Ashes 2009 - Howzzzzat?!

With the country gripped by Ashes fever, well at least the male population, Ashes 2009 comes to the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. Quite why this game was not ready for the 8th July when the 1st Test started is quite puzzling. But it’s a case of better late than never.

The last version of this franchise was Brian Lara International 2007. That was a good game but it had its faults and limitations. The developer has clearly responded well to the opinions and criticisms of the fans and has improved nearly every aspect of the game.

The batting was previously extremely limited. Lofted shot, ground shot and block was pretty much all the player could do. Now though you have a variety of shots. You can play hook shots off the back foot or drive shots off the front foot. Another big plus is being able to make your batter dance down the wicket and smash the spin bowler for six!!

Similarly, the bowling now goes into much more depth. Leg cutters, bouncers, swingers and Yorkers are just some of the deliveries in your arsenal. With the more skilful bowlers you are also able to reverse swing the ball, providing it’s worn enough of course. Get the right spin bowler and some of the spin and/or drift you can get will completely bamboozle the very best batsmen.

For all you cricket fans out there this is a must buy. It’s much more in depth and fun to play. The main drawback is only having the licenses for the England and Australia squads. Acquiring all of the ICC teams would have been a major draw for other cricketing regions around the world.

Score: 7.5/10

[Blog Ed apologizes - this should have been up days ago!]