American Sports Masterpost (Excluding NBA)

Game: All Star Baseball 2003
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Acclaim Sports
Release Date: 26th February 2002

To begin my round-up of American sports, I thought I'd begin with perhaps the most foreign sport to those outside of the USA (myself included). I know quite a few NBA, NFL and even NHL fans here in the UK, but baseball is something that we don't seem to appreciate. After playing All Star Baseball 2003 however, I concluded that this may well be for a good reason. The game of baseball itself is fairly boring. 9 innings per match, where most innings consist of no home runs doesn't sound like the most appealing concept. I won't be holding this lack of interest against the game too much however, at least until the end of this review.

Like many other sports games, ASB 2003's main mode allows players to guide their team through a seasons of between 29 and 162 games. There's also a mode for creating an expansion league team, and developing their roster for as many seasons as players want. Other than these modes however, only exhibition, practice and high score hitting style modes are included, though I'm not sure what else could be done within the baseball concept,

Controlwise, the batting has a choice of two modes; regular mode allows players to control where they wish to aim the bat, whereas simple batting means that every swing will be a hit if timed correctly. Pitching is fairly simple too, with a choice of throw types and aiming options. The fielding could have shown a little more depth, but its adequate when there's a stray ball or something to catch. Overall there's a narrow range of gameplay which fits well with the simulation baseball theme of the game, but might put off more casual fans.

Graphically the game is good for its time; the ballparks, players and other features are fairly detailed; only the faces of individual players could use a little work. The announcing and sound effects can get monotonous as play goes on, but I can't think of a sports game of this kind where this isn't an issue. Overall if you're a big baseball fan looking for the ultimate simulation of the sport then this is definitely something to look into. If you're not up for sitting through 18 innings worth of baseball per match for 162 matches per season, then perhaps a game with an arcade style approach would be better.

Rating: 58/100
Grade: D

Game: Cyberball
Console: Sega Mega Drive
Developer: Tengen
Release Date: 1990

Moving onto games based on American Football now, my next two games are fairly similar and great examples of how less serious sports games can work well. Cyberball is based on an Atari arcade game of the same name. Set in the year 2072, robots play a destructive sport which is fairly similar to American Football. While I'm not perfectly familiar with the rules of the game, I think it's fair to say that the removal of the goalposts and move from "downs" to the ball heat meter are the most significant changes to be made.

The basic objective of the game is to score points; this can be done by scoring touchdowns, making conversions after touchdowns, or forcing a "safety" while in defense. In order to achieve these point scoring plays, players must choose which plays they'd like to make while in offense and defence, and execute them accordingly to score. The offensive team have until the ball reaches "critical" heat level to either score, or defuse the ball back to "cool" level. Each time a play is stopped by the defensive team, or an incomplete pass in made, the heat level of the ball rises. The game is fairly easy to pick up, even for players with limited understanding of American Football.

Controlwise the game is intuitive but still takes a little getting used to; different robots have different roles to play and thus a different set of moves for each button. It's still possible to get by without having a detailed understanding of each position though. After a few games most players should be able to make their team move as they'd like.

Choosing plays can be a little daunting for those who don't follow American Football, but it's a fairly crucial part of the game. Personally I went for the ones which had players running out wide in an attempt to get past the defending team while pushing forward, and short formations whilst defending. This combination seemed to work well, and seems to prove that you don't have to be an expert in strategy to enjoy these type of games.

Graphically the game is fairly simplistic, although that's unsurprising as the Mega Drive hadn't been out long. When there's a cluster of robots on the field, it can be difficult to make out exactly which of them has the ball, and there's not a huge amount of excitement in the animations when a touchdown is made. The game is accompanied by a track which gets faster as the ball's heat status increases. Conceptually this is a good idea, although it can get repetitive due to the lack of other tracks.

Overall Cyberball is a fun game for American Football fans and non fans alike. There's the choice to play an entire season with save passwords, and upgrade options for your robots based on how well the team do, and the general gameplay is pretty interesting although the removal of goalposts may have hurt the overall scoring options for players.

