All-Star Baseball 2002

"All Star Baseball? More like Utility Infielder."

NOTICE: The following review uses some baseball terms which some who are not familiar with the sport of baseball may or may not understand.

All Star Baseball far from lives up to its name. Playing this game for more than 2 hours will simply depress you. The crowd is lifeless, the gameplay is repetitive, and the announcers are lame.

Gameplay: The gameplay seems rather tough at first, but you get used to the pitching much quicker than the hitting.

The pitching is not much different than other than any other baseball sim you will find out there. Each pitcher has anywhere from 2-5 pitches, with different skill levels for each pitch. There is a batters "strike-zone" on the screen and you simply choose one of the pitches, and then where you would like to place the pitch. The only difference compared to other baseball titles is the stamina meter. Each pitcher starts with 100 points. Depending on the amount of batters you face, your meter goes down. The lower your meter is, the less speed and control you have on the ball. There is one problem with this system however. The amount of stamina you lose is the same if you pitch 1 pitch or 50 pitches per batter, which is far from realistic. Other than that, the pitching system is good.

The batting is a different story. It is incredibly difficult to hit the ball, even though you are simply matching the ball with the pitcher, but it is easier said than done. The outfielder have incredibly range, so just about any pop-fly to the outfield is caught. The same goes with groundouts to the infield. No players are exceptionally fast, so don't plan on beating out any infield singles. Basically the only way to score is hitting home runs, which is very, very hard unless you use a power hitter. So, overall, hitting is a disappointment.

Game Modes: There are four different types of gameplay: Exhibition, Season, Batting Practice, and Home Run Derby. They are all very self explanitory.

In Exhibition, you simply choose one of the thirty MLB teams or a special team called Cooperstown Legends. This team consists of great players from past years, all complied on one team. After choosing your team, you simply play an exhibition games, with no statistics.

Season mode is by far the deepest of the 4 modes, not surprisingly. You choose your team, length of season, and length of playoff. There are various things to do inside the season mode. You can “Create a Player”, trade players, and sign free-agents. Of course, this is not much different than any other baseball game in the market. The one really good thing is the awards in this game. The game will keep updated the MVP candidates, Golden Glove candidates, and so on throughout the season.

In Batting Practice, you basically just, well, practice. Choose your batter, the pitches the pitcher throws, and the stadium. Nothing to it.
Finally, there is Home-Run Derby. Who ever hits the most home-runs wins. Duh.

Graphics: The graphics in All-Star Baseball 2002 are nothing special, but are solid. The player models are good, but there is not enough differential between the players. For instance, Jim Thome and Albert Puljos look alike, but in real-life they have very different skin tones. The one huge problem with the graphics is the fact that balls that look like they are out of reach of the fielder magically appear in their gloves. This is very frustrating when you hit a long shot to the outfield, looks like a sure double, but then the outfielder catches it magically.

Sounds : This is where the game dies. The announcers only seem to have one interesting fact per batter, and they tell that same fact nearly ever time the batter comes up. This tends to annoy most people by the fifth inning of the first game. Imagine playing a 162 game season. On top of that, the crowd is so quiet; they might as well not be there. And when they actually make noise, they are about three seconds late. My advice: headphones, ear-plugs, or the mute button.

Final Verdict- If you are a diehard baseball fan starving for a cheap baseball game, only buy it if under $5. If you are anything other than who I just mentioned, keep away from this game. Far away.

Score: 5/10

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/14/05