my wife, she actually picked it up and she played it for hours and hours and hours. Well, not really hours and hours, but she sat here one night and just played probably two or three hours straight, just loved it. Had a great time with it.
SPEAKER_00Was she in the fishing uh before that?
SPEAKER_02Uh I've tried to get her into it. She's caught fish, but not really. But yeah, she just liked the uh the fact that you can go to these different places and every time like if the brook trout you can catch is like really easy, and it's supposed to be because that's the first one. And then when you're catching carp, it's like there's a different time you gotta pull, there's a different and sometimes they actually pull the bobber under and you gotta hook them that way. So there's a little bit more of a challenge to it, and then the actual fight takes, it feels like it takes forever to get the carp to come up out of the pond, which uh makes sense.
SPEAKER_00It's kind of how they are that level in particular to me, the pond where you catch the carp, it looked just like where I live in Tennessee. Whenever I was there, I was like, this literally feels like my backyard. Like that's what it was.
SPEAKER_02That's one thing you mentioned. The the gifts or whatever that you're fishing on top of, I mean, they're awesome. Like I love like that's beautiful scenery to fish with. I know that sounds weird, but if you play this game, like it's I don't know, it's just so relaxing. It adds to the whole, like the whole point of this game is just relaxing, and then the actual like scenes you're fishing at, the spots you're at, is just I don't know, man. It just adds to it so much. It all fits together like really well.
SPEAKER_00That that was what you uh prefaced it with, because you sent in our group, because you knew I would be the most skeptical or or cynical of the group of our group, because I'm the one who's the least uh biggest fisherman here. You was like, Tanner, before you play this, I want you to know and keep this in your head, this game is meant for you to just relax, enjoy life, uh, love the fishing of it. Like, yeah. Because you knew that I'd probably go in this, like, this is boring, you're not doing nothing.
SPEAKER_02It's just meant to relax. Like, if you got off work, you don't want to actually go to the creek and fish.
SPEAKER_01This actually hits the spot pretty well. Yes, and what I thought too is like Carter saying how beautiful it is, like if this game, like I know I doubt any of us actually played it on like a CRT TV or whatever, like an old school TV. I was gonna mention that too. It's a little bit pixelated on these HD TVs. Yeah, it's pixelated here, but if we could have experienced it on the TV it was made for, like, Carter's right. Like that music, the damn scenery, the stream running or the lake, like the wind blowing over the lake. Like, it's a damn beautiful game.
SPEAKER_02I mean, the the music too isn't like it's like you can still hear the stream and everything, it's not overpowered. I'm guessing maybe I don't even know if you can go to the options and fix it. I never tried to because it was.
SPEAKER_01You can't like change volume, but you can turn one off or the other. I looked at that during this.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, the presentation is phenomenal, as we've been saying, but the actual gameplay of it, what what was your all thoughts? Because I mean, that's where it can make or break a game like this. And me personally, as the guy who's the most amateurish fisherman here, I thought it was uh excellent for the PS1. Like each fish that I've encountered, they hooked and fought completely differently. They had completely different behaviors from each other. And it it like I went into the second level of the stream with the char thinking that they would be exactly like the trout. So I I would do the same shit and I'd be like, why is this not working? But then I realized that they kind of have like a second bite to them than the trout did. The trout was more just instantaneous. As soon as they they go for it, you just reel them in or wait until they're tired out and then you reel them in. But with the char it seemed like you had to wait a little bit longer, wait for them to bite again.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they're third for fight. Yeah, and if you um if you hit up the menu, they got like this, I think it's called one point advice. And um, if you looked at that, it'll it told you like uh when you're fishing for the char, it says something like uh wait a little bit longer on the char to take it. They're not like the brook trout, and then the next one with the bitterlings was it says something about you gotta like move it up and down before to get them attracted to it, and then don't move the bait at all. And then the carpet was talking about like if they're fighting, don't fight them hard or they'll break your line. And it was just like they give you little tips for each one, but it's just like one little hint of advice, which is perfect and like it's good enough.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because with the bitterlings, you can only use the the uh the dough balls, and it's basic and the stream is not moving at all. So you're basically just like trying to get its attention by reeling up, reeling down, reeling up, reeling down, but you can't do it too fast or it will scare the fish away. And it's just so in-depth, it's uh so different from River King, it baffles me. Yeah, like it's like how do they fuck up uh nine years later when they already had it in 96 years?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, how do they get it? I I don't either. I thought about that same thing, like why not use the same in-depth fishing mechanics and like challenge other than just pressing a fucking button and holding it.
