{"id":56613,"date":"2026-02-10T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=56613"},"modified":"2026-02-10T18:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T09:20:16","slug":"playstation-1s-bizarre-fishing-reel-controller-was-developed-thanks-to-the-obsessive-attention-to-detail-of-actual-fishing-nuts-it-would-be-pointless-if-it-didnt-feel-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/playstation-1s-bizarre-fishing-reel-controller-was-developed-thanks-to-the-obsessive-attention-to-detail-of-actual-fishing-nuts-it-would-be-pointless-if-it-didnt-feel-like\/","title":{"rendered":"PlayStation 1\u2019s bizarre fishing reel controller was developed thanks to the obsessive attention to detail of actual fishing nuts. \u201cIt would be pointless if it didn\u2019t feel like the real thing\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bass Landing<\/strong>, developed by Tose, is a fishing simulator published by ASCII for the PlayStation. Praised for its realism and high attention to detail, the game managed to reach a somewhat cult classic status in the fishing games genre. In a recent interview with Game*Spark<\/a>, former ASCII developer and producer Takeshi Kaneda shed some light on the creation of the game and the development process behind its dedicated PlayStation \u201cfishing reel\u201d controller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, Bass Landing was pitched by one of Kaneda\u2019s coworkers, who was, coincidentally, a hardcore fan of fishing, and the high level of realism (including the implementation of the fishing reel peripherals) was achieved thanks to ASCII\u2019s meticulous approach to game development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBack in the day, one of my friends, Nagano Atsuya, an ex-developer at Cybertech Custom who worked on Metal Orange and Carat, was super into fishing. And he tried to convince me that a game about fishing would definitely sell. At the time, I wasn\u2019t really that into fishing, but he basically forced me to go fishing with him (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bass<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, Kaneda admits that Nagano had a keen eye for games, \u201cand from that passion, Bass Landing was born.\u201d At the time, ASCII didn\u2019t have a team that would be able to tackle the fishing simulator genre, so development was handed over to Tose, with supervision by Kaneda. Like Nagano predicted, the game sold pretty well at the time of release, but as Kaneda reveals, \u201cit wasn\u2019t only the game that sold.\u201d Due to its ingenuity and rather intriguing concept, the dedicated \u201cfishing reel controller\u201d also sold really well. Dubbed the \u201ctsuricon,\u201d ASCII developed the bizarre peripheral not just for the PlayStation, but later also for the Nintendo 64 (\u201ctsuricon64\u201d<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI only just casually proposed that it would be fun to make a controller that looked like an actual fishing reel. And thanks to my fishing-obsessed friend Nagano who suggested stuff like \u2018It\u2019s pointless if it\u2019s not as heavy as an actual fishing reel! If there\u2019s no weight, that\u2019s not fishing,\u2019<\/em> we managed to create a controller with some really interesting features,\u201d Kaneda explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having actual hardcore fishing fanatics on the team, Kaneda had to make sure that everything about the game, including the reel peripherals, was made as realistic as possible. He remembers visiting numerous fishing equipment manufacturers during the development of the controller, which is how he got to test out different kinds of equipment to use as a reference. Apparently, he also compiled detailed data on the lures, and even ordered maps of lakes, measured them, and took actual pictures to base the game on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discussing this kind of meticulous approach to game creation, Kaneda highlights the importance of developers being particular about even the finest details, which is what makes ASCII\u2019s games so unique. \u201cThis also goes for Mr. Sonobe\u2019s Bestplay Baseball and Derby Stallion, as well as Bass Landing, but the creators\u2019 dedication and attention to detail is crucial. Games which don\u2019t have it usually fail to stand out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related articles:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/strong>Mario Kart World\u2019s controls were fine-tuned by devs who literally spend their lunch breaks skateboarding at the office<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former ASCII developer and Bass Landing producer Takeshi Kaneda talks about the development of PlayStation’s fishing reel controller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":56615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-56613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nPlayStation 1\u2019s bizarre fishing reel controller was developed thanks to the obsessive attention to detail of actual fishing nuts. \u201cIt would be pointless if it didn\u2019t feel like the real thing\u201d - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former ASCII developer and Bass Landing producer Takeshi Kaneda talks about the development of PlayStation's fishing reel controller.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/playstation-1s-bizarre-fishing-reel-controller-was-developed-thanks-to-the-obsessive-attention-to-detail-of-actual-fishing-nuts-it-would-be-pointless-if-it-didnt-feel-like\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PlayStation 1\u2019s bizarre fishing reel controller was developed thanks to the obsessive attention to detail of actual fishing nuts. \u201cIt would be pointless if it didn\u2019t feel like the real thing\u201d - 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