BATTLE SPORT

What sucks even more than playing a really crappy videogame in today's market, when such beauties as "NiGHTS" and "Goldeneye" are at our disposal? To me, it would be to submit a review that gets lost in the mail about a crappy videogame. You go through the pain of playing the crappy games, taking notes along the way for the inevitable on-line review to warn fellow gamers about saving their limited funds for another game. Then you relive the painful experience (the sticky control, the sub-par graphics, the unbearable load times, etc.) and translate it into the written word, hoping to find your rhythm as you type into the night. And when the next batch or reviews gets posted, you anxiously log on-line hoping to read your beloved little masterpiece of understated witty puns and unbearable self-loathing. Well, when my review of "BattleSport" didn't get posted I didn't get mad, I got sad... sadder than Kevin Costner the weekend after "The Postman" opened (ouch!). But Kevin Costner will be back, rising like the phoenix bird through the ashes, to conquer the world again. So, like Kevin, I too shall return again and again until my review of "BattleSport" gets posted and I can point it to my friends (imaginary or otherwise), and tell them 'See, they accepted my review... they like what I have to say, and they (the 'Z' clan running this site) like me! I'm a fully developed human being, I'm appreciated. I AM ALIVE!!!!' But enough about the Nyquil-induced rant folks. I'm here to tell you that "BattleSport", a port from the 1995 3DO title that got rave reviews and very little sales, signals the end of two eras that are now part of videogame history, and will only be remembered if there ever is a sequel to "Phoenix: The Rise and Fall of Videogames" (good book!). This game signals the last of the 3DO original games to be ported to the Saturn, a select group of titles that include such beauties as "Off-World Interceptor Extreme", "Gex", "The Horde", "Star Fighter", etc. And it is also the last game released by Acclaim for the Saturn here in the States, bringing to an end their stint as publishers/developers for the Sega system; this stint brought us gamers some really good games ("Bust-A-Move 2", "D", a couple of cool 2D- side-scrolling shooters by Taito) and a lot of bad one's (everything else). Make no mistake about it: Acclaim's accountants calculated that dumping "BattleSport" the week after Christmas '97 would be slightly more profitable than killing the project, which got a full-year delay before its release. So, was the game me and Dark Falcon (remember him?) salivated over all of last year worth the wait? Or, in typical Acclaim fashion, has the game lived up to the reputation of its non-N64 projects? Let's just say that if you played the 3DO version of the game, this game is nearly identical in every single aspect. And that means there are many things done right, and a whole lot of them done wrong.

In a nutshell, "BattleSport" is an attempt to cross a Tank game ("CyberSled" anyone?) with the sports rules of Soccer, Basketball and Hockey, and a whole lot of "BallBlazer Championship" gameplay thrown in for good measure. You select from six characters that seem like rejects from "American Gladiators" (and have names like Brick, Snyper, Arson and Shadow), and then get to place them on a Tank that you get to select. No character is attached to a specific Tank, so you can select the vehicle based on their individual specifications alone (and have equally ridiculous names like Spitfire and Stinger). Next, after customizing your playing condition (Arena selection, opponent, length of match, etc.), you and your opponent (the computer in one-player, or another plaver via split-screen on two-player) will have to try to capture a flying orb and score as many points as possible, all while trying to blast the enemy into oblivion via massive firepower, or just lucky powerups that allow you to sneak around. Destruction of opposing Tanks doesn't add any points to the score; he/she who scores the most points wins. A simple concept, and an addictive and well-crafted sports environment (the computer has a Tournament Mode that keeps scores through whole seasons, just like a real-life sports game) lends an air of quality game-design to "BattleSport". Shame that the sights and sounds of the 3DO code are too underwhelming to make tha title's gameplay stand out in today's competitive field. A darn shame.

GRAPHICS / VISUAL: C

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The game pulls a "Toshinden 3" by giving the two-player mode an option (for the player to activate) of textured or un-textured graphics, which is valuable if you want to have two guys playing at once and want to diminish the recurring slowdown that occurs when the screen is split. But you will be pressed to notice any real differences between the textured or un-textured graphics, since they are so lackluster and flat to begin with. The textures consist of low-res polygonal backgrounds with sprites (the opposing Tanks, as well as the Scoreboard and the bouncing orb) that couldn't look more antiquated; it reminds us all that the 3DO wasn't a next-generation system as much as a glorified sprite-calculator. There are virtually no differences or sacrifices between the speed of the one or two-player modes (provided you exercise the un-textured option), which clock at a consistent 20-24 frames-per-second.