SPEAKER_02Even now it's just River King's gonna plague me forever just because like if they would have just simply done this in that game or just mixed it somehow, would have been uh we'd probably play.
SPEAKER_00I can't imagine if they kept those RPG elements and the like anime art style with this gameplay.
SPEAKER_01Hey, hey, hey, they tried in two in 2019, they released a real fishing game. It's called Real Fishing Road Trip Adventure. It's on the Switch. I don't know if it's on anything else. It's on the Switch, and they tried their damnedest to incorporate, like tried to combine the two. I don't like putting that, Jared. You said they tried. Well, they tried. I I don't know. I haven't tried it, but they've brought in like the anime, like there's little anime characters. It kind of looks like a little persona vibe, like Carter would buy into it. You're making me buy the game. You know what you're doing. Were those the key words there? But like I'm I'm honestly like I looked it up, and honestly, like right now, our Switch was left at Didi's earlier this week, or I would have bought this game just to try it. Like my kids stay with our Mina Tanner's grandma. From what I've read, the game sucks ass, which doesn't surprise me in 2020. Yep, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Two years too late on building that one.
SPEAKER_01Okay, but like it has this RPG like story mode element, and it's supposed to be real fishing combined with it. So, Carter, if you want to try it, let me know how it is.
SPEAKER_00But I've read It says it's on the Switch, PS4, and PC.
SPEAKER_01Okay, okay. I didn't know PS4, so there it is.
SPEAKER_02There is a real fishing road trip adventure. You'll not fool me again. I'll YouTube that one. I'll be perfectly fine with that. Well, you'll find out it's bad in the first minute or two and hop out.
SPEAKER_00How about this? There there's been 17 entries throughout the years, which is fucking crazy. And there was one on the Vita called uh Real Fishing Masters Challenge in 2015. How many entries? 17.
SPEAKER_01Okay, I thought you said 72. I was like, what the fuck?
SPEAKER_00Oh no, it's one every month, Jared. It's been really good. But no, no. But yeah, Carter, I mean that one may be the one for you, the Vita one.
SPEAKER_02No, I've seen it before, and I I I thought about getting it. I actually ended up getting Real Fishing 2, just the second one for PS1 on the Vita downloaded. So I was like, eh, I'll skip out on the other one. Because I don't know how I it I looked over looked over screenshots and I thought they might have made it a little not as good as the OGs, but I'm probably just biased.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, I mean that's essentially the game. I mean, uh, there's seven levels you fish on these one screens. There's a cool feature where you can uh keep the fish and put them in a tank and you can feed them and you can name the fish and that kind of stuff. Just that little kind of stuff is cool. Like where you can just keep your your biggest fish that you caught and name it and feed it.
SPEAKER_01You know me as a Harvey fan, like when my dad was playing, I heavily focused on that. Like I loved having my fish in the aquarium. Oh yeah. Like naming them and like naming them either after family members or friends, and I'll never forget. Like early on, I can't remember what happened. Like we had two of one fish, and I know they like supposedly I think you're supposed to there's like good combinations of different types of fish. I got real sad because one of our fish died in the in the tank as my dad was playing through, and I was just kind of watching him, and he was like, Oh, Jared, come on. He said, like, screw that fish. Like, there you got a bunch of you got this one mean, whatever the type was. He said, What we need now, since he killed your I don't know, bluegill or bitterling, whatever I had in there, he said, I'm gonna put two big bass in there after him. Them two big bass will take care of that whatever the mean one was, like that let the other ones died. I just remember that like very distinctly and like really buying into that shit because my dad was like talking me up like because I was sad one of our fish died.
