The Blue Marlin (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Hot B's 1992 fishing simulation game for the NES, The Blue Marlin.
This video shows each of the tournament's four days:
Day 1 1:14
Day 2 23:17
Day 3 39:07
Day 4 1:11:47
The Blue Marlin was the follow-up to one of my favorite NES games as a kid, Hot B's 1989 game The Black Bass ( • The Black Bass (NES) P... ). I didn't play The Blue Marlin when it was a contemporary release, but that didn't stop me from playing it to death.
The game takes place over four days, and to move on to the next leg of the tournament, you'll need to catch the biggest billfish each day as you troll the waters of southern Florida and Hawaii for the prize catch.
There are plenty of other fish hanging about - tuna, barracuda, or even sharks can appear on your hook, and even though they won't help you at the end of day weigh-in, they are great for honing your skills. Your fisherman has three stats (strength, endurance, and skill) that improve with experience, and improving these can make the bigger catches a bit easier to make.
The game plays a lot like The Black Bass, but the fresh coat of paint and the somewhat deeper mechanics make it feel more "modern," at least as far as NES games go. The fights are more dynamic and make you feel as you have a bit more control (and I love that animation of the fisherman doing his panicked swivel!), random events can occur (a shark eats your catch, the line gets caught in a propeller, etc.), and the overhead boating scenes are way more engaging than The Black Bass's power gauge was for casting.
The graphics have seen a huge upgrade, too. The choppy water looks great in the close-up view, and there's even some parallax scrolling in the backgrounds! The cutscenes feature some great (and sometimes comically dramatic) close-ups during important moments, and the fisherman sprite's animation is smooth. The top-down boating scenes are somewhat less impressive, but they do feature some neat little animated touches, like airplanes taxiing down runways, or little stick people playing ball on a beach.
I think I still prefer The Black Bass by just a smidgen because it feels a little less casual, but I thoroughly enjoyed The Blue Marlin. Even if you have no interest in fishing whatsoever, there's a lot of fun to be had in this unexpectedly charming cart.
I just wish that my buddy would stop saying that he feels a bite on my rod. It's a little awkward.
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (www.nintendocom...) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!

[@NintendoComplete]

The Blue Marlin is a great follow-up to The Black Bass, and it's way way better than you might expect from an NES-era fishing sim. It can be pretty addictive.

[@whathe4633]

Holy crap! I owned the black bass game on the nes back in the 80s but never knew it had a follow up!

[@bryangarcia5599]

This game had me hooked! A reel classic!

[@wordman3624]

I sea what you did there.

[@tylerrandolph6193]

I played this game back in 1993 as a 7yo. Got me into fishing for trout as a child. Covid got me back into fishing. Now I get to travel for it. It's really a great sport that covers every aspect of the sciences to be proficient. Thanks for showcasing this classic.

[@whatever9480]

It's insane how many games were out there that I've never heard of. And I grew up during the video game boom. Starting with atari.

[@DerivativeWorker]

Everybody got a plan until a marlin tries cutting the line on your own propeller!

[@neozzickmixes3987]

I remember renting this from 7-eleven back in the day. I was surprised how addicting the catching of fish was. I love the music in it too

[@sh4dowst3p]

To this day the music randomly gets stuck in my head, still slaps today

[@Dakobah20]

Yes! The reel in music is catchy AF

[@fatcatbat6357]

Oh my gosh! I remember seeing my dad play this when I was a child not yet able to speak, never knew what the game was called. This is why I watch you dude, love this channel!

[@rickyhall1477]

If you select Eyeball as the lure it makes marlins appear more

[@sirlonestar7495]

1200 lb shark?! Jeez, never caught one anywhere near that big lol. Great vid! Thanks for sharing. Loved this game as a kid.

[@RagingRowen]

This one's a satisfying and oddly intense one, especially when you start catching Marlins because it's easier to screw up. Ignoring the 'overly worthwhile' ending, it's fun. One of those games where you actually have to play it to understand it and really feel the pressure.

[@mondoarchuleta9693]

I had hours of fun playing this game. Brings back a lot of memories. Thank you

[@Alysa-Aiday]

I figured Blue Marlin was a "Rival" to Black Bass. Never thought it was a follow-up/sequel

[@larrylaffer3246]

The perfect thing to play when waiting for the big one to bite.

[@bryangarcia5599]

Suit yourself, pal.

[@NintendoComplete]

I feel like there should be a clip of Craig Stadler saying this in front of a green screen.

