Street Cricket (Mobile Game) – Review
Nextwave Multimedia currently have two well rated cricket games on the market at the moment: “Street Cricket” and “Beach Cricket”. Both look quite similar from an outside view and both have paid versions, as well as the free version, at the same price. Naturally, I’m going to take the free versions for a spin before I consider paying up. First let’s see how “Street Cricket” goes.
In this free version we can only play a 5 over game at one venue. Should be enough to get a good gauge for it. You pick between two unimaginative team names that sound more like Big Bash teams; the “Smashers” and the “Breakers”. Your captain has dead-set got supernatural abilities as he manages to win the toss every bloody game. And of course, batting first is the go.
Your players appear all very well dressed. Yes, jeans and tight fitting colourful shirts seems to be the go. Far removed from the the thongs, bare feat and shorts you would expect in a game of street cricket. You feel a tad uncomfortable just watching them. The graphics aren’t too bad and the game flows quite smoothly.
The scoring is similar to indoor cricket. You get a different amount of runs depending on where you hit the ball. It seems to be 1s, 2s and 6s only. Along the ground into the wall gets you 1, lofted into the wall gets you 2 and slapping it through the air down the street gets you a 6. This is all well and good until you discover how to move your batsman around the crease and use the lofted shot button.
Then every, single ball is sent flying down into the next suburb. Well, I didn’t quite manage to get six 6s in an over but I got to 5 a couple of times before choking on the last ball. I quickly decided to quit and pump up the difficulty level to hard.
It barely made a difference. In the following game my men in jeans put on over 100 off my 5 overs. I’m glad the residents don’t seem to mind the game, as there were balls hammering into their window and onto their balconies. No – they are out in force spectating. Perhaps it would make the game more interesting if these onlookers could reach out and take some catches. Yes, if you could set your field by putting people up onto overlooking balconies and 50 metres down the street the game would be far more challenging.
So perhaps I was going to have just as hard a time with the tennis ball. Well not really, it didn’t take long to figure out that bowling full on the batsman’s legs or wide of off resulted in them only pushing a 1 or a 2. Occasionally they would hammer one hard and high into the building, but shots squarer of the wicket appear to never be worth more than 2. Sorry PC. What pace you bowl at, swing and spin all don’t matter now. Although I did manage to get a nice catch in slips bowling on a good length too.
This game has a bit of potential but its main problem is that it is far, far too easy. Won’t be revisiting any time soon, looks like it’s back to Stick Cricket.
