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ACS Sports

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ACS Sports - Logo

The logo for ACS Sports

ACS Sports is a publishing label created by ACS to market the company's sports video game titles throughout most of the 1990s and the early 2000s. First introduced in 1995, ACS Sports has published games based on various popular sports such as soccer/Association football, baseball, basketball, American football, ice hockey, tennis, golf, fishing, boxing and extreme sports, among others. Games under the ACS Sports label have been released for several platforms, including the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo Gamecube, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance and Arcades.

History[]

Prior to creating the ACS Sports label, ACS released various sports titles for the Super Nintendo. These sports games were nothing more than ports of their arcade sports titles originally released for their Supra and Supra³² arcade systems, with the added inclusion of licensed professional athletes, but without any licensed teams, as they were only able to secure licenses from their respective leagues' player's associations (or, in the case of Shaq Attack Basketball (1995), only one pro athlete's license).

Initially a launch title for the PlayStation, World Pro Soccer: The Golden Goal (known in Japan as Mezase! J.League: Dream Goal, and in Europe as World Class Football: The Golden Goal) was released in early 1995 as the inaugural game for the ACS Sports label. It was among the first soccer games on console to feature full 3D graphics. The Winning Kick series would receive several more installments in the coming years, with World Pro Soccer: Golden Goal Prime (2001) showcasing a drastic shift into a far more simulation-oriented style of gameplay.

Around that same time, ACS would obtain the licenses for the "big four" major sports leagues within the United States of America: the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball, to publish what would become known as the "Big 4" series. ACS would release the first game in this series, Major League Baseball: At Bat (which was heavily based on their previous Japan-only title, Moero! Pro Yakyuu: Victory Run) in 1996, with the rest following shortly thereafter.

Maximum Smash Tennis and Perfect Shot Golf would later follow suit, releasing in 1997 and 1998, respectively. Unlike Golden Goal and the Big 4 series, both games initially didn't feature any licensing, though this would change with the release of Maximum Smash Tennis: Pro Tour and Perfect Shot Golf: Pro Links, both of which feature licensed professional players. The console ports of the Angler's Paradise (known in Japan as Fighting Bass) series were also released under the ACS Sports banner, albeit only in North America.

ACS Sports would release their first and only foray into the boxing genre in 1999 with the release of Showtime Championship Boxing. Unlike the other ACS Sports games at the time, development for Showtime Championship Boxing was outsourced to Opus Corp., and was also released as an exclusive launch title for Sega's then-recently released Dreamcast system, making it the first ACS Sports games to not be released for the PlayStation.

ACS Sports games were initially exclusive to the PlayStation. In 1998 and 1999, ACS released several of their Big 4 sports games on the Nintendo 64. However, these are all completely different games compared to their PlayStation originals, developed by a separate development studio. Starting in 2000, ACS Sports would become multiplatform. However, both Maximum Smash Tennis and Perfect Shot Golf still remained as PlayStation exclusives.

From 1995 to 1999, most ACS Sports titles (with the exception of the NFL Rush series) were developed internally by ACS Production Studio Nagoya. Starting in 2000, development work for all of the annual Big 4 titles, including MLB At Bat, NBA Rebound and NHL Full Strength would all be outsourced to various third-party developers. Meanwhile, ACS Production Studio Nagoya would continue development on the brand's other titles.

2000 saw ACS expanding the ACS Sports brand by releasing games based on extreme sports: Both the M-X: Extreme Motocross and Total Extreme Sports series would receive frequent installments from 2000 to 2002. Both franchises were developed by third-party developers, with very little involvement from ACS themselves beyond publishing them.

In 2001, ACS would negotiate a four-year license deal with Fox Sports, allowing their games to utilize realistic Fox Sports-style presentation, as well as featuring Fox Sports broadcasters as in-game commentators. That same year, ACS would expand further on the Big 4 titles' simulation aspects by introducing Commissioner Mode, which allows players to take on the role of general manager, giving players the ability to play multiple seasons, make off-season draft picks, and trade players.

The final game to be released under the ACS Sports label is NHL Full Strength 2005, released in late 2004. Following a significant decline in sales, as well as their subsequent loss of several major sports league licenses, ACS would eventually retire the ACS Sports label shortly thereafter, and would instead opt to publish all of their future sports game releases under the mainline ACS umbrella.

