California Games

Developer: Epyx	Publisher: Sega
Release Date: 1989	Also On: None

Aw man, a sports title? Stop right there. Sports titles back in the day tended to have a bad reputation; it's not like today with the variety of releases on the modern systems. I'm not sure why really, I suppose they just sucked generally back then. I'll get to that in more detail when I reach the "great" series of games for the Master System, but that's in the future. However, now and then a game came along that really did the whole sports genre a favor. A few were lost amongst all the Zelda and Alex Kidd hype, but others became some of the most popular releases in history. California Games is definitely one of these, and it was released for numerous systems and computers back in the day. Made by Epyx, who were known for titles of this nature, it was certainly their crowning achievement and most people I know remember this title or have at least heard of it if they were old enough in the late 1980s. I never really got into it for the NES, and I never really gave the SMS version a thorough look until a few days ago. I'm quite happy I did, this plays and looks better than the NES version and is one of the most spectacular sports titles I've ever come across. Keep in mind though, that this game consists of six separate events to compete in, thus I may be referring to each specific event as I see fit and use this to effect the overall score for each category.

Graphically, California Games is superb. Nice job with the intro screen, tons of colors in the stages, lots of detail on all the characters and backgrounds and excellent animations for anything moving. Incredible job overall. A suggestion of a crowd in the Half Pipe segment would have been nice, but this entire game was simply ported directly to the Master System, so I'm not even going to bother adjusting the score. It's a minor point anyway. The Foot Bag segment is quaint, but well done with great color and detail. The Surfing segment has captured the movement of the waves perfectly, adding a few extra characters such as the shark and dolphin to taunt you if you make a mistake and ending with a score screen featuring a group of judges. The Roller Skating segment is splendid, lots of obstacles, variety and a sectioned background that moves to suggest depth. Your character here is particularly well animated. The BMX segment has the sectioned background concept found in the previous event with tons of different obstacles to move around or jump over. The various tricks executed by your biker are incredibly smooth and detailed. Finally, the Flying Disk segment is the most drab of them all mainly because there isn't much to do in the gameplay department, but even here the programmers took the time to add colorful scenery and accurate character motions. Great job overall for the graphics.

To add to the above, California Games throws some great sound effects and musical themes at you. Excellent opening track makes you feel like it's summer even though it may be negative fifty Celsius outside. The Half Pipe segment has a great tune, reminds me of all those old 8-Bit skating games back in the day with that "rad" feel to them like 720. It's short, but sweet. The Foot Bag segment is strange, it kind of has this jumpy, goofy feel to it that fits the activity. The Surfing segment has this "beach" feel to it that reminds me of old vacations when I was younger. The Roller Skating theme is intense but cute, fitting both the character and the event. The BMX segment drives along with a theme reminding one of a car chase scene in a movie or perhaps a typical song in the style of old "surf rock." The Flying Disk theme is quite awkward. It's not bad, it does fit the seemingly pointlessness of the event and it sticks in your head, I'm just not sure what to say about it exactly. It fits, and I like it, but I can't explain why due to the fairly bland gameplay. The sound effects overall are very fitting. A few that stuck out in my mind are when you crash too hard on the half pipe and the skating sounds from the girl's skates on that level. All well done and placed nicely, high marks.

The gameplay is where all of the above is drawn together to really make this game shine. It's a bit difficult to just take it all together without details, so I'm going to make some comment on the game as a whole and then separate sections for each individual event. Basically, you have six events. At the selection screen you can either compete in all the events, compete in some events, compete in one event, practice an event, view high scores, or view the title screen. No clue why they threw the last one in there because you can just hit "Reset" on the console, but whatever. For the first two options, you can have up to eight players join in the fun and you get to name your character and select your team. Nice options to mess around with as far as basic structure is concerned. Now then, to the events themselves.

The first event is the Half Pipe. In this event you control a little skateboarder and can do one of three tricks; the kick turn, aerial turn or hand plant. To increase speed you press down on the Directional Pad while moving down on either side and up while moving up. You have to press either at the correct times, otherwise you'll slow and lose a turn. You have three turns to get as many points as possible and they're awarded for the moves depending on how you perform them. If you fall three times, you're game is over. I forget how I did it, but if you fall hard enough the "Hollywood" sign in the background collapses. The only real problem I had with this event is that it takes a bit of time to get used to the controls, as they're not entirely intuitive at first. Once you get the hang of it, though, you'll fly right along exploiting the right moments to get the most points. Other than this, I wish there were a few more maneuvers to use other than the three programmed. Perhaps a boneless or a slide along the top of the half pipe? I don't know, but three skills didn't seem like enough to me. However, with only about a minute or three falls to use up, you don't have much time to master many more anyway. Still, it effected it a bit for me because they are plenty in other events.

The second event is the Foot Bag. In more modern terms this would be the "hacky sack." I really enjoyed this event and would say it's my second favorite part of the game. Basically, you move your guy around, kicking the bag and racking up points. The entire controller is almost used and there are a total of eleven different skills aside from the basic tricks! You can spin your character around and kick for a "full axle," or juggle the bag from one foot to your head and then to the other foot for a "doda." Really a lot of fun. It's difficult to get used to it at first, but once you do you'll really rack up some serious points. Depending on how many you get, you can get various bonuses when all of your points are totaled. The more skills you use and the more variety, the more points. I really had no problems with this event, it's a lot of fun.

