All-Star Baseball 2003

"Overall = Poor"

You would really expect a lot more from this game. You would think that with the way the graphics look, all the extra features, and everything else, that the game would at least be entertaining. It's actually boring and not fun at all.

This game play is really the biggest upset of all. The pitching system was fairly simple. You choose a pitch, press X, and throw it. You determine where the pitch goes and after about five innings or so, the pitchers speed begins to lack because he is tired. Not too bad. The fielding system is alright too. Go to the circle on the ground and press O, X, Square, or Triangle to determine what base to throw to. Pretty simple. Now, this is the part where the game play is just.....luck. The batting system. Your batter steps to the plate, the pitcher throws the ball. You try to move the small triangle to where the ball is going within about half a second and try to press X in that time. The batting system is mostly luck. If you don't have the hit triangle close to where the ball is, you will probably miss. You have almost no time to move that little box anywhere because the pitch comes so fast, and even if you are able to move it, you probably won't get the swing off in time. It is also hard to tell if a pitch will be a ball or not. Since after the original ball spot is placed, in the next half a second(the one you have to swing) the ball is moved slightly up or down, or to the right or left. The batting system is just really bad, and is where the game lacks its quality.

The graphics were average-good. The player details were similar to the faces of real life players to some extent(at the bat and walking to the bat). But in the field all you could really tell was their skin color and some face distortions. When the little box for a player trying to steal a base comes up, the player on base looks nothing like the player that is actually on base, which is kind of a downer. Also, the fans in the stands look like ripped up confetti that was even placed in assorted rows. The stadiums are also pretty close to what they are in real life. The bad factors about the graphics are that in the field the players look nothing like what they are suppose to, and the fans look nothing like fans, or even people at all.

The sound was good. The commentator sounded some what real, and the sounds of the crowd were close to life-like. Their isn't too much to say about the sound factor, except that is was decent, and added some good effect to the game.

One thing that was good about the game, was that you could earn points to unlock things. The points are easily earned however, and any player that saves his points can pretty much unlock anything he wants, as their isn't much challenge in getting the points. Points are given for things like Side Retired, Double Play, Hit, Single, Double, Triple, Home Run. I thought they could have been a bit more challenging to earn, instead of practically having them handed over to you whenever you do something good.

Overall, I think the game could have been a lot better and I was really upset about the poor quality of the game play(mostly directly the batting system) and how the graphics lacked realist features. This is mostly due to the lack of effort put into the game. A lot of the time you can't even tell what the players skin color is, you just see a shadow. If you want to try this game, I suggest renting it. It is definitely not a game to buy. If you do rent it I will predict you stop playing after about two-three hours, and then loose interest due to the face that the batting system is pretty much based on luck.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/25/04