All-Star Baseball 2003

"A frustrating and sometimes boring game..."

At a glance, All-Star Baseball 2003 looks to be an excellent game. It has gorgeous graphics, a franchise mode & other cool gameplay modes, and bunch of cool little extras. However, once played, the game's flaws are apparent.

Sound: 9/10
The sound effects are excellent & realistic. You can hear the crack of the bat (or the ball hitting the catcher's glove), listen to the crowd roar when a home run is hit, and more. The music is decent as well, but the main title music seems somewhat out of place.

Graphics: 9/10
Everything is overall crisp & clear. The players faces are extremely realistic, and the animations are all fluid. However, there are a few lines and minor inconsistencies here and there.

Gameplay: 5/10
This is where the game takes a nosedive.

The game has the right idea, but executes it poorly. The modes are all excellent ideas, but actual play is extremely frustrating and boring. Everything takes a long time, especially pitching. The only thing that doesn't take forever is batting, which happens to fast. You bat with a cursor, and you're given about half a second to line up the cursor with the ball and swing, which is extremely frustrating.

The roster management is only mediocre. There are a lot of options, but they aren't as simple as other baseball games make them. For example, you have 4 different lineups, which is pretty annoying. The CPU also randomly changes your lineup during the season. Trades are also somewhat annoying to do, as the menus are a little bit confusing.

The modes of the game are pretty neat, however. Franchise mode allows you to play as one team for up to 20 seasons. You can watch your players retire, get inducted into the Hall of Fame, and more. There are also basic exhibition modes, an All-Star Game, a single-season mode (with different season lengths), batting practice, and a Home Run Derby. However, other baseball games offer these modes (with the exception of Franchise) as well, and these innovative modes don't make up for the horrible gameplay.

Control: 8/10
The controls are a little challenging to use. Batting & fielding is easy enough, but baserunning is somewhat difficult to do. Some of the selection screens are a little awkward as well. However, the controls are responsive and accurate.

Replay Value: 6/10
The game has a lot of little extra features, like collectible cards which unlock new stadiums and more, trivia games, and the aforementioned various modes. However, to earn these cards, you have to play the game, which is why this game has such a low replay value. If you can actually stand to play this game then the value would go up drastically, but the gameplay is quite horrible therefore it's not worth trying to get the cards.

Overall: 6/10
The game's good sound, excellent graphics, and innovative modes of play do not make up for it's horrible gameplay. A much better choice for your PlayStation 2 baseball game would be High Heat 2003, which is really only missing the franchise mode. I've heard that All Star Baseball 2003 is a huge improvement over 2002, and I shudder to think about how horrible 2002 must have been.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 04/06/02, Updated 04/06/02