Don Bradman Cricket Jr Announced for PC and Consoles

Cricket fans have been longing for competition in the video game genre, as Big Ant Studios has held a near-monopoly with its Cricket series for over a decade. Enter Don Bradman Cricket Jr, just announced by Tru Blu Games. However, at first glance, it seems less like a serious rival and more like a playful pitch invader dashing around for quick fun.

With chunky, cartoon visuals reminiscent of Roblox, Don Bradman Cricket Jr appears to be positioning itself as an NBA Jam-style take on the summer sport. The only issue is that Big Ant Studios already tried something similar in 2018 with Big Bash Boom. That game featured super-deformed versions of fully licensed BBL and WBBL squads, pyrotechnics on every pull shot, and Fortnite-inspired celebration dances for wickets. It was a solid attempt at making the complicated sport more pick-up-and-play, with our review calling it "a fun, flashy, family-friendly cricket game that’s a bit too light on features to make it a must buy." Big Bash Boom remains a one-off experiment, as Big Ant has focused on its main simulation-style Cricket series, released roughly every two years.

In comparison, Don Bradman Cricket Jr arrives eight years late and without any official team or player licenses, except for the inclusion of Australia's greatest batsman as an unlockable character. By completing a specific in-game challenge, players can drop the Don into the otherwise generic Australian team and gain access to a bonus minigame recreating his famous training exercise of knocking a golf ball into a water tank using a stump as a bat.

Elsewhere, Don Bradman Cricket Jr offers a fairly basic feature set, with unlicensed tournaments, a challenge mode, and split-screen support for two players. Not much is known about the gameplay, but the developers promise that batting will ensure "no two shots are ever truly the same," despite the announcement trailer showing multiple versions of the same pull shot through mid-wicket.

Still, this could be a bit of fun for younger cricket fans when it launches on PC, PlayStation Store, Xbox Store, and Nintendo eShop. No release date has been given for Don Bradman Cricket Jr, but according to Tru Blu Games, it's coming soon.