0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - BattleSport

         

BattleSport is a first person vehicular sports game set in a futuristic world, the game was developed by American studio Cyclone Studios, The games was initially published by Studio 3DO, the software division of hardware developed The 3DO Company for their 3DO Interactive Multiplayer console in 1996.

Due to the poor sales of the 3DO system it was discontinued, with BattleSport releasing on further platforms when this happened, with Acclaim Entertainment stepping in to publish the game on Windows and Playstation in 1997, as well as a North American only release on the Sega Saturn.

BattleSport initially launched as a prototype demo but received a great deal of praise and attention from fans that 3DO decided to make it into a fully fledged standalone game. The game takes place in a distant future where athletes are no longer satisfied with competitive sports like football

BattleSport is a futurist sports game with vehicular combat elements, where competitors drive a hover type vehicle and attempt to score as many goals as possible, think an early attempt at rocket league, the goal is a cube in that sits in the centre of the arena, this cube can vary in the number of sides that a player can score in, scoring is done by gaining control of the ball and shooting at this goal cube.

 

That may sound simple however your opponent as well as the player have access to weapons to aid them during the match, hitting an opponent with your weapons when they have the ball will result in them dropping it. When the ball is lost the players direction and speed will determine where the ball will go when lost.

It is also possible to destroy the opponent which results in a short amount of time for the player to have some breathing space to shoot unopposed before they respawn, however taking too many shots will result in a temporary inability to take part in the action.

The game has four modes to choose from the first is instant action mode, this mode has a separate menu for setting up this mode with things like ball type and goal type changeable, the four sided goal is the normal default goal type.

 

The game has two exhibition modes, the first is just a 1 player exhibition match against the computer, the second exhibition mode allows for two players to face off against each other in a split screen battle. The final mode is the tournament mode.

Tournament mode winning matches results in earning much needed progress up the BattleSport standings and earns you a healthy pile of cash as well. This can be used to purchase a better vehicles and acquire new offensive and defensive items.

 

The characters in the game have their own minor backstory on their profile which appears when you are choosing a character. For example Arson’s profile page shows her rank, the tank she drives and information on her, in the case of Arson she is a convicted felon who has managed to keep off death row thanks to her BattleSport skill which has resulted in a large popularity with the public.

Each of the vehicles you can use in the game have their own stats with six categories showing their strengths and weaknesses, these categories are acceleration, top speed, fire power, armour, cornering and ball handling. For example the Silver has good acceleration, decent armour, cornering and ball handling, but lacks top speed and firepower.

The control scheme for the game is pretty basic, the D-Pad is used to move your vehicle, offensive weapons are controlled with the X and O button, the former fires the ships missiles. Your vehicle can jump which is done by hitting both L1 and R1, while shooting the ball is done with the square button.

The game has only a handful of reviews available these vary from the highly impressive down to the fairly average review score. As usual however we will start with the best of the which comes from Electric Playground, who scored the game at an impressive 90.

The reviewer commented on ports to a new more powerful system, and those that don’t add anything to the initial game for the new stronger hardware, saying this is usually inexcusable, however with BattleSport Cyclone Studios have transcended the platform it is played on.

The reviewer continued by saying you may find better sports, games, even pick up more impressive looking games and games with better multiplayer. But if you want a future sports game with sublime gameplay that you can’t put down, there's really only one choice. BattleSport is triumphant again.

The next review for the game comes from Absolute Playstation, the review calling the game a very well made game, with wonderful menu screens to navigate and gameplay that is as intense as you wind in the future sports genre. The review continued by praising the multiplayer aspect of the game, calling it one of his go to games when friends are over.

IGN are next and we see a significant drop in review score to an above average 60, the reviewer calling the game fun once its quirks have been learned, praising the strategies and manoeuvres that can be developed by the player, like any sports game.

The reviewer also praised the two player split screen mode calling it particularly enjoyable thanks to the simple environments that allow the players to focus on what is important. The review however found that when comparing it to other future sports titles like LucasArts, BallBlazer Champions, BattleSport falls a little flat.

The final critic review for the game comes from GameSpot, with the review saying the game certainly has it’s moments and is by no means a wretched effort. In conclusion they said, the fact is there is just no need for a game like this on the PlayStation in 1997.

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, where we find this game is fairly rare, with Gamedude paying $25 dollars when trading in a copy of the game. If on the other hand you are in the market for a copy of BattleSport, as you have probably imaged by the trade in price it will be quite expensive, setting you back a total of $49.

Next up we have Retrogames.co.uk, where we find sadly this game is neither stocked or listed for the Playstation. The only copy of the game that is currently available from Retrogames.co.uk is the 3DO version of the game which is priced up at £12.

Next up we have eStarland.com where we find the game is listed, but is currently out of stock, the game has a usual price range of between $4.75 and $9.50 when in stock. Also on offer from eStarland is a trade in for this game with up to $3.50 being paid for a complete copy of the game. Also listed on the site is the rare Sega Saturn release of the game, this is also out of stock, but is listed as having a price of between $77.48 and $154.95 when it is in stock.

 

Lastly we head over to Amazon.com where we don’t find the game listed at all, I tired different variations of the title as well but nothing showed up. The same goes for the co.uk version of the site as well nothing at all listed for this game.

 

As a last resort we must head over to Ebay.com in the hopes of finding at least one copy of the game. We do strike lucky with just a handful of copies available though, the first is a good condition and complete PAL version of the game. This copy ships from Australia and is priced at $30 Australian dollars, this converts to $23.96 in the US or £21.63 in the UK, please be aware a PAL console in need to play this copy.

Another PAL copy is next up and a significant jump in price for this copy at $63.59, this is another good condition and is complete, this copy comes with free shipping as well. The next copy can be ignored, it is priced at $82.99, this copy has no images of the actual game instead just has a store logo.

The penultimate copy available is in like new condition and comes complete with disc, manual, case and covers, this copy is priced up at $90 and again this copy comes with free shipping to a large number of countries around the world. Finally we have a very good condition and compete copy which is priced well beyond anything else, coming in at over $150 once shipping has been factored in.

Written by

P J Gibbon