It crushes me to say that Sports Story was the most disappointing game of 2022.
Back in March of 2021, I made a video detailing 7 affordable games that I felt were worth your time, and among those games was Golf Story, a very fun indie golf RPG that captivated me when it was released back in 2017. Wearing its handheld Mario Golf influences on its sleeve, Golf Story managed to surpass its inspirations through refined golfing mechanics, clever writing, and really unique and entertaining scenarios that push the sport of golf to its limits. I loved this game so much that I bought a vinyl copy of the soundtrack. So, as I’m sure you can imagine, I’ve been eagerly anticipating the release of Sports Story, the much more ambitious follow-up to Golf Story. The game had been unfortunately delayed a few times over the next couple of years, but when the game surprise launched on December 23rd, I purchased it frame 1. And, having played it, it absolutely crushes me to say that Sports Story is one of the most disappointing games that I’ve played in a while. I hope that this Sports Story review is helpful to you. Thanks so much for watching!
00:00 – Intro
00:51 – Sports Mechanics
05:02 – Fetch Questing & Progression
09:06 – Tennis Academy & Pacing
10:14 – Leveling & Stat Customization
12:04 – Sports Licenses
13:57 – Golf Ball System
14:47 – Writing & Presentation
15:41 – Glitches, Performance Issues & Softlocks, Oh My!
18:25 – Conclusion
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I wanna ask, did Golf Story really surpassed the mechanics of Mario Golf Advance Tour on the GBA? Because that game and Toadstool Tour have the amazing button combination for Topspins, Backspins and their Super versions that give more depth to the game than just an 2 A presses in the marked spots that I see when looking at footage of Golf Story and Sports Story
Thanks for watching! Did you play Sports Story? if so, what did you think?
I think all this video did was make me put Golf Story higher on my backlog priority list. This game seems like another example of doing so much that you do so little. It's normally better to focus on the one objective, because then you'll have a better chance of doing it right instead of doing a little of everything and having them all come out subpar.
this hurts to hear 🙁
Excellent review. By the way, you were more right than you probably knew about cut content. We found entire sections of the games sitting around in out of bounds, finished but unplayable. Although it sounds like you didn't make it there, the final area of the game is weirdly skipped over in game, but can be accessed by the use of some glitches. Things like that really bum me out, as I think Sidebar either was forced to push out this game before it was ready or gave up on finishing it after it grew too big for them to hold together.
Very nice review! I totally agree with p much all of your points in here.
I was one of the fellow unfortunate souls who originally played golf story, loved it, and had to endure the agonizing 3 year wait for sports story, only for it to turn out the way it has.
While obviously an issue that should be addressed, I could’ve ignored the game’s countless bugs. And while a better/more comprehensive story sure would’ve made the game more fun, it’s something I still could’ve liked it well enough without.
The thing that really ruined the game for me, and something I’m glad you talked in depth about, is how much of a lie the name “sports story” is. While golf (despite being so much worse than it’s predecessor) and tennis get their fair share of appearances and have actual playable matches, I hate how every other sport in game is saved exclusively for generic minigames. Just taking a look at the games original trailer makes it obvious that they intended more, and the games files/oob content confirm that theory (countless references to things like an entire soccer career mode).
Also without going into much detail, because I truly believe this is something you need to experience first hand, the ending to this game is one of the most bewildering things I’ve seen in a game in a long, long, time. I recommend picking the game back up just to fully experience it.
The worst part to me is that I don’t know what sidebar can do to make this right, and I’m not sure if they’ll be able to recover from this hit to their reputation. Ideally they’d fix all major bugs and reimplement any cut content, but that’d take at least a year of extra work for no real gain business wise.
gonna have to stop myself because I could write a 30 page essay on how I feel about this game lol.
Dropped a sub! Looking forward to your next post.
Loved the Review Mark! and Early congrats on 1k Subs!
Just so you know, you're definitely not alone thinking you had to throw the TV's
This video encapsulates ALL my feelings about this game. God I loved Golf Story so much, but the constant progression breaking bugs and the weird cut content that doesnt make sense to the overall story just hurt my soul. It is making me want to go back and replay the original game all the way through since I havent replayed it since it first came out, so itll be a fun fresh replay.
Do you think this game will have free DLC and more patches in the future? If so, would they fix the issues painfully present in the base game?
Love these videos. ❤️ Always have a blast listening to these because its very informative and you put alot of effort into these things.
Golf Story tho might give it a shot
Bought this on 12/23, got stuck after 8 hours and multiple crashes. Couldn’t play again until 1/6 when they patched it, which was met with tons of glitches, crashes, and parts I had to force quit and restart. Finally beat it tonight and it was extremely underwhelming. As a huge fan of Golf Story, this was such a disappointment. I want to love this game, but the bugs and glitches make it so hard to enjoy it fully. That and just the complete lack of polish and direction.
Totally agree, and it really blows that this is the follow up to the near perfect golf story. The fact they made the golfing worse in this, is just so disappointing. Also love the channel, it is like a good version of mine lmao
I’m playing through it now and it’s…fine. I’ve fortunately had no game breaking bugs. Whenever I’ve thrown stuff that I need to place it has always respawned…although maybe the patch fixed that. It’s no Golf Story and it does feel disjointed but I’m having a decent time so far.
I don’t have much to say besides that I also really hoped they followed through on the promise this game had. I heard that it was really rough from someone who bought the game early, and it gave me pause to wait for possible fixes or a price drop down the line. After seeing the full scale of how the game turned out from this video, it’s made me lose interest in picking it up at all, and I think that’s a real shame. Seems pretty clear the production of the game had too many hiccups after the radio silence in the initial delay into basically releasing it with zero fanfare.
Great video essay Mark!
Perfect review of this game honestly!
The disappointment in this game is immeasurable D: