Ashes Cricket 09

Unlike other sports games that see a yearly release, cricket titles are usually updated once every two years. Codemaster’s Ashes 09 is no different, except it doesn’t have all the official licensing that we’ve come to expect. So Tendulkar becomes Tendulki in a frail attempt to keep the game going

Graphically, the game just about passes muster ”“ it looks good enough to get the job done and the frame rate is just about steady while the animation looks as if it could’ve used a little more spit and polish. The commentary, which includes sound bites from Shane Warne and Ian Botham is strictly okay with the same lines being repeated at least twice in 5 overs. Seems that they spent all the time and development cost in getting them on board rather than focusing on what they’d be saying.

In addition to this the AI is quite poor. Barring the initial phase of getting used to the game (which lasts around 15-20 minutes if you’ve been playing cricket games for a while) the single player mode is a walk in the park. Play it with a friend, however, and the entire game changes, making it a fuller, more interesting gameplay experience.

While the game seems to falter in a lot of respects, it delivers where it counts. The gameplay is rock solid. Fielding has been improved tremendously over the last title. Now taking a catch is a time-based affair where a circle around the ball turns red, orange or green. Press the stipulated button while the circle is red and you’ll definitely drop the catch, orange and you’d have a 50-50 chance of catching it and when it’s green you’re guaranteed to grab a wicket. It’s a neat little adjustment that fits in well with the game.

In terms of bowling they’ve managed to improve upon it by making it a more complete experience. Gone are the one button per delivery options of the past. Now you have multiple options per button. Fancy a bit of swing? Just tap on the right bumper to see how

many varieties are available and if your bowler is skilled enough, you’ll have options under the reverse swing variety.

For batting, the control scheme has been streamlined to make it more intuitive with a well-designed interface making it easy for even newbies to get in. The only fresh feature here is being able to decide whether you want to play a frontfoot or backfoot shot in advance which adds another layer of strategy to the multiplayer proceedings.

So even though it’s not without its flaws, Ashes Cricket 09 is a game that has the right intentions and which would have shone even more brightly had it had a little more time in development to be a smoother, richer cricketing experience.