I bought a boxed PS1 recently that turned out to have a dodgy motherboard. After some failed attempts to fix it I ended up replacing the board, and during the course of my testing I accidentally became re-addicted to a cricket game I used to play back in my Uni days – “Shane Warne Cricket 99” (known as Brian Lara Cricket 99 in the rest of the world).
I dare say that understanding cricket is a prerequisite to enjoying this one but perhaps not – it’s one of those games that hits the nail on the head with regard to ease of play vs challenge and reward. The controls are intuitive, the commentary is natural (they hired professional commentators) and actually relates to what’s happening in the game, and the sights and sounds manage to evoke the feeling of the real thing. It reminds me of Links 386 – another deceptively simple sports game that never cheats you with an unfair challenge or unrealistic physics.
It is of course an old game now so the players are all long since retired, but that works for me because I’ve long since lost interest in cricket and wouldn’t know any current players anyway. My only issue with the game is that – like the real thing – it takes time to complete even the shortest of matches, so I don’t get anywhere in my ~60 mins of daily free time. Luckily you can save your progress as you go 😀
Life? Don't talk to me about life.