HardBall 99

"Easily the worst sports game I have ever played"

Hardball '99 just died when it was released. I bought the game for $3 at a used game store because I always wanted a baseball video game. This was big BIG mistake. This game is silly and outdated. Being created in '98 and on the PS1 you really can't expect much from a game no one knows about. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge baseball fan, it's just compared to any other baseball game, this is right smack at the bottom of the list.

The gameplay is extremely bad, when playing a quick game, you have to pick your teams, then you have to go through 3 screens just to be able to choose your team, (Which is way of your way) not to mention all the loading screens. In the actual game it is quite difficult to hit the ball because you're required to line-up your swing exactly where you think the ball is going to be to make any contact, or else you'll miss it. Once the ball is in play your guys have a very hard time trying to move quickly towards the ball which results in extra bases for the other team. If that isn't bad, the pitching is even worse. You get 4 different types of pitches and not much after the pitch. (It's very difficult to pick runners off or even attempt to) Thus the control of the game is near none and you'll frustrate yourself so much that you'll just stop. Now, you might think that they could improve with the sound, but no.

This game sounds like a singer with a frog stuck in his throat. The talking is done by some monotoned umpire and sounds terrible, it's as if they make all baseball games to be voiced by the same person. The calls that are made sound hoarse and are very hard to make out. There are some songs played in the game, such as the original baseball theme song, which they undoubtedly made bad as well. There are very few pleasant sounds in this game.

If you think that this game couldn't get any worse, you're dead wrong. The AI is perfect on the hard setting and terribly easy on the low setting, it's as if they weren't thinking about people playing this game when they had the setting in mind. After all, this is their only Hardball game that they did make so it's not like they ran out of time, in fact they had all the time in the world!
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And wouldn't you know it, they also managed to create the worst graphics in the history of the Playstation era. Character models are all the same, it doesn't matter if their white, black, orange, pink or yellow, EVERYONE is white. Plus the fact that everyone looks the same, is the same height not matter if they're six-foot or five foot. Talk about lazy and maybe a little racist as well.

Replay Value: I played a game all the way through once and tried out every other mode and everything except the homer run derby was garbage. At least the derby was managed to be all right and is the only thing you can kinda stand to play save for the character models and batting. But they do organize some fun things to do and such.

What else can I say, it's easily one of the worst games I have every played and you shouldn't ever have to get this. In fact there's no reason to. I suppose if it was free or under a buck then maybe, maybe pick it up. Although there are plenty of other great baseball games that are cheap and much better than this thing they try to pass off as a game.

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 07/13/04, Updated 07/27/06