SPEAKER_00Trying to cheer you up, like, oh, we'll get revenge, Jared. Yeah, that's crazy. So though the fish will kill each other in the tank? No, that I think that was just my dad's like damn, that is some serious fun. But they went all out with that.
SPEAKER_01No, but like he wasn't wrong in like I'm pretty sure like certain types react different with others in the tank. I can buy that.
SPEAKER_00There is one tank where the the there's not a stream, and then there's another one where the water's moving. So I'm assuming you gotta put the fish like where they belong.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it won't let you put uh like it won't let you put the trout in the one with it where it's not moving.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because I question Carter that at first because I kind of for some reason I had like a false memory of like me putting the wrong fish in the wrong tank, but like they won't let you do that.
SPEAKER_02A little more in depth of it though. Such a relaxing game.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. For sure. I mean, I I thank you, Mitchell Cook, man, because I mean, not only didn't we get on this, but uh some of our old faithfuls, Terry Bragg and Corey Hopak, they played along with us and they loved it. Terry Bragg and I talked to Corey personally because he's my cousin and I mention him all the fucking time. Uh he was saying how much he loved this game. He's like, man, I cannot believe how realistic these fish act in a game made from 1996. And he was just like gushing about this game, and he was all over it. So thank you, Mitchell Cook. Uh, we all had a great time with it. I mean, do you guys want to hop into our scores?
SPEAKER_01Let's do it. Yeah, I'm glad you gave Mitch Cook a shout out, dude. Absolutely. Jared, kick us off, Fisherman. Okay. As far as everything goes, like I said, I think like as far as the visuals and stuff go, sound was excellent. I love listening to the sound and even like the sound effects without the music. Um, there were a few I heard in there that just like, I don't know, it just so nature, and like I would hear some stuff and it would take me to other games. I don't know if you all notice, but there's like there's a bird in there, and that I don't know if it's the same sound effect, but it sounds just like hot shots to me. Like, there's one bird in there that I'm a hundred percent sure the same damn uh I don't know what type of file it is, but it's in a lot of attention to detail, they probably don't even know.
SPEAKER_02They're like, Yeah, I guess we did kind of call it.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's funny because Jared said in the last episode that Hotshots and Mario Golf use the same sounds.
SPEAKER_01But anyway, visual solid, the gameplay's really fun. It's something that I think you can just pick up and play. You can play it for 30 minutes, see what you can catch, put it down, come back the next day or next week. As far as fishing games on the PS1 goes, I feel like I'm pretty, I don't know, I've got some experience. It's not my favorite. I do love it though. I'm gonna give it a 7.0.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I was the one that was coming into this thinking that I was gonna be, I probably will be the lowest score, honestly, but um at the end of the day, it is still a phenomenal game for 1996. I mean, it it it's doing what it's meant to do. It's meant to be a fishing game, and that's what it's doing. And I think it does it pretty damn good. Do I wish that there was a little bit more substance to the game in terms of where you can move around and a little bit more than just a P or a GIF of a waterfall, essentially. Yeah, I mean I I do wish it was a little bit more in depth, but I think the gameplay is solid. I think the like the different uh things you can have on your fishing rod is really, really cool. Every fish you got approached differently, which is awesome. But it it is very, very basic. And if you're not into fishing at all, I would not recommend you play it. It's just not meant for it's meant for hardcore fisher fishermen, I think. But I'm gonna go ahead and give it a 6.8. I so I honestly wish I could play some of the late later ones, like real fishing two or three, the the one on the PS2, just to see how those are. I would like to see like how the series evolves. Because I mean, you've got to think about it with hot Hotshots Golf 4, we came into it, and that's the fourth one, and arguably the best one in the series. So it's kind of not fair for me to bash this game with it being the first one in the series, but I think it did really, really well right off the gate. So yeah, Carter, what about you?