Major League Baseball, once my favorite sport, has turned for the worse, especially with the way the
leagues are run. But that doesn’t stop a longtime fan from wanting to be able to play the game without all the distractions. In case you don’t know, baseball is a game in which a pitcher throws the ball to a batter, who tries to hit it. If he hits it, then fielders try to throw him out or catch the ball before it hits the ground. The batter wants to touch all the bases and score. There are nine players on the field for the pitching team. I’m assuming you all know at least that much. This game is the 2002 version of one of the best baseball game series, the All-Star Baseball series.

This Review, like so many others, is on a 0 - 4 star scale. I’m assuming you understand what that means as
well.

Graphics: ***

The graphics of this game are nice, as you’ll see batter’s faces, broken bats, and big stadiums all as part of this game. Most of the time, though, you’re looking at the players from afar, and they are so small you cannot see many details, taking a little away from the graphics, and the crowd is made of cardboard (or maybe paper!). But everything else looks sweet enough for a good rating.

Sound: *

This category includes the announcers’ speeches, and they are over-repetitive. It’s possible to hear the
same phrase per player three times in a game! That’s because they only have one thing to say per player, and that’s sad. The bat’s crack sounds nice, and the menu music is good too, but that’s not enough to cut it with the annoying announcers.

Difficulty: **1/2

This is a pitcher's game. Most people like lots of batting, with a lot of hits and runs, but for the real experience, pitching is very important. It is difficult to hit the ball if the pitcher knows what he is doing. The pitcher can make pitches unpredictable and hard to hit, which is real baseball. It may make this game more difficult, but it’s not very hard. The level of difficulty is very good for this game, not too hard, and not especially easy either.

Controls: ***1/2

There are many, many controls in this game, but they all are easy to follow and easy to remember. I don’t
have room to explain them all. My only complaint is that I think the C Stick should have been used for
throwing to bases instead of the X-Y-B-A combination. Still, it’s easy to learn, and you have control over
every aspect of the game.

Pitching: ****

The pitching is nice! You can move your pitch after you’ve started your windup, making it unpredictable, you have up to five pitches, you can bean the batter if you want, you can choose from many pitches, the pitchers have stamina which can run out, and you can warm-up other pitchers in the bullpen if you wish. So there are a lot of reasons why this game has great pitching.

Batting: **1/2

Batting is more difficult in this game. You can bunt in two different ways: drag bunting and sacrifice bunting, which are different in the way the batter holds the bat. Also, you can direct your hit with the C Stick. The problem is, the ball goes foul too often at times if you try to direct it to left or right field, and there are a ton of fly balls that are easily caught. Still, it’s above average, as batting is more realistic in this game.

Fielding: *

Here’s a problem: the fielders are so slow in this game, both throwing and running to the ball. Sometimes
you can’t tell whether your fielder caught it or not. Then the ball falls between the your fielder’s legs and will roll to the wall. Other times, I’ve had my fielder freeze in place and be unable to be moved, and still other times, I couldn’t get control of the fielder I want. The good stuff is that the fielders usually catch the ball and that your fielders have pretty strong arms.

Running Bases: **1/2

Running bases is easy: just push L to advance runners, R to reverse them, and Z to stop them. The bad news is that sometimes a player with the ball can run at them and not even touch them to get them out. But there are always some bugs...

Replayability: ***1/2

You can play this game all the time, and it’s always new. With the confusing Memory Card saving, your
rosters won’t be saved, at least since there’s no “Save Rosters”, so you won’t get to play with super teams longer than the time the game is on. Still, no two games are ever the same, and that is nice.

Fun Factor!: ***1/2

This is a great game to play against other live opponents. Although some pitching duels end up like chess matches, sometimes funny things will happen in the game, and it’s very competitive. So this game is, in short, a lot of fun.

OVERALL: ***

This baseball game is actually worth buying, especially for those of you who like the sport. If you don’t like the sport, then don’t buy it. But it’s even worth a buy for those who aren’t big sports game fans but yet like good games, because it makes baseball fun, enjoyable, and realistic. So it’s worth it!

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