The menu screens, the character-select screens and the loading screen (which you'll come to either love or hate, since the game takes almost 40 seconds to load a level!) are all done in high-res, and look sweet. The FMV intro hasn't changed since 1995, and by today's standard it is a lackluster effort (but the announcer still gets me excited when he describes that last-minute shot). And there is a slight flair of creativity in the artistic design of the charcaters and the Tanks, but nothing you wouldn't get on a halfway-decent comic book art gallery. It is the 50+ Arenas where most of the game takes place, and although that sounds like a lot it really is hard to tell them apart; like "Doom" or "Turok", textures are reused A LOT in all the different Arenas, to the point where they are virtually indistinguishable (one might be more blue/red/white/brown than the previous one, but they all look alike). Add to that the low-resolution, and the fact that you're stuck in a first-person perspective (I can only get to see my Tank when I select it? Poopy!), and what was acceptable for a 1995 3DO game is barely serviceable in 1998's Saturn.

MUSIC / SOUND EFFECTS: B-

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Forget the music, it is forgettable and will just be there in the background. It isn't techno, nor is it the etheral relaxation tunes that characterized another Studio 3DO game, "Star Fighter". It is more like recycled, uninspired, generic, off-the shelf, bang-on-the-keyboard, hope-something-cool-will-eventually-sound music... nothing wrong with that, but a soundtrack you'd like to hear again and again this certainly ain't. The sound effects and incidental sounds fare much better: laser canons, explosive bombs crashing against your Tank, the thruster of your machine as it flies for a few seconds, the unseen crowd chanting, etc. Throw in an enthusuastic announcer with some truly inspired and exciting phrases (that repeat themselves just a tad too much), and this is one of the few sports games not based on a real sport that conveys, via the aural aspect, a complete and total level of immerssion into the sports theme it attempts to carve for itself.

GAMEPLAY / FUN FACTOR: B-

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When there are a few seconds left on the clock, with you down by a point and the orb in your possession, and the crowd chants louder and the announcer screams "He's Got the Ball!!!" as your opponent is about to cut in front of you with his/her weapons ready, "BattleSport" really comes alive. It is a slight triumph of style and timeless gameplay over the lack of flash or much substance, since the game looks bad and doesn't have the depth of a real-life sports database, like a "Madden '98" or an "NHL Face-Off '98". But the beauty of the game is the options it gives the player to customize their game: there are tons of little details you can adjust and, although some of them are trivial, most of them directly affect the outcome. Want to prove yourself you can kick the computer's ass? Go to the Tournament mode, and begin a campaign with a semi-slow tank that has limited shields but long-range weapons, or save your cash for the inevitable upgrades you'll need to buy later in the game.

You can choose which of the 50+ Arenas you'd like to compete on during one and/or two-player mode, as well as the number of minutes in each of the three periods (1 to 9 minutes) or a different scoring system (1 to 99 wins). There are dozens of powerups and different items that, when equipped, can give the CPU or the player an advantage: invisibility, magnetic attraction of orb, momentary blindness, hovering, etc. You can even select if the rotating basket where the orb is to be shot for a score has one, two or four sides! Talk about covering all the bases.

Despite the addictive gameplay and the many options available, "BattleSport" can't be fully enjoyed because a few problems from the 3DO original haven't been corrected on Saturn (and presumably the PSX version). Besides the uninspired music, lacking graphics and unbearable loading times, the control of the Tanks isn't as precise or dead-on as a game that requires the dodging of incoming fire and the need for quick actions requires. You thought the basketball players of EA's "NBA Live" games skated all over the court? The vehicles in "BattleSport" truly feel like they are floating on slippery ice. They felt like that back in 1995, and in the two years since Cyclone Studios (the developers of the game) either fell asleep at the wheel or just handed the code to Acclaim and told them to press the CD's. Also, the game grows boring quite quickly when played on extended sessions, due to the repetitive nature of the sport at hand; since it is a ficticious tournament this is to be understood, but the title lacks the magical spark that can keep a guy like my friend Rich attached to his NBA basketball games all year round.

OVERALL: C+

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If you have access to either the 3DO or PSX versions of "BattleSport", then rent them or buy them cheap, since the chances of a Saturn version for rental anywhere in the US is as limited as the chances of Working Designs ever releasing a game without some kick-ass cover artwork. The game is quite cheap ($19 or less), but apparently there were limited quantities released since I can't find it anymore in my local stores. For what it's worth, Acclaim's maiden voyage for the Saturn ends on a mediocre but somewhat enjoyable note, a far cry from the pain associated with the people who brought us "Robotica", "Batman Forever" and "The Crow: City of Angels". Although it lacks the visual goods, "BattleSport" will entertain the handful of people who crave and consume ficticious futuristic sports games like "P.U.L.P", "Blast Chamber" or "WipeOut XL". Let's just hope that if Acclaim becomes a Sega developer once again for the Katana system, the Acclaim that shows up will be the one that has been concerned with the quality of their N64 projects ("Turok: Dinosaur Hunter", "Quarterback club '98" and "Extreme-G"), instead of the license-obsessed one that threw the baby AND the bathwater into a slicing meat-grinder (did anyone else besides me surviv the pain that was "Fantastic Four" and "Dragonheart"?).