American Bass Challenge on GBA is one of those weirdly satisfying fishing sims where you actually feel the tension when a bass bites. The lakes look surprisingly decent for a tiny screen—you’ve got your weedy shallows, deep drop-offs, all that. First time playing, I just kept casting into open water like an idiot before realizing the big ones lurk near structure.

Tournaments get properly tense when you’re down to the last few minutes and still need a 5-pounder to clinch it. Gear tweaking matters way more than you’d expect—swap out that spinnerbait for a worm when they stop biting, or lose. It’s janky in that classic GBA way, but in a good, "one more cast" kind of way. Definitely the fishing game I kept coming back to between RPGs.