Actua Sports is a sports video game series published by Gremlin Interactive which competed with Electronic ArtsEA Sports label during the second half of the 1990s, until Gremlin was acquired by Infogrames. The term "Actua" is a play on Sega's line of "Virtua" titled games, which included Virtua Fighter, Virtua Racing and Virtua Striker. The first game in the series was the 1995 milestone title, Actua Soccer, which quickly became one of the most important titles for the company. It was later joined by the rebirth of the Premier Manager franchise and the club version of Actua Soccer. In 1996, the first non-football game was released, Actua Golf, followed by the sequels Actua Soccer 2 in 1997, now endorsed by EnglishinternationalAlan Shearer and Premier Manager 98. The third installment in the Actua Soccer series and the Ninety-Nine edition of Premier Manager followed in 1998, the year a new title debuted in the series: Actua Ice Hockey, the officialvideo game of the Nagano Olympic Games ice hockey tournament, followed by Actua Tennis in the same year. While the series died shortly after Gremlin was acquired by Infogrames, some of the games had further titles developed: PGA European Tour Golf and UEFA Challenge, both developed by the now Sheffield House, were published in 1999 and 2002 respectively, and the rights of the Premier Manager franchise were acquired by Zoo Digital Publishing.
Titles
''Actua Soccer'' (1995)
The first title's biggest claim to fame was its full 3D graphicsengine, used for the first time in a home console football game ; although other console games had used a 3D field, players were commonly still 2Dsprites but in Actua Soccer players were polygonal. The game was developed with close ties to a local football club Sheffield Wednesday: their players provided hints to the programmers, and three players, Chris Woods, Graham Hyde and Andy Sinton, also served as motion capture models. Actua Soccer featured only national teams, with squads of 22 players from each of 44 national sides, However a follow up version with English Premier League teams named Actua Soccer: Club Edition was released in 1997 using 20 players from the 20 Premier League teams from 1996/97. The Actua Soccer match engine was also used to display matches in Premier Manager 64. The first game was a bestseller in the UK, where it was backed by what journalists called "the most expensive advertising campaign ever mounted for a console game." Tommy Glide of GamePro, while criticising the game's lack of flashy special moves and mild sound effects, deemed it the most well-rounded PlayStation soccer game to date, saying it offered a good combination of FIFA's deep strategy andGoal Storms sharp visuals and accessibility.
''Actua Golf'' (1996)
Actua Golf is a sports video game developed by Gremlin Interactive for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. It was released in 1996.
''Actua Soccer 2'' (1997)
Actua Soccer 2, once again included national teams, but a more polished engine, the full Italian Serie A league, and a new "scenario" mode assured good sales and mostly positive reviews. It also included a team creator mode, which enabled the player to make up to 128 custom teams. Barry Davies was joined by Trevor Brooking on the commentary, and the game featured England football team captain and striker Alan Shearer not only on the cover, but also providing interviews about the game in the press. Michael Owen and Simon Tracey provided motion capture for the players. The game also featured menu music and a cameo appearance from Welsh rockers, Super Furry Animals, which could only can be unlocked after entering a cheat code. Actua Soccer 2 was also bundled with Creative Technology's Voodoo 2 graphic cards, which helped to achieve widespread distribution and popularity.
''Actua Golf 2'' (1998)
Actua Golf 2, also developed by Gremlin Interactive for the PlayStation and Microsoft Windows, was released in 1998. Actua Golf 2 received mixed reviews. Aggregating review website GameRankings gave the PC version 70.50% and the PlayStation version 38.75%.
Actua Tennis was developed by Gremlin and released on PlayStation in 1998 and Windows PC in 1999. A Saturn version was also announced, but never released. The game featured players which were motion captured from real tennis players and commentary by Sue Barker and Barry Davies.
''Actua Soccer 3'' (1998)
Actua Soccer 3 arrived in late 1998. For the first time, both club and national teams were present, plus other teams and various joke teams. While its predecessor had been criticised for the absence of club teams, Actua Soccer 3 featured a total of 25 leagues with 450 national and international teams, more than any game of the time except the earlier Sensible World of Soccer as well as over 10000 players. The graphics used a slightly improved version of the Actua Soccer 2 engine with much improved weather effects. Trevor Brooking was replaced by Martin O'Neill as Barry Davies' commentary partner. "Let Me Entertain You" by Robbie Williams was the only ingame soundtrack, while the classical operatic theme Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni was played during the game's introduction video. A port for the Nintendo 64 was planned but canceled after six months in development due to poor sales of the game Body Harvest for the platform.
''Pool Shark'' (1999)
Pool Shark was developed by Gremlin for PlayStation and Windows in 1999. The game was also released under the name Actua Pool. A sequel was developed in Europe in 2004 for the PlayStation 2 and Windows under the name Pool Shark 2 by Blade Interactive It was not a part of the Actua series as the series had ended years prior, and Gremlin had closed. In 2007, a port of Actua Pool was released for the Nintendo DS, named Underground Pool in North America.
''Actua Ice Hockey 2'' (1999)
Actua Ice Hockey 2 was developed by Gremlin Interactive for the PlayStation and Windows in 1999. It was originally intended to be Fox Sports Hockey and was being developed by Gremlin for Fox Interactive, who had obtained an NHL license. Just over half way through development, Fox pulled out taking the NHL license with it. Above the objections of some of the developers, development of the game continued. All references to NHL were changed to GHL, all player names were modified by substituting vowels, player faces were randomized and a whole new front-end was developed.
''Actua Golf 3'' (1999)
Actua Golf 3 was developed by Gremlin Interactive and released on the PlayStation in 1999. The game received an average score of 70.50% at GameRankings, based on an aggregate of 2 reviews.