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean I agree with about everything you both said. It's um very basic, but it wasn't meant to be more than that. And um, I feel like if they tinkered with like the fishing aspect too much, like if they made like a forever went into like the fishing line and said, hey, you can use eight-pound test, six-pound tests, and just change that, it would have kind of made it a little bit too too much. Because this game is just super relaxing. You even the bobbers, you can change those, the hook sets, but I don't think it really matters all that much. I mean, it may at some lower like level to it, but I've never noticed it. It just to me it mostly just changed the visual, which this whole game is just about this awesome visual fishing game experience. Like it's just I mean, I had a great time. What really sold me on it was when Nikki sat down and played it and she just like wouldn't give me the controller back. I mean, really, it was just because she was like, I mean, it was adjust enough to where it's not too complex to be annoying. Because you can really go overboard with these fishing games and make it a little bit too much. This was just right, right dead on. So I actually was in the middle of us talking like before, I just jotted down my number and it's actually gonna make us land pretty sweet. Um, I wrote down a 7.2 just because I was like, it felt like that. Because I had a lot of fun with it. And Jared mentioned a little bit ago, like you could, you know, set it, play it for 30 minutes, come back to it next in a week or two. You could honestly load up your file from like 20 years ago and just, I mean, what are you what are you holding out for? Like you can just jump right back in and say, hey, there's my old record and just go for it. You don't really have to start a new one. You can just keep going. So yeah, excellent game. That date.
SPEAKER_01So we're 7.0. Yeah, that's a 7.0. That music, man, like Natsumi games, the games that they're behind, the music, man, like that this game, the early harvest moons, like it just puts me in such a relaxing mood. Yeah, same. I love this one.
SPEAKER_00You could put this one on in the background and just fall asleep to it. Yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_02Or like I could work to it. I could do anything. I don't want to say that. I could play it in the background while I'm at work and just kind of just let it play.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So yeah, I mean, uh great game. Thank you once again to Mitchell Cook. I mean, this was I mean, and it was so far as the lowest scoring game of the season, but it still was fucking it. I had a blast. It's not a bad thing else to do. No, not at all. No. And I think this opened a world, a new franchise for us to explore in the future, I think.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, get the game three in the future. You can get the game for what, four, four, five bucks, three bucks, two bucks.
SPEAKER_00Oh, it was dirt-ass cheap.
SPEAKER_02It's worth every penny.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, for sure. So yeah, moving on to the wheel here. Um, we got seven games left, I believe. We got Carter's picks, NBA jam and top gear. We got Watchell's pick, backyard baseball. We got Dave Mathis' pick, Mike Tyson's put out. We got Caleb's pick, NBA courtside, Jared's other pick, uh NFL 2K5, and my pick, Harry Potter Quidditch World Cup. Rest in peace, Hogwarts Legacy. So here we go, guys. Uh this is what we're gonna be playing this week. We'll see what it is. Three, two, one.
SPEAKER_01Backyard baseball. Are you serious? I'm dead serious. Fucking A, baby. Let's fucking go. Good pick, Watchels. I've never been more proud of my sister and anything in her life, other than this pick on the damn pod. Will this be better than Lester, you think? I think it'll I think it'll double or triple or quadruple Lester score.
SPEAKER_02I think it'll be pretty close.
SPEAKER_01Fuck off, Carter.
SPEAKER_00So, yeah, I mean, this is one that's on the PC. I think this is the only PC game this season. Jared, was you not wanting to do something with this one?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, guys, I hope you're up to stay up a little bit later because we're about to draft teams after this episode with a little mini, a mini bonus episode in which we get in depth. We have a little wheel spin on who's gonna draft first, second, and third.
SPEAKER_02And we draft these kids.
SPEAKER_01We I don't either. We're gonna find them out. We're gonna watch them. We're gonna have a little league baseball tryouts against each other. We're picking our kids on our team, and I will see you all in a week when I bust you all's ass in the baseball championships.
SPEAKER_00I better get Pablo Sanchez, that's all I know.
SPEAKER_01Well, I'd say he'll be the first pick overall.
SPEAKER_00Yes, sir. All righty, on the baseball.
SPEAKER_02Let's do it.