0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Blast Lacrosse
At the time of the games release Lacrosse had not really found it’s international footing, unlike the present day, which has seen the sports popularity increase significantly. Back to May of 2001 and the sport was not as popular or well known as a result Blast Lacrosse only released in North America.
Notable people who worked on this title, Armando Marini who worked as the Associate Director on the game, following the release of the game he moved onto the Battlefield series, and was lead designer on Battlefield 1942 Secret Weapons of WWII, Battlefield Vietnam and worked on Battlefield 2.
Denis Cawson who was the Art Director on Blast Lacrosse also worked on Battlefield 1942 Secret Weapons of WWII, Battlefield Vietnam. He was an Artist on the 2007 released Manhunt 2 and worked on the Character Art for Grand Theft Auto IV. In 2010 he was the Lead Character Artist for the much loved Red Dead Redemption, and worked on the Character Art for 2013s Star Trek game.
Jeremy Price who also went on to work on the Battlefield series up until 2007, when he moved on to work on Project Gotham Racing 4. He was the Lead Environmental Artist for Army of Two The 40th Day in 2010, before taking up the position of Art Director for Batman Arkham Origins.
The game has two sets of controls the first of for offensive play, movement of your players is done with the D-Pad or left analogue stick, passing of the ball is done with the X button while the circle button is used to shoot, players can also jump this is done with the Square button.
Top perform a pick manoeuvre, this is where a player on your team who is not in possession forces an opposing player to move in a different direction, this is done with the triangle button. To make your player sprint the R1 button is used, while players can also strafe, the L1 shoulder button is used for this.
Defensive controls, as with offensive controls the D-Pad or Left Analogue stick is used to control the player, to switch to another player on your team the X button is used. To perform a cross check the Circle button is used, jumping the same button as when on offence with the Square button as are sprinting and strafing using the R1 and L1 shoulder buttons.
The gameplay style is similar to the likes of NBA Jam and NFL Blitz and definitely has a mode arcade feel to it. The game is an indoor lacrosse game, which features 5 on 5 matches, the game features four main game modes, these are Sudden Death, Arcade, Season and Tournament.
When choosing a team a screen will appear with all the teams in a central column with their respective team logos, when moving to to a team logo, at the side the teams information will be displayed, this includes stats for the teams, speed, power, passing, accuracy, strength and weight, these stats are shown as green coloured bars.
For example the Buffalo Bandits are strong in speed, accuracy and strength, while having lower stats in power, passing and weight. The New York Saints on the other hand have plenty of speed but are lacking in the strength department, team choice depends on your preferred tactic.
Players on the various teams also have the same type of stats, for example when making a substituting in the game the stats of both the player you are subbing and the player coming on are shown at the bottom of the screen. These stats show the speed, power, passing, accuracy, strength and weight of the player, as with the team stats they are shown as green bars.
When playing a match along the top of the screen the teams initials are shown, one at either side of the screen, between these are the quarter number and the time remaining in the quarter, when you score the score appears in pale red underneath the teams initials.
At the bottom of the screen is the players stamina bar, this is green when not being used and turns yellow when nearly depleted. When you use the R1 sprint button the players stamina will decrease, once you have stopped sprinting the bar will refill.
The reviewer from IGN while finding the game to suffer from control issues and major graphical issues, they still found the game has an intangible fun factor that makes them happy it is in their collection. The reviewer had a friend visiting and the pair played a couple of games, which soon turned into five or six games.
The review finding the unexpected things that happen during matches like erasing a 5-goal lead in the fourth quarter, or scoring from half-field, or staying on fire for eight goals. It's all about the joy of playing, and Blast Lacrosse delivers on that front.
Adrenaline Vault were the second critic review for the game, their reviewer rated the game at an average 50, the reviewer comparing the game to Speed Ball 2100. W ith the game having blazing fast passes, hard hits and responsive controls, this title offers some fun and well developed gameplay.
The reviewer found the package on the whole leaves a lot to be desired, with poor flickery visuals and sub par audio and commentary, which make the whole exercise somewhat painful. The reviewer finding some updates to the presentation and this game could have been a blowout debut for Lacrosse in the video gaming world, as it is it managed to be all of the bad things you expect from a niche market sports game.
They concluded by saying but hidden away behind the ugly presentation lies a heart of pure fun, the reviewer hoping that the game sells well enough to justify a sequel. As with the right care this could be a very successful franchise.
The final review comes from Cheat Code Central, who rated the game at a poor 40. the review found the spirited commentary from Scott Farrell, while amusing at first becomes tiresome after about 10 minutes.
With a looped set of comments, while the reviewer did not count the total, but they feel a Bugs Bunny doll with a pull string has more material. The review continued by saying, the music is typical sport theme trash and the sound effects occur with less frequency than funny skits on Mad TV. Concluding the review said, toss this one in the basket.
So lets get down to business with Gamedude, where if you are looking to trade in your copy of Blast Lacrosse, you will be looking at $2 for your copy at trade in. If on the other hand you are in the market for a copy from Gamedude, you will be looking at an outlay of $7.
Next we head over to Retrogames.co.uk, where we sadly don’t find this game available or even listed. So we will quickly head over to eStarland.com. here we do find the game listed, however the game is currently out of stock. The usual price for the game is between $9.63 and $17.50, also on offer is a trade in for the game, with eStarland offering up to $7.50 for a complete copy of the game. This price will differ depending on the completeness of your copy, with a disc only copy worth up to $2.63 at trade in.
A like new copy for $12.63 can also be found early in the listings, this copy comes with free shipping, but like the previous copy it does not state the games completeness. The end of the first page of listings arrives before we find the first complete copy, this one price at $15.98 is however shipping by Amazon, so the free shipping only applies to Prime users and those spending over $25.
The next copy on offer is a complete copy and is not shipped by Amazon, this copy is priced at $11.90, but once shipping is added in this price increases to $15.98. Another couple of fulfilled by Amazon copies are available, one a very good condition copy for $15.95 and a like new copy of $15.99. between these two copies is a very good condition copy priced at $15.95 as well.
Four or five more complete copies are priced at between $19 and $25, which is the current high point for used copies on Amazon, with the exception of the usual overpriced copy, which for this game is at $53.99. A small number of new copies of the game are also available, prices however start from $73.67, rising to just short of the $85 mark.
Written by
P J Gibbon
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