[@jonathanturbide2232]

Looks fun! I particularly like that there's different locations, and the maps looks great (with stuff in the background, and the water looks good). Nice find! 😀

[@tonysauruswrexu4623]

This game is a masterpiece for its time! I used to play it a LOT when I was a kid, still do today via emulators because our NES doesn’t work anymore. 😭 This game and Conflict were my 2 favorites! Still challenging games today and they had really cool sound tracks! I will love these games FOREVER!! Would be awesome if Nintendo would remaster them for current consoles! Also, the trick to catching a LOT of marlins/swordfish/sailfish is to use the Skirt S, plunk it down to either 40 or 60’ deep, have 200’ or more length and follow the whales or birds/bouncing schools with it by carefully driving the boat in front of them. If they are under your boat DONT move! When hooked, set the drag while holding back on the rod, and swing left and right until the fish gets tired! Then… REEL LIKE A MAD LAD!

[@zeqot2311]

Dude please tell me what you play it on, this game was my childhood and I have yet to get a damn shark in the boat. It’s a bucket list thing

[@blacksmithcosplay743]

this is one of those games that feels like summertime no matter what day it is.

[@joshuariddensdale2126]

I only played The Blue Marlin when I got my NES Classic. While it was released near the end of the NES era, and is often overshadowed by The Black Bass, it is great to play. The random events while fighting a fish, the leveling up, and the weigh-in scenes are all improved over Black Bass. Both games were remade for PS1, which I still have a copy of.

[@NintendoComplete]

No shit, how did I not know? I just looked it up, that's crazy! :D I never would've dreamt that they remade them for PS1. I have to get a copy, tyvm! Off to ebay right now lol I'm so excited to find this.

[@susanfit47]

The Blue Marlin is a great follow-up to The Black Bass for MSX and The Black Bass for the NES. The objective is to win a tournament by catching the largest fish in the time allotted. The Blue Marlin features four tournament rounds (one in Florida and the other three in Hawaii). Even this game, which sports a 1991 copyright date on the title screen, appears to have actually been released in the summer of 1992, late in the NES' lifespan. It was re-released in 2016 as a built-in game for the Retro-Bit Generations retro video game console. I own this game since the 90's (1992-1994) during the tail-end of the NES era, when the Super Nintendo was released.

[@Dabrixmgp]

I remember finding a glitch in the game. If you set the line distance from the boat to max it would raise a billfish every single time you got behind birds or a school of fish. Then you just had to set the distance back to 100ft before hooking up so it was easy to reel him in.

[@Sortietheshuffler]

If you hold the REEL button as the marlin jumps, it'll only gain 10-15 ft instead of 30. Also increases tension but there is a pattern to break it in like 8 seconds.

[@mayertwo2]

Nerd

[@thecowboy2]

6:40 You're gonna need a bigger boat.

[@nesguide2seriale1]

Shark Fights 6:01 8:04 18:06 19:32 55:49 1:01:42 1:03:06 1:05:00 1:05:57 1:15:13 1:17:09

[@scottjohnson585]

I remember renting this many times.

[@RandyDubin]

I love the intro music. 🙂

[@susanfit47]

Definitely one of my favorite Nintendo NES games, right up there with Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt.

[@ronallan]

I hooked up & fought a bat ray over the weekend and thought about this game. Just instead of The Blue Marlin I was playing The Mud Marlin.

[@stinkyfungus]

Ummm barricuda don't get to 300 pounds... that would be... well. It would be a terrifying animal. The all tackle IFGA record for the Great barricuda is 87 pounds, 3 ounces and went about 6' 3" No one would dare swim in an area that had 15 foot, 300 pound barricuda around. Forget about sharks... they only hit what they think is food... barricuda? They'll run on anything that is shiny and moves... A 300 pounder (if such a fish existed) could literally cut a man in half - because he was wearing a wristwatch.

[@amyrosearchiesonicplaypoem8760]

Treiffic video.

[@thecowboy2]

3:29 Do barracudas really get that big??

[@soundwave6083]

Not even close. World record is 103 lbs. the funnier one is a 400 lb dorado.

[@thecowboy2]

@@soundwave6083 ♫ Oooooh, Barracuda ♫

[@NintendoComplete]

@@thecowboy2 Ban ba da ban, ban da ban, ban da ban ba~aan

[@adamgonzales5649]

Best game ever

[@WispyBlueBricksGPX]

I never knew about this game

[@patrickdupree9746]

Why does the player keep trying to catch the birds? Is there any strategy to this or is he just confused?

[@BadcreditRobert]

Marlins follow seagulls. It was in the manual for the game. Can’t believe I remember that.

[@stinkyfungus]

​@BadcreditRobert Close, but not quite, it's the other way around - sebirds follow fish schools around. When a large predator attacks the school of bait, and drives them close to the surface, the seabirds will dive on them and snork a few.

[@thecowboy2]

Got Him ! !

[@soundwave6083]

A 400 lb Dorado!? Lmao. World Record is 87 lbs. World record for Barracuda is 103 lbs. fun game, but whoever created it sure didn’t do any research.

[@russellhill-dz3rr]

Who cares???

[@meyers0781]

This is what Black Flag is if it's on the NES.