Like most Irish cricket fans, we at JOE have only discovered our love for the game in the past five days. As such, we’ve been searching for the ultimate cricket app.
Cricket is the latest in a long line of professional sports that we Irish have decided to pretend to like, purely on the basis of one successful victory.
In the wake of Ireland’s historic ICC Cricket World Cup victory over England last week, we say – what’s wrong with that? Bandwagons are fun, unpredictable and most importantly, they feel great. As keen, pre-bandwagon fans here in the JOE office, we were gripped to the match throughout, and once we cricketed the English’s last wicket for the home run, it was a slam dunk.
Like most Irish sports fans, we’ve been stumbling through the past few days in dizzy haze, drunk on a newfound Cricket love and lots of beer. How can we project our newfound slight respect for a sport we never understood but constantly derided? Through the purchase of an iPhone app of course, and Big Cup Cricket more than does the job.
Trust us, you’ll be spouting Cricket terminology in no time
For one thing, Big Cup Cricket is actually a Japanese title – developed by Denki but released under the Eidos Software brand. Helpfully, BCC doesn’t take itself too seriously, from its cutesy, cartoon-like art style to proliferation of giant graphics to accompany the action – phrases such as ‘HOWZAT!’ (no idea either) abound.
Perhaps the biggest surprise for us at JOE was how fiendishly addictive and thoughtful the entire BCC is. For one thing, Big Cup Cricket features 20 international teams, from two-star Ireland (out of three, not bad) to the one-star minnows of Uganda, with full training modes and Game Center compatibility.
Controls in BCC are derived from swipe and flicking motions, to denote the direction, speed and positioning of your ball or bat. The timing and direction of your swipe will ultimately decide the accuracy of your actions. Although this control system at first appears impenetrable, a handy training mode (Training Drills) breaks down the basics of Batting, Bowling and Fielding, with unlockable tutorials for each.
As for the games themselves, players can decide the number of overs per innings, while all game statistics, in-game achievements and trophies can be displayed. It’s a staggeringly comprehensive offering, which falters only from the lack of a season mode (a ‘Big Cup Contest’ takes its place) and real-world licenses.
A tremendously playable iteration of the Irish flavour of the month, Big Cup Cricket is a game in which skill takes precedent over luck and as such, the ‘one more go’ factor is irresistible throughout, from ten-minute sessions to all night tournaments.
We won’t pretend we’ve played every Cricket title in the App Store but we can safely say that BCC is easily one of the finest sports titles around today. Now if only Eidos included an online mode so we could beat the English at their own game once more…
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