Rating: 73/100
Grade: C

Game: Mutant League Football
Console: Sega Mega Drive
Developer: Electronic Arts
Release Date: 1993

Designed using the Madden '93 game engine, Mutant League Football allows players to take control of 19 teams, each made up of aliens, skeletons, robots, trolls and more. Once again there are a few rules changes from American Football in real life such as the ability to bribe or kill the referee, kill players on the opposing team, and place bombs and mines on the playing field to stop opposing players.

Compared to that of Cyberball, the gameplay here is more similar to real world American Football, with 4 downs before a turnaround (unless the offensive team gains enough yards) as well as field goals and extra point conversions in addition to touchdowns, regular conversions and safetys as scoring methods. Player movement is also much more akin to the real sport, with tackles, dodging and dives.

Controlwise Mutant League Football is a little more simple than Cyberball; in offensive situations, the C button is used to initiate plays, and then to dodge once a receiver has the ball. The A and B buttons are used for passing and selecting special plays. Sometimes the handling of players can feel a little slippery, especially when they're knocked back by the defensive team but it doesn't impact on the action too badly.

In terms of difficulty, each team has a "skull rating" out of 5 which determines the skill of their players. When starting a season in the game, players can adjust the difficulty by choosing a team with a better or worse rating. Another option that can be adjusted is the brutality of matches, which determines how often players can be killed by tackles and challenges.

Graphically the game looks much more like a 16-bit title than Cyberball; the level of detail is much higher, the animations are better, and the player sprites are bigger overall for better ease of play. The strategy selection menu is also straightforward and easy to use. Musically the game features some exciting tunes which suit gameplay well, with enough variation to remain interesting for the duration of matches.

Overall Mutant League Football is a slightly better and more enjoyable game thanks to improvements in gameplay, rules and graphics. I'm also confident that it's more fun than Madden '93, as despite being based on it, the ability to throw bombs, drop mines and kill the referee definitely add excitement to the experience. If you need an American Football game on the Mega Drive, this'd be my pick.

Rating: 77/100
Grade: D

Game: Madden NFL 12

Console: Microsoft Xbox 360

Developer: EA Sports

Release Date: 30th August 2011

For a simulation American Football experience, there's never been much further to look than the Madden series. Named after the veteran commentator and beginning in 1988, the series has had annual instalments for the past 22 years. With such a wealth of games to choose from, spanning many console generations, it'd be inefficient to review all of them, so I decided to go for a more recent instalment and see how it plays. 

As with the preceding American Football games, gamers who aren't fans of the sport probably won't enjoy this too much. It's by far the closest you'll get to actually playing in the NFL with a controller in your hands, and although I had some questions about the rules of American Football before I started playing the game, after just a few games I knew most, if not all of what was going on, without any real need for a tutorial, and was able to make my players perform as I wanted and win games. 

The modes offered are as you'd expect for a sports game of this type; Exhibition match, Versus, Season and Be a Pro style modes are all available. Players are able to choose their team through the draft in a very detailed way in season mode, and can manage the running of their team in the off season. It's also possible to simulate matches you'd rather not play, and skip through to the Superbowl. In addition to these offline modes, there's also the option to go online and compete in matches.

Graphically the game is impressive in most parts; facial features and body modelling are the only real areas which could be improved. The game is mostly presented in the form a TV broadcast, with commentary and analysis appearing onscreen between plays. Although you'll hear the same comments over and over again, this is almost to be expected from sports games of this type. Overall this is everything you'd want from a simulation of American Football on a modern console. It's pretty clear that fans of American Football should also be fans of Madden 12.

Rating: 74/100
Grade: B

Game: NASCAR 98
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: EA Sports
Release Date: 1997

NASCAR 98 is a strange game. For starters it doesn't seem to bear much relation to the 1997 season of NASCAR, featuring 6 fantasy tracks which weren't on the calendar. Also it has adjustable sliders to control how realistically the cars handle and opponents drive. There are arcade and simulation default settings, but neither of these seems to provide a configuration that makes the handling or racing enjoyable. Finally the overall action is fairly unexciting in that there's only music to accompany racing, with no real sense of achievement or disappointment wherever players come in the final standings.

