I’m a big fan of sports management sims and for many years now, my top title in that genre has been Solecismic Software’s Front Office Football and Front Office Football: The College Years. But I’ve found a new favorite.
Wolverine Studios, home to Gary Gorski, has a pair of titles that are genuinely addictive. Total College Basketball, despite the lack of an official NCAA license, puts a real flame to the feet of 2K Sports’ College Hoops 2K7, in terms of the depth of its coaching career mode and its sim features. Sure, it’s a 2D sim and lacks the 3D flash of College Hoops, but when it comes to sports management game play, this is the title that is the Coaster Furniture of the videogame world. Just as Coaster delivers small, practical, compact furniture solutions at a reasonable price, so does Wolverine deliver small, practical, company sports management sims on PC at a reasonable price.
Then there’s the soon-to-be-released update of Total Pro Basketball 2005… it’s gonna be called Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball. It has a load of new features that weren’t in TPB, and is to pro basketball what TCB is to college sports sims.
Hey, Gorski even put out Total Pro Golf, which strips out the 3D stuff and offers a career mode that’s just as fascinating as anything found in Tiger Woods PGA games. Sure, it’s a bit retro, but it’s fun and plays way faster than Tiger Woods PGA. I still have gridiron appreciation for Solecismic, but Wolverine Studios is a new name to watch for fans of this genre.
