Sculptured Software

Sculptured Software at a Glance

Sculptured Software operated from Salt Lake City, Utah between 1986 and 2015. The company started as an independent developer in the mid-eighties before becoming part of Acclaim Entertainment in late 1995. Their catalog on PlayPile contains 40 titles, with 39 listed as developer credits and one as a publisher. While they released over 50 games historically, their most recent activity appears to be Battle Chess: Game of Kings from December 2015. The bulk of their output occurred in the 1990s when they produced 28 titles, compared to just 11 in the 1980s and a single release in the 2010s. Their portfolio is heavily skewed toward sports games, which account for 17 of their listed projects. They also focused on fighting games with seven entries and platformers with six. Their work spanned many systems, though the Super Nintendo Entertainment System saw the most activity with 17 games. DOS and Commodore platforms also saw significant releases with 11 and 10 titles respectively. Sega Mega Drive and NES rounds out their top five supported consoles. Quality varies widely across their library. The average IGDB rating stands at 61.1 based on 18 rated titles. Only one game scored above the 80 mark, which is Ninja from 1986. Eight other titles achieved good ratings between 60 and 79. However, eight games received mixed scores in the 40 to 59 range. One entry falls into the poor category with a score below 40. Their later wrestling titles show a dip in quality, including WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game at 31.2 and WWF In Your House at 53.5. Other notable releases include WWF Raw (1994), Eliminator Boat Duel (1991), and two Star Wars games from the early nineties that scored in the low seventies. The company changed names and structure several times after being acquired by Acclaim. They operated under the Sculptured Software name until 1999 before becoming Acclaim Studios Salt Lake City. This new iteration focused on wrestling games like ECW Hardcore Revolution and Legends of Wrestling II before closing in December 2002. Their final output included a few sports titles that did not match the high scores of their early work.

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