Titles[]

World Pro Soccer: Golden Goal[]

  • World Pro Soccer: Golden Goal: The Arcade (1999; Arcade (ACS TGX2 Modeler System)

MLB At Bat[]

NBA Rebound[]

  • NBA Rebound 2000 (1999; PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color)
  • NBA Rebound 2001 (2000; PlayStation, Dreamcast)
  • NBA Rebound 2002 (2001; PlayStation, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2)
  • NBA Rebound 2003 (2002; PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, Game Boy Advance)
  • NBA Rebound 2004 (2003; PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube)
  • NBA Rebound 2005 (2004; PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube)

NFL Rush[]

  • NFL Football: Rush (1996; PlayStation)
  • NFL Rush ‘98 (1997; PlayStation)
    • Developed by Z-Axis
    • Features rosters based on the 1997 NFL season
  • NFL Rush ‘99 (1998; PlayStation, Nintendo 64)
    • Developed by Z-Axis
    • Features rosters based on the 1998 NFL season
  • NFL Rush 2000 (1999; PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color)
    • Developed by Z-Axis
    • Features rosters based on the 1999 NFL season
  • NFL Rush 2001 (2000; PlayStation, Dreamcast)
  • NFL Rush 2002 (2001; PlayStation, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2)
  • NFL Rush 2003 (2002; PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, Game Boy Advance)
  • NFL Rush 2004 (2003; PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube)
  • NFL Rush 2005 (2004; PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube)

NHL Full Strength[]

  • NHL Full Strength 2000 (1999; PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color)
  • NHL Full Strength 2001 (2000; PlayStation, Dreamcast)
  • NHL Full Strength 2002 (2001; PlayStation, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2)
  • NHL Full Strength 2003 (2002; PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, Game Boy Advance)
  • NHL Full Strength 2004 (2003; PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube)
  • NHL Full Strength 2005 (2004; PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube)

Maximum Smash Tennis[]

Perfect Shot Golf[]

Angler's Paradise[]

Main article: Angler's Paradise

Showtime Championship Boxing[]

M-X: Extreme Motocross[]

Main article: M-X: Extreme Motocross

  • M-X: Extreme Motocross feat. Travis Pastrana (2000; PlayStation, Dreamcast, Game Boy Color)
  • M-X²: Extreme Motocross (2001; PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance)
  • M-X³: Extreme Motocross (2002; PlayStation 2, XBox, Gamecube, Game Boy Advance)

Danny Way’s Total Skateboarding[]

Main article: Total Extreme Sports

  • Danny Way’s Total Skateboarding (2000; PlayStation, Dreamcast, Game Boy Color)
  • Danny Way’s Total Skateboarding 2 (2001; PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance)
  • Danny Way’s Total Skateboarding 3 (2002; PlayStation 2, XBox, Gamecube, Game Boy Advance)

Dennis McCoy’s Total BMX[]

Main article: Total Extreme Sports

Todd Richards’ Total Snowboarding[]

Main article: Total Extreme Sports

  • Todd Richards’ Total Snowboarding (2000; PlayStation, Dreamcast, Game Boy Color)
  • Todd Richards’ Total Snowboarding 2 (2001; PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance)
  • Todd Richards’ Total Snowboarding 3 (2002; PlayStation 2, XBox, Gamecube, Game Boy Advance)

Cover Athletes[]

MLB At Bat[]

NBA Rebound[]

NFL Rush[]

NHL Full Strength[]

Soundtracks[]

Main article: ACS Sports/Soundtracks

See also: M-X: Extreme Motocross/Soundtracks and Total Extreme Sports/Soundtracks

Various games under the ACS Sports label featured several licensed songs from different artists and bands. The genres featured range from hip-hop, to punk, to metal.

Trivia[]

  • The Gamecube release of World Pro Soccer: Golden Goal Prime 2 features support for the Gamecube/Game Boy Advance link cable, allowing it to sync up with World Pro Soccer: Golden Goal Advance to not only sync game progress between both versions, but also to unlock various Gamecube-exclusive features.
  • The MLB At Bat series originally started life as a localized version of the company's Japan-only series, Moero! Pro Yakyuu: Victory Run, replacing teams from the Nippon Professional Baseball league with Major League Baseball teams.
  • NBA legend Michael Jordan, formerly of the Chicago Bulls, was unable to appear in most of the NBA Rebound titles due to licensing issues. In his place was a generic player named "Bulls Guard" who possessed his stats, but not his appearance, profile and jersey number. He would finally make his series debut in NBA Rebound 2002, as part of the Washington Wizards.
  • NFL Rush 2005 was among the last official NFL licensed video games released by a company other than Electronic Arts. The year after its release, the NFL would sign an exclusivity deal with EA, effectively halting production of all licensed NFL games that aren't produced by EA.
  • Notably, NHL Hockey: Full Strength did not feature international hockey teams, nor the ability to fight. Both would eventually be added in the game's sequel, NHL Full Strength ‘98.
  • Select installments of Maximum Smash Tennis and Perfect Shot Golf feature several ACS characters as secret players, who are unlockable either by completion or entering a cheat code.

Gallery[]

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