All-Star Baseball 2001

"The best baseball game ever?"

This game is a little difficult a first because the controls are very different compared to most baseball games. Once you get past that the game is a great game.
The reason this game is so great is it is very realistic you can swing for power or contact, control whether you pop the ball up or hit a ground ball, control if you push or pull the ball. In this game the wind actually effects your hits.
Some of the coolest things are manually robbing home runs. Manually sliding so you can slide are tags or even collide with catcher and knock the ball out of his glove. Another great feature the game has is guessing the opponents pitch and the location of it. If you play a season there is all star voting daily homer charts and farm teams three major things other games don't include. Another great thing is the hot/cold streaks and the box that shows what locations he hits well and what locations he hits poorly from. In All Star Baseball 2001 you actually have to warm-up the pitcher and the pitchers have hot and cold streaks too and the actually lose stamina as the game goes on and start missing the locations.
Some of the downfalls are Home Run Derby is dumb once you hit one and figure out a good way to leave the yard you almost have to try to not hit one out. Your pitcher is ejected if he hits 3 batters and they don't even show it happen. Most pop flies get way to much hang time. A saved season also takes up virtually a complete memory card.
The first kind of mode is Arcade Quick play witch using settings defaults and play like your in an arcade (less realistic). Next is Quick Play which you go right into a regular game. Then there is MLB Play which you can choose stadium line-up, and a that other junk. In MLB play you also choose exhibition Season or playoffs. The you can play home run derby pick any player and any stadium including the cornfields at Cooperstown. Next is Batting practice take a few cuts at the ball with any player pick what pitch the pitcher can and cannot throw. The following selection is General Manager which lets you trade, draft, create players, and adjust line-ups and other things like that.
Next is Statistics which is the actual stats of players from the past season. After that is Game options which lets you choose from wind or no wind errors on or off number of innings and that stuff. Last is Load Game where you load a saved season or game.
All in all ASB 2001 is one of the best baseball games ever.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/27/01, Updated 06/27/01