The third event is Surfing. Real basic, you move your character on his board to perform one of three moves to gain points. You constantly move to the right, so nothing to press there, and neither Button 1 nor 2 has any function. The closer your are to the curl of the wave, the higher the points. However, you can only do a few things like jumps and turns, so that kind of makes it a fairly bland event. It's not easy and gets pretty intense when the wave draws closer, though you can move away from it, but I would have liked a few more maneuvers to learn. Perhaps a handstand on the board or something ridiculous. Not sure, I don't know much about surfing at all so perhaps this isn't much to do in the first place, but being a video game I'd like a tad more variety and oddity. Not bad overall though, it's a fun event. The only problem I had was that jumps are kind of hard to adjust to. Sometimes you land them and other times when you do the same motions they don't seem to work. I did get the hang of it eventually, but I still feel shaky about my skills in this event.

The fourth event is Roller Skating. This event goes away from the points system somewhat though you do gain them for a few things. It tends to be more of an obstacle course you have to run through, gaining some points here and there for jumps and spins. The controls take a bit of getting used to and are the first major factor. You have to continuously press Up and Down on the Directional Pad to make your girl move, and if you hold in Up too long she'll just spin, so you have to be quick. However, it tends to be very intuitive after that and you'll fly right along. The only problem then is getting used to the course and her movements. Once you do, you'll fly right through and land a number of jumps with additional spins. A few more skills would have been good, yet again, but due to the way this event is set up it didn't effect the score much for me. I had more fun trying to get to the end of the round more than I paid attention to what moves I could do. The main points you gain anyway come from how you avoid obstacles. Hard course as well, I still haven't beaten it.

The fifth event is BMX Bike Racing. This event is superb, definitely my favorite right after the Foot Bag. In this event, you peddle your bike along, avoiding obstacles and performing some seriously wicked moves. Of course, the better you do the moves and the more intense, the better the points. This particular part of California Games combines all the elements of the scoring events with the obstacle course feel of the Roller Skating segment. You have to continuously press Button 2 to move the pedals, otherwise you'll stop, and Button 1 enables you to jump. Along with this you can perform wheelies, table tops, 360-degree turns, backwards flips and forwards flips. This is an excellent part of the cartridge, really a lot of fun. I've made it to the end of this one, and the controls are part of the reason, they're very intuitive and you'll jump right into it. It takes time to get the skills perfect to where you're getting tons of points, but it's a lot of fun in the process.

The sixth and final event is my least favorite, though I have played it a number of times. This was mainly to try to figure it out because it's quite difficult. This one is the Flying Disk. Essentially, all you do is have one character all the way on the left throw the frisbee and then control the other character all the way on the right, hopefully catching it in one of five ways. There's a meter at the bottom of the screen you use to adjust the speed and angle of the frisbee before you throw it and at the top of the screen is a smaller map showing the position of the two characters relative to each other. Without this, you'd have no clue where the other girl was and would probably never catch the frisbee. However, even so, it doesn't represent the playing field very well and there were numerous times the frisbee looked close on the upper portion but really wasn't in reality. Takes a lot of practice to get one catch, let alone more than one and twice in a row. In fact, there was only one I could really get to work, and that's the diving left catch because you can follow the frisbee and then jump for it. Otherwise, it's a bit too hard of an event, and this is kind of ironic because there's really not much to it. It's definitely the least fun out of all of them, but it's not entirely awful. If they would have programmed the upper map thing better, it would have been decent.

Overall California Games has wonderful gameplay with only a few minor details and one event that's kind of worthless. Other than this, there's only one problem I had with the game overall. It's great with a group of friends, but alone it's kind of depressing. It's a fun game, don't get me wrong, but if I had a computer opponent to compete against, at least one, it would have been a lot more enjoyable to me. A "Play Against Computer" option would have been great, adding difficulty and giving the player the chance to watch how you can perform certain moves in certain spots and so forth because during the demo, when the computer does just this, you really see some serious gaming. I would fear playing against such a beast. Still, this doesn't effect the score much for me because it's fun to beat your scores. Plus, there are secrets to discover which can only be unlocked if you get the high score competing in an event, win the bonus game that follows and have put in the proper "secret" name during the character creation phase. I think that evened it out for me in the end. I scored each event separately by myself and then averaged them to get the score you find below.

For it's time California Games was incredibly creative. Really broke new ground for the sports game genre and gave it the attention it deserved. This game is so unique it simply cannot be overlooked by anyone interested in the Master System. If you're only looking for a few titles, this is a highly recommended suggestion to add to a small library. There's plenty of variety to be found here and plenty of fun. There weren't many games like this at the time, and the only other ones I can recall were certainly not as good as this, especially in terms of applying the variety to playability.

I definitely would play this game in the future and have in fact been playing it nearly every day for the past week. Not just to write a thorough review, but simply because it's that much fun. It's a great game and with the addition of team playing and the hidden secrets to unlock, there's no doubt I'll be putting this in the Master System now and then. As far as game length, it's just the right amount because you can technically play as much as you want for as long as you want. There's only a time limit in terms of how much you're given for each event, but that's it. Other than this, you could play for hours or minutes, it's up to you.

In conclusion, there is no doubt in mind that California Games is one of the greatest sports titles in history. After playing it on the SMS, there's no wonder in my mind as to why this title was ported to nearly every system in existence and even led to a sequel. If only Epyx could have did a better job with later titles. It's a shame for them, but not for us because we have this to play. In addition, for those of you interested in the collecting aspect of the Master System, there is a rare re-release of California Games with a different label. Quite hard to locate and an additional bonus for anyone interested in playing and collecting.

Graphics:	10
Sound:	10
Gameplay:	9.5
Creativity:	10
Replay Value/Game Length:	10
Final:	9.8
Written by Stan	Review Guide

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