Home Run King

"Finally! A baseball game that is actually FUN!"

This game is a very pleasant surprise for me, a baseball game that is actually fun to play. Not since Ken Griffey's Slugfest for the N64 have I had this much fun playing a baseball video game.
First off this game has great visuals. The players are modeled very well, and have their actual faces rendered into the game. The animation of the players is also nearly perfect. All of the stadiums are accurate in structure and have very nice background elements. I can only think of one draw back to the overall looks of the game and that would be the crowd, which is pretty sad looking. But how important is the crowd anyway?
The gameplay shines both in the field and at the plate. In the field the play is accurate for the most part. There are occasional instances of the computer not choosing the correct fielder to play the ball, but you can manually switch pretty quick. All of the fielding animations are very cool to watch and are far more realistic and fluid than any other baseball game I have played. Pitching and batting are handled nicely also. Both aspects have the perfect balance of control and luck, which makes it feel very realistic to me. Let's face it, how much fun would hitting a homer every time be? I really appreciate the elements of guessing involved in each format, it truly reflects real baseball. Best of all is the pace of the gameplay. I can finish a game on average in about 45 minutes. Which is far preferable to a drawn out, over-simmed game that can take over an hour or so to complete.
Sound is the only category that takes a hit. The background stadium sounds are average, and bat cracks are sharp. However, the announcing is very dry and very repetitive. It doesn't bother me that much, but it would have been nice to have some solid sound to accompany the great gameplay of this game.
As I have said before this is a very fun baseball game. I believe that the fun factor, great gameplay and awesome graphics give this game exceptional replay value. I am always looking forward to my next game. Hopefully this will be the first in a series and we can look for an upgraded sequel to add some features and better sound to this game. Overall I really don't think you can go wrong with this game, if you like fun baseball over sim type baseball.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/23/02, Updated 04/23/02