BattleSport

Before I bought my used 3DO system, I had never heard of a game called BattleSport. To this day I still probably would never have played it, if it hadn't come with that very same 3DO.

While I can safely say I'm a fan of battles, I can't accurately say I share the same lust for sports, so it was quite some time before I got around to putting the disk in.Perhaps it was the low expectations I held for a game that had "sport" in the title that made me so surprised when I first played it.

The game was shockingly well made, starting out with a fade-in intro of the definitions of both Battle and Sport, as if to tell me my previous assertions were wholly incorrect. From there it went into a pretty-good-for-the-time pre-rendered video of what the game is. Which is this: You have you futuristic cars, equipped with lasers and missiles, and even capable of short jumps into the air, and you use said vehicle to locate the ball in the arena, and fire it into the ... uh, ball receptacle.

Meanwhile, there is an opponent trying to do the same to you. Knock you back with the lasers and missiles to make your car drop the ball, even destroy you. When your car is destroyed by enemy fire, you get a 3-second penalty before you respawn. The more time you've been destroyed, the longer your penalty.

A quick play option was the best idea for this game - after all, it was what kept bringing me back. There's a story mode for you to go through, in which you can make minor changes to your car, but most importantly, it has multiplayer. In the unlikely event that my description of this futuristic car-thrashing sport game isn't enough to whet your appetite, then surely the notion of playing this zany game while competing with a friend will do it. The closest thing to a drawback for multiplayer may be the difficulty inherit in finding a second 3DO controller.

The game is also spiced with a healthy dash of humor, and never takes itself too seriously. Even the loading screens, which never take too long, have made me laugh.

All in all, if you got a dusty old 3DO sitting in your closet, and happen to see a copy of BattleSport somewhere; I encourage you to pick it up, dust of your 3DO, and have a little fun.