Ashes Cricket

Like an 80-overs old Duke's ball, Ashes Cricket may be a little rough around the seams. Yet it still manages to impress where it counts: out in the middle. There has never been a cricket game this approachable, fully-featured, or fun, and the inclusion of licensed Ashes squads and stadia is just the icing on what is already an exceedingly customisable cricket cake. With a bit more shine on it via future patches and community-created content it could be well and truly amazing, but even as it stands Ashes Cricket is the best videogame representation of the sport to date.

Ah, the Ashes. So many memories of falling asleep to the sound of English wickets falling and waking up to the sound of Australian runs being hammered.

I want to be upfront about a few things here. The first is that cricket and I haven't been the best of friends, well, ever. My best fun with anything cricket was antagonizing pure cricket fans by making comments like "What is crickets?" or "Cricket? Isn't that the crap version of Baseball?” In other words, I'm a horrible person. This isn't to say I wasn't interested in Ashes Cricket and I've played my fair share of cricket titles in the past.

There’s nothing about Ashes Cricket that stands out as being bad, and that's definitely a good thing considering recent Aussie sports titles. There are many smaller changes from the previously released Don Bradman Cricket, that all come together to improve the entire experience and take Ashes Cricket to the next level. Apart from buying tickets to the Ashes this summer, this should be your next purchase, as I absolutely love it.

It may be occasionally janky, and despite best intentions, it isn’t always as easy to understand as it could be, yet Ashes Cricket’s bright spots shine through the flecks of grime. This is not a perfect game of cricket, but it is a good one.

Four runs

What it lacks in shine and polish, Ashes Cricket makes up for with its deeply enjoyable on-pitch action and creation tools.