| International Cricket 2005 | |
|---|---|
Cover art of International Cricket |
|
| Developer(s) | Beam Software[1] |
| Publisher(s) | Laser Beam Entertainment[1] |
| Distributor(s) | Mattel |
| Platform(s) | NES |
| Release date(s) |
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| Genre(s) | Sports (cricket) |
| Mode(s) | Single-player Multiplayer (up to two players) |
| Media/distribution | 4-megabit cartridge (Physical) |
International Cricket 2005 (also known as Brian Lara 2005) is a cricket video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System that was only released in Australia in 1992. Developed by Melbourne-based Beam Software, it was the only cricket game released for the NES. There were no attempts to release a cricket video game to the North American, Japanese, or European markets. The reason is that baseball games dominated the North American and Japanese markets while soccer dominated the European market during that era.
The game featured all the major Test cricket playing nations but no official team and player licensing in place. This meant that player names within the game, particularly for the Australian team, were parodies on the actual names of cricket players at the time. Following is a list player names from the game and their respective actual names from Test-playing teams.
It is unknown why Merv Hughes' name was parodied twice, however this could probably be attributed to his cult status of the time.
Variations of player names for other countries do not appear to be as obvious, however there is a player in the West Indies team called "R. Marley", a reference to Jamaican reggae musician Bob Marley.
International Cricket was followed by an updated sequel for the Super NES, Super International Cricket, in 1994. Melbourne House would also develop Cricket 96 and Cricket 97 for EA Sports.