0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Battle Stations

       

Battle Stations is an isometric real time action strategy game focussed around Navel Combat. Developed by Realtime Associates and published by EA, the game released in North America and Europe in March of 1997. the game features both 1 player and 2 player tactical strategy combat. In addition to the Playstation release a Sega Saturn version was also released in 1997.

Notable people who worked on this game, Michael Kosaka who worked as a Producer on Battle Stations, would go on to work on the 2000 and 2001 version of NASCAR, the latter as Senior Producer. The same role he would hold for 2006’s Star Wars Lethal Alliance, the same year he would also be credited as Producer on Star Wars Imperial Ace.

Doug Kuppinger who worked as a programmer on the game provided Additional Programming on the 1999 title, 007 Tomorrow Never Dies and would work as a Senior Game Programmer for the 2000 Bond release 007: The World is Not Enough.

He worked as an Engine Programmer on the 2005 Ultimate Spider Man as well as working as an Engine and Tools Programmer on the limited edition version. More recently in 2012 her worked as a programmer on the averagely received Family Guy Back to the Multiverse.

Andy Hsiung who was a Lead Programmer on this game worked as a Programmer the following year on Gex 3D Enter the Gecko, he then held the position of Senior Programmer for the 2000 released The Flintstones: Bedrock Bowling.

In 2002 Hsiung worked as port of the Programming team for Spyro Enter the Dragonfly, a few years pass without any credits for Hsiung until 2005 when he worked as a Programmer on Fantastic 4. He would provide Additional Engineering for the follow up Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer in 2007.

Next up with have Joey Headen who worked as a Senior Programmer on Battle Stations, he would work as a Programmer on 1999s Pac-Man World, before heading to the Senior Game Programmer position for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (maybe remove that one from your resume).

2004 to 2005 saw Headen also work on the Ultimate Spider-Man game, he worked as a Graphics Programmer on the game. Following this Headen went to work on the Call of Duty games, providing Additional Engineering on Call of Duty 2 Big Red One and Call of Duty 3.

Samati Boonchitsitsak who was the 3D Animator for Battle Stations also went to work on Gex 3D Enter the Gecko, working as an Animator on the game. In 2002 Boonchitsitsak worked as a Character Animator on Star Wars Jedi Starfighter, his final career listing on the site is use is the 2003 RPG release Gladius with Boonchitsitsak working as an Animator on the game.

Kudo Tsunoda who worked as both the Assistant Producer and Level Designer for Battle Stations worked as Senior Design Director on Army Men Air Attack, he would take the role of Executive Design Director on the sequel Air Attack 2.

In 2004 Fight Night 2004 was released, Tsunoda worked as part of the Design Team as well as the Production Team. He would worked as Executive Producer on Fight Night Round 2 and 3 in 2005 and 2006. More recently he has had background roles in Senior Mangement for the development of Forze Motorsport 3 and 4 in 2009 and 2011 respecitvely.

Battle Stations is a 1 or 2 player navel combat game, the main mode of the game which is the 50 mission single player campaign mode, has the player waging war against the enemy with several mission types to challenge the player over the course of the 50 missions.

These include pretty basic stuff such as destroying supply convoys and search and destroy up to fleet deployments and full scale assaults on the enemies homeland, the campaign mode allows the player to face off against 1 of 5 available admirals each of which has their own skill set on how they will wage their navel war.

The single player arcade mode allows the player to face off against the computer in a one on one fight with the choice of eight different ships from carries, to destroys and battleships even simple transports, destroying enemy ships allows to rank up from the starting rank of ensign all the way up to Fleet Admiral.

The 2 player mode is also split into two sub modes, the first is the Arcade mode the second is the War Games mode, this mode adds an additional 26 missions to player through. Mission locations include the Aleutian Chain, a small chain of islands, Cape Fear which is a headland which juts out into the ocean, the game includes real world location such as the Bay of Pigs in Cuba which they have got the shape of the map pretty identical to the real place, the Sunda Strait in Indonesia which does not look like the real place and Britannia which looks a bit like Britain if a 3 year old drew it, as well as many other locations.

Once the location is chosen the objectives for the map are shown to the players, with objectives like capture the flag which required the player t destroy the enemies flagship. Capture the harbour requires the player to reach the opponents harbour and deploy marines, as well as an overall aim of destroying the enemies fleet while receiving as little damage as possible.

Prior to the beginning of the 2 player war mode the player deploys their fleet on the map, this Is done by pressing the select button to bring up a bar which has the initials of the types of ship so AC for Aircraft Carries and BB for Battleship.

 

The map has two pulsing circles on it these show where each of the players harbours are located, the player then deploys their fleet, this is where the tactical side of things comes into play. Do you go for a more defensive approach and defend your harbour and wait for your opponent, do you go more aggressive and place your ships further away from your harbour or do you go for a more balanced approach.

