Welcome to the stage of history
I am going to reveal a secret to day: as a black man of 40 years, I have no earthly idea what the game of cricket entails. I know there is a long paddle and a heavy ball that could kill, and that its vaguely like baseball. Well, this is why I personally am so grateful that the game Cricket thru the Ages from developer Free Lives exist. Having originally launched on the Apple Arcade service in 2019, the one-button, physics buffoonery now comes to console and PC and I got to say, it was a lot of fun.
MSRP: $7.99
Platforms: PC (reviewed), Switch
Price I’d Pay: $7.99
Cricket thru the Ages tells the historically accurate origin of the game through nine game modes; each detailing a different era of cricket’s evolution. Each segment begins with the hilarious narrator setting up the scene and providing some backstory. In the beginning players will be set in the stone age before the invention of the game that would change the world. So, players control a rampaging dinosaur as it runs towards a human trying to throw a rock. After the humans are tired of being eaten, they decide to create a game in order to give them something to do.
Players will play thru the trial and error of perfecting the game of cricket. Cricket thru the Ages can be experienced in co-op which leads to even more hilarity and fun. For instance, as we go thru the evolution of the game in the medieval times players control knights. And as I said control is one button, so the faster it pressed the faster the wobbly-physics based characters will move forward and spin their arms. So, it’s kind of like that scene from a classic Simpson’s episode (because the Simpsons have done everything) where Bart starts making a wind mill with his arms and walks towards Lisa and says, “I am just going to do this and if you get hit its your own fault”. To which Lisa responds by punching forward and walking toward him, repeating what he said. Combat is a lot like that in Cricket thru the Ages.
As the levels progress players will use various tools, sometimes a bat other times a ball. The objective is to knock the ball out of the arena and each players gets 6 pitches. So, if playing co-op one person will pitch while the other is up to bat. All the hilarity ensues due to the fact that this physics-based game rarely ends up being a game of cricket and more just about how funny can you knock someone out. Countless times the AI would pitch and id try and time my wind up but I ended up knocking the ball into my face. My little papercraft avatar falls over with Xs over their eyes never failed to make me laugh. Just understand that while there is a real ‘game’ here to play, there is endless fun to be had with craziness of the physics system in place.
As I said I don’t know what cricket is, and to be honest this game helped me expand my knowledge of the sport. Knowing things like the fact the Queen got involved at one point and demanded a rule change about it being boring to try and hit the goal post. And they even took cricket to outer space and would play in zero gravity. It was fascinating to see how much the game of cricket has intertwined with human history. While Cricket thru the Ages isn’t a long game, it is quite a fun one, made even more so if players can find a player 2. And with its simple one button controls literally anyone can play.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
