All-Star Baseball 2003

"Better dust off your old '64 if you want true ASB gameplay..."

As we all know, ports really suck sometimes. Games are rushed and are often not without bugs and various flaws. ASB 2003 is one of these games. While it is overall a good game the control, more specifically the diving and jumping actions are severely screwed up. Again, overall, this IS a good game. The lowdown

Presentation- 10/10

ASB 2003 truly puts 2002 to shame. You can tell just by the opening menus in 2003 that 2002 was rushed. The opening FMV is fabulous, (although I hate NYY, :p) and the menus are easy to navigate. Overall a GREAT presentation.

Graphics- 9/10

It's the same across the board. XBOX>GCN>PS2. The player models look great, but there are a few graphical glitches here and there, but they really don't interfere with the game experience. Overall, great graphics. Nobody likes a graphics whore anyway, right?

Gameplay 6/10

This is where the game bites the dust, sometimes. You'll notice that the instruction manual sayes the 'R' button jumps and the 'L' button dives. However, these cntyrols seem to be transposed, and or work and do not work on various occasions. My point is, good luck trying to dive/jump to get a ball. The batting takes sometime getting used to, but it offers a reqarding experience once mastered. Pitching is really decided on the caliber of the pitcher that is throwing. It's up to fate there. Baserunning is simplistic although the GCN contorller is not best suited for it. If you're a true fan of baseball, the gameplay woes should not hinder your experience.

Audio 8/10

Until gamediscs can offer gigs upon gigabytes of info, you're going to have to deal with repeated commentary. Thom Brennaman does the play-by-play albeit with a few errors, and Steve ''Psycho'' Lyons fills in with the color. Unfortunately Bob Brenly is only heard in the Homerun derby mode. Overall the sounds of the game coincide with what baseball should be.

Rent/buy

If you're a casual baseball fan, you might like homerun king more or some other ''arcadeish'' baseball experience. However, if you truly enjoy basebgall you'd be better off with this simulation.

Final Thought

In light of the oncoming MLB player's trike (not again) the few people that like baseball will have to turn to the parks and games. Although ASB once again has its faults its a good buy for the TRUE fan. Although if you have earlier exclusive to nintendo ASB titles, you'd be better off enjoying those.

NOTE: You will need either a memory card 251 or the much-maligned INTERACT 16X to play the franchise and expansion modes in this game. Apparantly some of INTERACT's cards are faulty but mine works great. If you can afford it, I actually reccomend the 16X. Mine has yet to lose/delete files and you need this card to truly experience this game

FINAL SCORE FOR ASB 2003: 7/10= average.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/18/02, Updated 08/18/02