EA Sports Cross Country Video Game

You could add in a track and field portion to this game, hire New coaches that would have their own attributes salaries and attitudes... you could recruit kids from high school to make your teams better, have relay races... I think if this were done right it could be fun, some events would involve button making, others not so much...

Will Spaghetti wrote:

This would only be fun if it were like Mario Kart and/or comically violent. I want to shank a guy 100m before the finish and outkick him.

LOL

Somebody should just hack / mod Pokemon Red or Blue

*Instead of training and battling Pokemon you can train runners.

*Instead of having trainers Ash and his rival, it will be Salazar and Schumacher

*Instead of choosing between Charmander, Squirtle or Bulbasaur at the beginning of the game you choose between Ritz, Webb, or Hall.

*Travel to different villages to discover the best untapped young African talents.

*The potions and elixers can be TUEs, EPO, etc.

*Each gym leader can be a diamond league meet

*The hospitals can offer massages, hyperbaric chambers, altitude tents, etc

*The Brojos can replace Team Rocket.

*Bekele, the GOAT, can be Mew.

*The legendary birds can be Ovett, Coe, and Cram.

I.... I don't even know what to say to this...

Why not just hook the game up to a treadmill, and you have to run to play - EA could make it a fitness thing. Higher levels make the opponents harder, there could be online races, challenges, etc.

It might go along well with the kinect, wii fit, and/or whatever Sony has for it's playstation which I cannot think of right now.

The problem would be the treadmill requirement. Only people with treadmills could play it, so it might not sell or be profitable.

There are open-source Kart games out there that could be easily modded to replace the karts with runners. The powerups can be replaced with various kinds of dope.

My company is working on this. An interactive app called Virtual Runner. Works with any treadmill, iPad or tablet. We're partnering with a number of national marquee races. Here's an brief example of what you'll see:

http://outsideinteractive.com/new-balance-falmouth-road-race-trailer/

Brogan2 wrote:

Why not just hook the game up to a treadmill, and you have to run to play - EA could make it a fitness thing. Higher levels make the opponents harder, there could be online races, challenges, etc.

It might go along well with the kinect, wii fit, and/or whatever Sony has for it's playstation which I cannot think of right now.

The problem would be the treadmill requirement. Only people with treadmills could play it, so it might not sell or be profitable.

The other problem would be that people could just turn on their treadmill and let it run without actually running a step.

There's an easy way around that. The only thing you could not do is avoid having someone else who is faster run for you.

If I could get this hooked up to a treadmill,

I would probably run on a treadmill more. Think golden tee: treadmill in a bar w/ beer mile mode. Set PR's/CR's at your local "jogHero" console.

1980's turtle blood mode v. Soviet Russia mode. etc.

I'm thinking a mashup between mario kart and tony hawks pro skater.

Your character could have an endurance meter at the top and a surge bar and it's up to you to control the pace and surges so you use up as much as possible without running out. You could also have various stats like fast start, wind resistance, finishing kick, fast recovery etc that would increase as you progress through the career mode, which would be like THPS only you start as a hobbyjogger, make the HS team, make the college team, then go pro. Levels would be various races and you can play them however many times you want, unlocking goals that increase your stats and make you better. You need to be able to run over a bonus square and get random upgrades throughout the level like sudden surge, refill your endurance meter, yell insults to other racers that hurts their endurance meter, etc. Your wind resistance stat would make it harder to be the lead runner, so there could also be some tactics involved as well. The courses could have obstacles where you could fall down or single track where you can't pass anyone, which could also lead to some tactics.

If marketed well it could be popular but unlikely to ever happen.

You would have to make it, like previously stated, a game of managing/coaching. It would all be mini-games that revolved around recruiting/training/racing. Put together a list of the top 500 XC Athletes in NCAA history. Then, go from house to house recruiting the likes of Derrick, Cheserek, Prefontaine, Ritz, Lindgren, etc with a limited amount of time/resources. Choose from any D-1 college or create your own team. Train your all-stars, and then rapidly press 'X' for 30 minutes as they slog through a 10k course. Upload your own HS/College stats and create a character that looks like yourself, so you can go head to head with the back of the pack for NCAA glory that will last a lifetime.

Another option, make it like NFL Blitz, and have ridiculous options like Minotaurs and roller-derby girls to choose from, and then just fight it out in the chute, while all the skinny college XC boys are torn limb from limb. Add a limited amount of weapons along the course, thus making speed still important. 5 players still required to score, thus, surviving becomes part of the strategy to win.

Will Spaghetti wrote:

This would only be fun if it were like Mario Kart and/or comically violent. I want to shank a guy 100m before the finish and outkick him.

or if it was like SSX3, the snowboarding game. You start the race and you just fling your arms around trying to hit someone. Each time you pass someone your little bar goes up, and when it gets full you can 'surge'. Lol that would be hilarious. Have special unlock able costumes like flaming head or astronaut helmet. That would be so fun.

Race mode could be any race on a track or something. Freestyle (halfpipe) would be field events, lol. Then doing mountain runs or races would be xc. The whole game would take place in like Boulder or Portland (Oregon Track Club). Idk that would be so fun

Surprised no one brought up the old NES power pad.

I could see a "course cutting for Boston" aspect introduced into the game, ranging from the easy courses (Disney World Marathon) to the more difficult - crossing all the mats while still cutting at New York City.

We don't want a camera showing scenery while we're running. We want competition!! It should be hooked up to a treadmill and you compete in seasons. The difficulty determines the amount of speed assist you get. Maybe you start in high school and the hardest difficulty is having no speed assistance....So you will have to be a 15 min 5k runner to be at the front....But if you choose an easier difficulty, you could have it speed adjust so running a 19 or 20 min 5k could translate to running 15 min in the game. It would be something where you make it as hard as you want to make it for it to be fun and motivational.

Then you try to get a college scholarship and eventually try and make it as a professional. Between seasons, it could have a requirement where you have to log 100 miles or something on the treadmill before you can start the next season. This could be considered off/pre season training.

You could unlock legendary runners by fulfilling particular achievements like setting a course record or winning conference. Once you unlock all of the legendary runners, you are able to compete in a separate special event called the Legendary Showdown. An exhibition race against all of the best runners in history. It would be a fun gimmick. You could customize the appearance of your runner and choose from several different running strides to make your runner unique.

So much could be done with this.

You will be able to compete against anyone around the world on an augmented reality version of the real course. You will be able to see them as avatars on the course. And video speed and incline will be able to be controlled. What's more, it is in partnership WITH the race so it will count in a new category. A little patience please ;) It's taken almost 5 year to get to this point. The suggestions you have are great ones, but putting them from idea to functioning product is no simple task. Thanks for the suggestions though. I agree there is a lot that can be done with this. It is the future.

There should definitely be a Cross Country Video Game. A good title would be based off of the 2K series but with a twist, CC 5K '15. You could get unlockable characters and fabled coaches and high school students. I have many more ideas

Ritz would win