Once your fleet has been deployed or however as many ships you wish to deploy, they can be moved around the map, when a ship comes into range of an enemy ship combat is initiated. When engaging in combat the player aims to manoeuvre their target reticule over the enemies ship while at the same time trying to avoid the enemies target reticule, once enough damage is inflicted on an enemy ship it will sink.

The games controls are broken down into two sections, the first is for the strategic map where you place your ships and move them into combat range. Using the select button brings up your ship select overlay, this is where you can cycle through your available ships and choose which to deploy.

 

Once chosen the X button will deploy your chosen ship this button is also used to initiate tactical combat, it’s also possible to form fleets with your ships using the square button this is also used to disband a fleet. The R2 shoulder button will identify your ship, while the triangle plus the D-Pad engages auto pilot.

The tactical combat controls, these are used when in combat with another ship, the D-Pad is used to control your ship, with your main guns tied to the X button. If you wish to override the auto targeting and target your enemies manually the O button and the D-Pad are used.

Premium weapons are fired using the triangle button while your ships secondary weapons are fired using the square button. Certain ships have special features and defensive measures, when these are available with can be activated using the L1 and R1 shoulder buttons, R2 is used to signal a rescue chopper, this is used to restore strength.

Critically the game was received pretty averagely, with scores ranging from an above average 73 down to a below average 49 from one review, with the remainder ranging from a 60 to 70. As usual though we will start with the best of them which comes from German publication Mega Fun.

The German publication praising the realistic look and magnificent explosions and their effects, with parts of the ships being blown off into the sea. The review did however have some issues with the controls as well as the game difficulty, with it becoming too easy after a short while

The reviewer also found after just a couple of hours the fun of the Arcade mode had already gone, they did find some of the campaign missions to be challenging though they also praised the 2 player mode, which provides in both variants for a really good mood.

GamePro (US) were close behind with a 70 rated review, with the reviewer calling the game a solid combat game. While the review called it tough sailing they did recommend at least a weekend with it to see if it floats your boat.

 

GameSpot and IGN both rated the game at an above average 60, starting with the former who were a little disappointed that more time wasn’t taken to deepen the game campaign. They were also a little disappointed of the lack of a difficulty setting for more skilled players.

The reviewer continued by comparing the game to Black Dawn, saying the game is a goofy game, with fast action, fun graphics and tough sound effects, with a happy go lucky concern for play balance, and almost everything in the way of physical reality cheerfully chucked over the starboard bow.

IGN found the game to be lacking enough depth to call it a Strategy Sim, while finding the 2 player mode fun, they found that single player element of the game tended to get repetitive and boring. They continued by comparing it to fighting games with direct one on one competition being the only redeeming quality.

Lastly we have another German publication in Video Games, who rated the game at a below average 49. with the reviewer finding it difficult to get into the game, and finding that very little skill is needed in the game, with the method of simply circling an enemy ship and dodging its attacks the way to go.

The review concluded by saying, For a while I waited for the game to become more interesting, or for the penny to drop, and I understand what it's all about, but none of that has happened to this day. (Translated using Google Translate may not be 100% accurate)

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

So lets get down to business with Gamedude, who will give you $2 if you are looking to trade in your copy of Battle Stations. If on the other hand you are in the market for a copy of the game, you will be looking at an outlay of $7.

Next up is Retrogames.co.uk who sadly don’t have the game in stock or even listed, so we will quickly head over to eStarland.com. We find a good number of copies of the game available for this site, ranging from a complete copy for only $3.71.

In addition there are three incomplete copies of the game available, a copy with no case can be picked up for $2.72, a second copy comes without a manual and can be had for $2.48. The final copy on offer is a disc only copy which can be purchased for $1.49, at the time of writing there are no trade in offers for the game.

Finally we head over to Amazon.com where we find not a single copy of the game available, the only thing related to the game on offer is a manual for the game, which is priced at $7.98. So we head over to the co.uk version of Amazon to see if we can hit more luck, which we do, but we only find a limited supply of the game available.

With just 4 copies listed on the co.uk version of Amazon, even with the low number of copies available prices are generally pretty cheap, the first copy on offer is a good condition and complete copy which is priced at £2.10.

A couple of very good condition copies are also available, the first is a disc only copy which will set you back £5.02. The second very good condition copy on offer is a complete copy of the game, and is priced up at £6.24.

The final copy currently on the market as of the 20^th of January 2018 is a like new copy of the game, listed as having a pristine and professionally cleaned disc. This copy will set you back a significant amount more with an asking price of £35.56 but does come with free delivery. Please be aware these are PAL versions so a European or PAL region PlayStation is needed to play the game.

While the game has a limited number of copies on offer which would normally warrant a high vulnerability rating, the copies that are on offer for the most part are in decent shape and are not overly expensive as a result the game has a lower vulnerability level than other title in a similar situation. 

Written by

P J Gibbon