The first instalment of Rare’s historical sports retrospective a few months ago took us from Slalom through to WWF Wrestlemania, eventually coming to rest in the high-tech space year 1989. We pick up the thread here with another brace of realistic sports, unrealistic sports and things roughly resembling sports all vying for attention in Rare’s athletic past. This time with anecdotes! Go!
6. World Games (1989)
After Summer and Winter Games but before narrowing their focus on California Games, Epyx went broad for World Games which allowed the inclusion of sumo wrestling, caber tossing, skiing, log rolling, um, cliff diving and… barrel jumping. Ever professional, Rare simply nodded and cracked out another solid NES conversion (if a bit belated, World Games having arrived on C64 in 1986).
Box blurb: “Get ready – get set – get psyched! The World Games are here!”
Review quote: “While whimsical in tone, it retains the same style and head-to-head quality of its wildly popular predecessors.” – The Video Game Critic
7. Arch Rivals (1990)
A port of Midway’s 1989 arcade game and the second of two NES basketball titles from Rare. Its pun-tastic tagline seeded the possibility that the two-on-two basketball action would be liberally sprinkled with elements of comedy violence. Yes. Yes it was. Just as well it didn’t also have Dunky Dino from Kinect Sports: Season Two Basketball or the carnage would have been monumental.
Box blurb: “Arch Rivals isn’t just basketball… it’s a basketbrawl!”
Review quote: “A fun fast-paced contest that’s easy to play and get into, as well as fun to watch. Plus it’s just fun to knock your opponents around with out having to put up with fouls.” – NES Times
Bonus anecdote: “Punch (head of testing) Huw’s player on screen and he took it almost like being punched in real life. Game done by Dave and Bob Thomas, Welsh third-party devs who also did the hilariously censored NES conversion of Narc.” – Gregg Mayles, designer (tester at the time)
8. WWF Superstars (1991)
Third of Rare’s grappling exploits and the first (and last) designed for Game Boy, included here as a change of pace from all our glorious NES work-for-hire. No Andre the Giant, Honky Tonk Man or Bam Bam Bigelow this time; Hulk Hogan, Ted DiBiase and Randy Savage were joined by the Ultimate Warrior and Mr. Perfect instead. With Game Link cable two-player head-to-head action! YES.
Box blurb: “If you’ve always dreamed of being the WWF champ… THIS IS YOUR GAME!!!”
Review quote: “Thrill to the bone busting, kneedropping, mat-munching madness as these masters of the ring perform their most famous moves in crisp Game Boy graphics and super stereo sound.” – Nintendo Power
Bonus anecdote: “I did WWF Superstars with Kev Bayliss (and Dave Wise’s audio) in three months and a week after Tim asked us if we could do it in three months flat. When I asked him what the deadline actually was for the project he said ‘Saturday’!” – Paul Machacek, programmer
9. X the Ball (1993)
Now here’s something different. Before Killer Instinct, Rare went charging into arcades with this beauty, built in conjunction with Tecmo, Bally Wulff and Capcom. It mainly tasked with you working out where the missing ball should be on old football photos, but also featured bonus rounds based on splattering ‘X’s all over the screen and shredding a football with a machine gun. Why not?
Box blurb: “Marks the spot where a classic formula merges with the very latest technology to create a unique and exciting arcade game.”
Review quote: “Any game whose mascot is Mimo-Man, a character with a soccer ball for a head, is purely farcical and ridiculous.” – Gamera Obscura
Bonus anecdote 1: “All the players were digitised from match day brochures from different decades and some scenes included players from more than two different teams. Others had the ball in deliberately daft places, like on the end of a player’s outstretched hand, in the opposite direction to where everyone was looking, and right in front of the camera at a massive size. These were designed to be memorable, so when players saw them once they recognised them again on future attempts.” – Gregg Mayles, designer
Bonus anecdote 2: “Was it a game of skill or a game of chance? Well unfortunately, the gaming boards in the various countries we tried to sell it in decided it was a game of chance and we ended up having to dump about 1000 PCBs in landfill, but hey ho!” – Pete Cox, head of IT
Bonus anecdote 3: “No trips to Japan or the States, but we were invited out to Berlin to visit Bally Wulff. That trip taught me two things. Firstly, don’t drink and fly; secondly, don’t secrete a lump of concrete in your hand luggage. Fortunately the demeanour of airport security improved when they realised it was a piece of the Berlin Wall.” – Mark Wilson, programmer
10. Ken Griffey Jr.’s Winning Run (1996)
A late SNES foray before Rare took on the fancy new N64. Put together with more conviction at a time when the company was really making a name for itself, and reinforced by sending a green-fingered team on educational visits to US baseball hotspots. That authenticity and a big old stack of modes, features and arcade-style gameplay gave it a good shot in a crowded 16-bit baseball market.
Box blurb: “Incredible 3-D baseball with more stats, player trades and full season action!”
Review quote: “World Series ’95 fans will probably stand by their man on the Genesis, but it’ll be hard to find SNES baseball that bests Griffey‘s game.” – GamePro
Bonus anecdote 1: “We knew nothing about baseball and even less about who Ken Griffey was. Used the ACM graphics tech from DKC though and turned out okay.” – Gregg Mayles, designer
Bonus anecdote 2: “I still have the signed baseball we got from Ken Griffey in my room!” – Huw Ward, head of testing
You’ve all been good sports. Suggestions for future Top 5 lists welcome! Send them our way.