Posted by The Wii version of Ashes Cricket 2009 is quite different from other formats. Having played both, we’d also say it was worse.
Batting technique
Don’t imagine that you’ll be playing hooks and drives. What you will actually be doing is carrying out a pendulous swing as if you’re putting a golf ball. Your on-screen batsman will then do all the dynamic swivelling and swishing on your behalf.
There’s an automatic aim. If you switch it off, you’ll only aim badly and get distracted, so you leave it on. However, you then feel a bit disconnected from proceedings, so that’s no good either.
Bowling technique
It responds to speed, but again, it’s a robotic pastiche of the real movement. This time it’s more like casting a fishing line if you didn’t have elbows. You can add swing or spin by rotating the controller as you bowl, kind of like bowling a cutter.
Verdict
It’s just hard to feel involved. Playing against another player is fun, in the way that playing against your mates on a Wii game is pretty much always fun. We’d recommend Ashes Cricket 2009 on one of the other formats though, to be honest.
The fact that it’s the only cricket game on the wii at the moment means that by default it’s the best.
Sadly.
One of the most frustrating things is that it selects a (single) fielder to chase based on where the ball lands. This means that your man in cow corner can stand there and watch the ball roll over the line 1m to his left while mid on makes a futile chase.
The whole ‘shine’ concept is badly implemented too. Effectively it is binary as the motion needed to shine (and the speed the shine diminishes) makes it impossible to click the little ball on the screen while it’s halfway up.
I tried playing the single player ‘ashes’ test on international difficulty. I gave up at tea on the first day when I was 2/925. It may have been a half decent game if they had made it 20/20 only but the use of the ashes name on such a steaming heap of dog turds is a disgrace.
Glad we didn’t give a false review damning a game that didn’t deserve it.
It is shit, isn’t it?
Give me Graham Gooch’s World Class Cricket any day of the week, even with the spacky running and unplayable non-turning off-break.
My father asked me that I really want it or not?
Can u suggest?