Game: Nascar 2000
Console: Game Boy Colour
Developer: THQ
Release Date: 2000
I'm no NASCAR expert, but I've seen my fair share of NASCAR games here and there. Obviously being on the Game Boy Colour wasn't a good start for this game, as the other versions were on PS1, N64 and PC, but several other factors hampered any sense of fun that could have been gained. Firstly, even the title screen looks as if it's been put through several compression cycles and tinted an odd shade of green, and the menus all feature tiny text and options.
While there's a good selection of drivers and teams available in the game (presumably the same as the real life NASCAR lineup of the time), it's almost impossible to tell the cars apart save for a few specks of colour in the game, so players needn't bother spending too long considering who they'll choose. The racing is presented in a 3D view from behind the player's car (essentially the same as the NES classic Days Of Thunder), which is preferable to a top down point of view, but severely limits visibility into the distance.
Driving is difficult for the most part, and crashing into barriers is hard to avoid, not to mention other cars and AI pileups. For those lucky enough to be able to pass other cars without crashing into the back of them, it's pretty easy to gain positions, but staying in 1st can be a challenge. While some of the AI cars seem to drive defensively as if they were protecting their position, it's hard to tell whether this is intentional or merely a side product of them driving like complete baboons.
Graphically the racing sucks, it's hard to make anything out of the grey mess that is each track, and there's barely any difference between any of the circuits featured in the game. The music and sound effects are pretty poor also, and there's no point mentioning other gameplay modes since the insufferable racing affects every mode. There really wasn't a reason for bringing Nascar 2000 to the Game Boy Colour, but they did and this is what we got.
Rating: 30/100
Grade: E
Game: Summer Challenge
Console: Sega Mega Drive
Developer: MindSpan
Release Date: 1993
Summer Challenge is an olympic style video game that allows players to compete in up to 8 events; Archery, Horse Riding, Kayaking, Hurdles, Pole Vault, High Jump, Javelin and Cycling. With such an odd combination of events, you'd think that the control scheme would be complex and hard to remember, but the game literally uses the d-pad and the B button only. Since there's a lot of events, I'll be running through this one as I play through a single tournament. I had a little practice on some of the events beforehand, but there's no telling what'll happen once the AI is introduced to the mix.
Archery was my favourite event in practice, and I quickly found my feet using the d-pad to aim and the B button to shoot an arrow when the reticle was over a good area. Finishing with 99 points, I got a gold medal which made this an early favourite event overall. In the Horse Riding, which had been a complete disaster in practice, I was able to jump the fences pretty easily for a few jumps despite the awful frame rate and Outrun style turns on the course. On the 6th jump though, I managed to miss and the game abruptly disqualified me. This minigame's a little too fiddly to be fun, and the jumps feel too difficult to estimate correctly.
Kayaking was another disaster, with a frame rate of 1 fps and difficult movement in the water, my attempts to pass through each gate were in vain as I accidentally hit a wall after a gate in the middle of the course and capsized. Amazingly I retained 3rd spot in the medals table after my archery win, so all was not lost yet. Hurdles proved just as difficult as the horse riding event to judge and I ended up headbutting the first hurdle and falling over, which ended the race. Annoyingly the Brazillian at the top of the medals table managed to add another medal to his tally here also.
Pole Vault was another hard to judge event, with none of my eleven practice goes achieving anything, and all 3 of my competition attempts also failing. It seems that wherever the player attempts to vault from is either too far or too near, and the faster they run, the less chance there is to estimate the vault distance correctly. Having cleared 1.70m in my practice attempt, I decided to aim low for the High Jump and managed to clear that height once again. After running into the bar three times at 1.80 I concluded that I would never be as good as my rival Brazillian.
Finally the javelin event came and something that I was good at in practice. I proved even better at it in the tournament, beating my closest rival by 10 metres. This game utilised a simple "Tap B and throw before the line at a good angle" approach, and had far less tight judgement to be done than the previous games, which aided my win. With 2 gold medals and no hope of catching the Brazillian man at the top of the medals table, I turned to the final event, cycling. The cycling event consisted essentially of mashing the B button and steering the bike a little around the track for 4 laps. With a sore arm, I took first place and the gold medal, giving me a total of 3 gold medals and 9 points in the medals table, with 2nd place overall, behind a certain Brazillian.
It's amazing that after being disqualified from 4 out of the 5 events I didn't win, I still managed to place 2nd in the medals table, but I suppose that's a characteristic of these type of Olympic games. If you can master a few of the minigames then you're pretty much set to win. I'm sure if I gave it a little more time I could work out some of the more difficult games, but there was definitely a recurring theme in these events, which was the challenge of actually judging when to press the button to avoid catastrophic failure.
Graphically the game isn't amazing, players can just about see what they're doing, but faces and animations are incredibly basic, and overall it feels much more like a home computer title. The pixel effect works well on some of the backgrounds of the game, but not for the action based sports. The music featured on the menu screen isn't bad, though it's a little short in terms of its loop. The sound effects are pretty basic, however.
Overall Summer Challenge is a pretty average Olympics game; it's pretty hard to compete in many of the events because of the technical limitations at the time of the game's release, but some of the events are okay, and the opportunity for up to 10 players to compete, albeit in turn taking multiplayer mode is somewhat of a bonus.
