Game Review: Cricket 07 (PS2)

The EA Sports Cricket series is back with a bang with Cricket 07.

EA has always made miserable cricket games with none of them being perfect.
But the folks at EA have sort of got things right for this one.

By rolling out completely new controls, EA wants the gamer to take control of the shots played by the batsman. No more tapping buttons in this game, guys!

The right analog stick is used to control the batsman's shot direction and timing.
If you just tilt the analog stick towards the left, the batsman plays a square cut.
If you tilt it to the right, the batsman pulls the ball. You can even use the analog stick to drive the ball by merely moving it to the direction you want to hit the ball to.
There are no advancements in the bowling controls. You just have to tap the particular button to inswing or outswing the ball and you can adjust the swing by using the D-Pad.
The graphics are the same, with all players appearing fat. Some of them look really stupid while some look really good.

The few flaws I noticed in this game were that except South Africa, England, Australia and New Zealand, all the players of the other teams have their names spelt wrong.
Sometimes when you hit the ball and the fielder catches it after it bounces, the fielder just dreams for 3-4 seconds and then throws the ball.
You still have no control of the field and you just have the power of throwing the ball by pressing circle.

Overall, it's a good game for cricket lovers and haters alike.
It's a new experience in the controls department and is exactly like it's competitor Brian Lara Cricket 2007.

Rating: 8/10