For a while, Codemasters virtually ruled the Cricket simulation market as both a developer and publisher. However, Codemasters left the Cricket business after releasing International Cricket 2010 shifting their focus to racing games. EA Sports was another big name in Cricket video games at one point, but they published their last Cricket game with Cricket 07 in 2006. And Trickstar Games made big claims as a contender in that space, but then Ashes Cricket 2013 ended up being possibly the worst cricket game ever. In fact, 505 Games canceled Ashes Cricket 2013 due to the poor quality of the game.
So all these happenings created a vacuum in the Cricket video-game market, which presented a very big opportunity for the Australian developer Big Ant Studios to tap into this market.
Don Bradman Cricket 2014 was the first Cricket game released by Big Ant Studios, and it came up like a cool breeze in a desert. It was a fresh and modern take on the Cricket video-game genre. Almost every aspect of the game had a unique feel relative to previous Cricket games by different studios.
With the game, Big Ant was finally able to give Cricket fans what they’d been desiring for years: a full-fledged career mode. Career mode is a dream feature for any sports simulation fans, as it immerses the player into that very sports experience. And Don Bradman Cricket 2014 was the first Cricket game offering a standalone career mode.
If we talk about the gameplay, the batting went too tough. Perhaps Big Ant erred on the side of making it too realistic for a video game. There was no shot selection stick in the radar for batsman, no ball-marker, so as a player you don’t really know what you will be facing.
The game also lacked in the sound department, with occasional issues with crowd noise and commentary. However, the character models and overall design were adapted to modern-day requirements, making this the best-looking Cricket video game to date. With career mode in place, coupled with a more modern look, Don Bradman Cricket 2014 was an acceptable Cricket video game, which is not bad for Big Ant’s first attempt.
In December of 2016, Big Ant Studios released Don Bradman Cricket 17. This game did not have any major improvements to the core gameplay, but it finally included female players. The batting animations did improve, but overall the evolution from the previous game was not big. The add-on features made it go over well with the fans, though. The stadium creator, player editor, custom tournaments, and a deeper career mode gave the fans a huge number of choices.
Almost a year later, Big Ant Studios followed DBC 17 with Ashes Cricket (2017). The gameplay improvements were slight, but the player likenesses of Ashes Squads (Australia and England) were quite enhanced. The motion capture technology was utilized for the star players. The value-added features were again there to take the lead.
One great thing about Big Ant’s Cricket games is the consistent progression. This is the key to success. They built a framework, then enhanced that framework over time. This is a far better strategy than starting over from scratch with every title — or, at the very least, radically departing from what came before. The consistent progression is something that was missed by Codemasters and EA Sports, while Big Ant Studios has been managing to do it quite well for a long time now.
But major changes came with Cricket 19, which vastly improved every aspect of the game. The batting animations, bowling animations, overall gameplay, and more — everything was improved with a deeper set of add-on features. The licensing of teams was enhanced as well.
The online community is one of the hallmarks of Big Ant’s Cricket games. The community can create players of their favorite teams and then share them online for the community to download. This functionality has solved the problem of generic players names and likenesses of non-licensed teams.
Cricket 22 is the latest installment in the cricket series by Big Ant Studios. The game has been a very good progression from its predecessor. The play-by-play commentary, which has been the weakest link of Big Ant’s Cricket games, is finally much better in Cricket 22. The licensing for teams has been increased as well.
Moreover, the career mode has been taken to the next level. You start off as a rookie, and you have a coach and a gym. You’ll be training as you progress towards your career and get picked for international leagues. Eventually, you get noticed and do press conferences, with an option to choose a response for a journalist question. Super cool, isn’t it?
Cricket 22 sets itself apart from all previous Big Ant cricket games, thanks to the constant push by the developers to release update after update. These bring improvements based on fan feedback and touch on things like overall stability, as well as new bowling animations and gameplay improvements. I believe that Cricket 22 is the biggest achievement by Big Ant Studios thus far.
Of course, the game still needs a lot of improvement, but with the constant progression of Big Ant’s series, and their willingness to listen to fan feedback, the future is looking bright for this series. I dream of the time when we have the most realistic Cricket game ever, on par with the FIFA series by EA Sports. And maybe that time is drawing near.