Racing games as a whole can have many unique aspects which make them enjoyable. I can understand EA's decision to try and spice up the available tracks from "just ovals" to some actual GT style tracks, but to leave the racing handling as strangely and inconsistently as it does means that there's no real unique selling point for NASCAR 98. It doesn't realistically simulate the speed or experience of NASCAR, and at the same time it fails to stand up to other racing games because of the hard to beat AI and lack of main game mode, save for playing an entire season.

Graphically the game is sub-par with blocky cars and textures all round. Although this is typical of the 5th generation of consoles, many games managed far better visuals. Musically the game features a frustratingly small pool of generic rock style tracks to accompany gameplay which don't fit the action particularly well.

Overall NASCAR 98 seems to have been released a little too early to be a good game. Thanks to the circuits featured it doesn't accurately allow players to simulate the NASCAR experience, as more recent games would do. The graphics aren't anything special and the handling isn't good in any of the preset configurations. Even for NASCAR fans this is one to avoid.

Rating: 40/100
Grade: E

Game: NASCAR 06: Total Team Control
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: EA Sports
Release Date: 30th August 2005

8 years later and EA's NASCAR series was still going strong; this time the main game mode feels like something out of the ToCA Race Driver series, signing contracts to race in different forms of NASCAR including the Whelen Modified and Truck series in an attempt to progress through the ranks and eventually race for your own team in the major NASCAR series. Other modes allow players to race through an entire season, play classic race challenges, and set up their own exhibition races.

With licenses for all of the NASCAR tracks and cars, this instalment definitely feels like it models the NASCAR experience more accurately, although the game feels like it has less variety in its track selection. Another slightly frustrating feature is the fact that there are only three settings for driving aids; full, limited or off. On full, the game brakes for players and essentially all they have to do is steer around the corners, on limited it's hard to tell quite which assists are on or off and the car's pretty hard to handle well. Finally, with all of the driving aids off the car is like an untameable beast, which I assume accurately reflects the real life machines.

NASCAR 06 changes up the controls from earlier instalments of the series, implementing L2 and R2 as brake and accelerate instead of the X and square buttons. There's also a team-control system which players can use, centred around the right analog stick, but there doesn't seem to be much point in using it at any stage of the game. Graphically the game is passable, though rather low quality at points; the frame rate is especially bad when there's a lot of cars on track.

Overall NASCAR 06: Total Team Control was always going to be a game which appealed to NASCAR fans predominantly. Many other racing games have more interesting tracks and car choices, but disregarding this fact the control, handling and overall presentation of the game is fairly mediocre. Luckily for fans of the sport, there's been plenty of other NASCAR games released over the years, so finding a good one shouldn't be too hard.

Rating: 59/100
Grade: D

Game: NHL 06
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: EA Sports
Release Date: 6th September 2005

The final game I'll be looking at today is NHL 06, the only modern hockey title I own. As with most EA Sports games of the time, there's the basic set of modes which allow players to lead a team through a single game, season or even more hockey. A nice addition to the normal options is the inclusion of NHL '94 as a playable game from the main menu. Despite lacking the usual polish of modern sports games, it's still totally worth a go.

The gameplay featured in the main mode of the game is fast paced and fairly exciting; it seems a little too easy to hold onto the puck at times and winning face-offs seems to take a lot of luck, but overall it could be much worse. Controlwise though things aren't so good; perhaps its just the difficulty of skating, but trying to make players move and shoot where you want them to is a chore, and actually scoring is near impossible, even on easy mode.

Graphically the players and rinks are impressive for a PS2 title, though the crowds and some other features are still a little lacking. Playing with a top to bottom view instead of side to side is also offputting, despite having worked well in NFL titles. The music included with the game is a strange selection of licensed tracks; some good, some not so good. I can appreciate that it's difficult to pick songs that'll go well with a hockey game though.

Overall NHL 06 is a little disappointing, if only because it doesn't simulate playing the game of hockey quite as well as the Madden games simulate NFL, or the FIFA games simulate football. This is perhaps owing to its fast paced nature and location on an ice rink, rather than being the fault of the developer, but it's still an issue the game faces. Perhaps I'll check out some later hockey games another time and see if things have improved at all. For now I think I'll stick to Blades of Steel on the NES.

Rating: 61/100
Grade: D