Rating: 45/100
Grade: D
Game: Brian Lara Cricket
Console: Sega Mega Drive
Developer: Audiogenic Ltd.
Release Date: 1995
Starting with a grammatical error ("This game [in] not endorsed by any team or player other than Brian Lara"), Brian Lara's Cricket doesn't exactly inspire confidence in players from the word go. Nonetheless there don't seem to be any further errors of this proportion as all the players and teams have their correct names (unlike later Brian Lara's games). The options offered by the game are somewhat limiting but fair for a game of this age.
All matches are played in a test match style, with breaks for lunch and tea (even if it's just a 10 over game per side); players can choose from 1 or 2 innings of 10, 20, 50, 55, 60, 90 or unlimited overs. There's also a difficulty setting which has three levels to set the AI at. There's also the option on the main menu to play a Test Series which is already preconfigured, leaving players to simply choose their teams from the pool available (all test playing nations from 1995).
Gameplay is fairly simple for batting and bowling. Whilst at the crease, players choose their shot direction with the d-pad, and type of shot with the A button for a regular hit or the B button for a harder but more risky shot. For bowling, players aim a dot on the pitch, and then set the Power/Spin and Speed meters as desired. On the whole the simple gameplay dynamic works well and allows players to do as they wish whilst bowling and batting. Fielding is the only exception to this, as it's a little more complex but luckily there's an automatic fielding option to save any bother.
Graphically the looks very much more simple than later cricket games, but still manages to contain as much information and clues as are necessary for a fun game of cricket. The sound is a bit of a let down; I wasn't expecting commentary but complete silence until the crowd decides to applaud isn't that impressive either. Overall Brian Lara's Cricket is a decent game for the time, and a good stepping stone towards later cricket games.
Rating: 55/100
Grade: D
Game: FIFA Soccer 95
Console: Sega Mega Drive
Developer: Extended Play Productions
Release Date: 1994
The second game in the now all too prolific FIFA series, and the only console exclusive instalment out of all 23 main series titles, FIFA '95 is an interesting look at football games of the past. While there's Action and Simulation modes, both play fairly similarly with the action focusing on rapidly shifting possession and long range attack rather than strategic plays and movement. It's certainly not the most serious of simulation football games ever; fouls can be turned off, and the cheats menu is only a few codes away, but this lends a sense of fun to the title.
Players can choose from playing a single game, a league, or a knockout tournament. The game features national teams and club sides from a surprisingly large number of countries for the time. As someone who remembers playing a Dreamcast game from 2000 with just 16 European teams, having complete leagues from France, Germany, England and more would have been quite the treat in 1994.
Gameplay can be a little chaotic at times as the ball is catapulted around the field from player to player between teams in search of the ball. There's not often too much of an opportunity to shoot as enemy players crowd you for the ball, often with an iron defence. The controls are fairly simple, though doing anything strategic or advanced might be a little more difficult. On the whole things are intuitive and easy enough to use.
Graphically the game features a good camera angle for the time; some games were still in overhead view, and others completely from the side, but this seems to work nicely. The sprites and players aren't as impressive as they could have been, but do their job well enough most of the time. Soundwise, the game is fairly average apart from the ability to spam your opponents with the word GOAL! and horns upon scoring. Overall FIFA 95 is a fun orientated football game, and that's the best way it could have been considering the technology of the time.
Rating: 62/100
Grade: C
Game: Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
Console: Sega Mega Drive
Developer: The Bitmap Brothers
Release Date: 1991
Speedball 2 is a fantasy sports game, set in a future where the only sport is a violent and fast paced goalscoring game. Players compete for possession of the ball, which they then hold onto until their either pass, score or it's knocked out of their hands by the opposing team. The game is controlled with the d-pad and just one button, as all the mega drive joypad buttons have the same function in game. The button is pressed to pass, shoot, tackle, slide or do anything else that's possible.
Gameplay is difficult to process due to the high speed at which the action takes place. Only a small section of the pitch is displayed at any one time, so players can't prepare for hazards of any kind, nor strategize in order to get a shot on goal. It also feels like there are too many players on the pitch at any one time, so things get a little crowded.
The worst issue with this game is that the computer automatically swaps between players for you, so often you'll be running completely the wrong way before realising that there's been a swap, or worse score an own goal accidentally. There's an upgrade mechanic presented before and after games, but the format is incredibly convoluted and there's no way to tell whether what you're doing is right.
Graphically the game is okay, if a little basic. My main complaint is the amount of pitch on display at any one time; other than this there's not too much to worry about. Soundwise, there's some nice musical accompaniment, but nothing particularly exciting. Even after a few games of Speedball I wasn't exactly clear on the rules; scoring gives a team 10 points, but extra points are available for hitting targets at the side of the play area (I think).
Overall Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe offers what can definitely be called a fast paced and violent futuristic sports experience. It's probably some fun to play against humans as both players will struggle to get the game to do what they want, but with the AI there's no leniency at all. For me, this game was pretty much unenjoyable, though it might get better with a lot of practice, I simply don't have the time for that.
Rating: 45/100
Grade: D
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