I've never liked sports games. You can probably attribute this to the fact that I've never cared that much for sports in the real world. I'm bad at them. Really bad, so I don't play them. You can still be a sports fanatic even if you don't play yourself, but that never happened to me. Because I've never had that keen an interest in sports, I've never learned the finer points of the games - the players' names, the stats, the little details that cause perfectly normal people to holler like Neolithic goons as soon as they sit their butts down in the bleachers. I think that's my main disadvantage with sports-related games. I don't know any of the strategies, I don't know which player is good for what, and I don't want to know. Most PC sports games are filled to the brim with important yet uninteresting statistics. Many even assume that you know the game, which I feel is being a little pushy. Instead of providing me with some form of vindication, sports games tend to remind me that I don't know what the hell I'm doing and should stop.
The basic principle behind most sports and sports games is something I can appreciate. Grabbing some form of semi-spherical object and causing it to enter into a goal-like apparatus is not a concept that is beyond me. In fact, I kinda like it. It's all these damn rules, fouls, and strategies that keep screwing me up. (It's my personal belief that a foul ball should be considered fair if you succeed in hitting it really really far, because that's all I want to do in the first place.)
When someone first told me of 3D Cyber Puck, I was not exactly overwhelmed with curiosity. They described it as being "sort of like a first-person hockey game. You'll like it." My initial reaction was, "I will? It doesn't sound like I will. Why would I?" But it was shareware, and I have a moral obligation to look at any and all shareware I can get my hands on, because hey, it's free. I expected Cyber Puck to last about five minutes on my hard drive. Now the registered version's there, and it's not leaving anytime soon.
3D Cyber Puck is indeed something like a one-on-one first-person hockey game. The big difference is that I hate hockey and I love Cyber Puck. The rules of the game are very simple. You have a guy and your opponent has a guy; you have a goal and your opponent has a goal; there is only one puck, so you'll have to share; make the puck go in your opponent's goal while keeping it out of your own. That's pretty much it. No superstitious foul calls, no archaic rituals involving bubble gum and buttock slapping. Attack and defend, and that's all there is to it. A sports nut would say that this is far too simple, that you need complicated stats and rules to argue over. May they forever play Microleague Baseball and have a good time with it.
You move around in Cyber Puck in first person, much the way you do in Doom and its family. Like Doom, the 3D engine is quick and very smooth. Imagine running around a large room in Doom trying to catch a moving object and you've got the idea. When one player grabs the puck, the other player can punch him to make him drop the ball, which promptly speeds away at a random angle. The player holds the ball by means of an electromagnetic force, and each punch you take weakens that point until you lose the puck. You'll have to defend against this happening to you, but the answer to that doesn't lie on the playing field.
At the start of the game and after every match (which ends as soon as someone amasses five points) you get to spend money in the shop. Like John Belushi said as he drove through a mall in "The Blues Brothers," "This place has got everything!" You start off with a little money, and earn much more by winning matches (or by scoring goals if you should happen to lose the overall match). The most crucial items to stock yourself with are the power-ups. You can spend money to increase your punch strength, increase the magnetic hold you have on the puck (making it harder to knock out of your possession), boost your speed, decrease the amount of drag associated with carrying the puck, and so on. You can also pick up items you can deploy during the game. If you're racing towards the goal but your opponent is right behind you and punching like crazy, drop a wall behind you to block his path. Place a gravity well to attract the puck to a certain part of the playing field. There's even a "panic button" item which lets you disrupt all magnetic fields on the level, making your opponent lose the puck even if he's halfway across the court.
3D Cyber Puck is my kind of sports game--simple and immediately playable. The shareware version is a lot of fun, but registering for the paltry sum of $30 gives you a whole slew of new levels to play on, many of which are twisted, depraved, and wonderfully uncooperative. If you like the free version, registering is well worth the money. Cyber Puck is also playable as a two player game over an IPX network. Since this is, at most, a two-player game, you would expect modem and serial cable support too, but these are strangely absent, even from the registered copy. Too bad, because Cyber Puck is at its best as a two-player game, and most people won't get to play it this way. Still, this is a unique use of the current first-person craze, and it's great fun even against the computer. Play it. It'll make you smile.
