"Ken Griffey Jr. sure Presented this Major League Baseball game good."

I have played numerous baseball games over the years, and I still have to say that this is still my favorite baseball game, despite being six years old. Unlike most of the other baseball games out there, you don't have to move a cursor to hit the ball, and you just have to press a button at the perfect time. Nice and simple, and just one of the reasons that this is one of my favorite games.

The graphics and animations were done quite nicely for a game made way back in 1997. There are basically a few animations here. The batter stance, the batter being struck out, the pitches the pitcher throws, and the fielder animations.

The batter stances seem to animate differently depending on who is batting. If it is a short and skinny guy, he will probably be circling his bat in the air really fast, but, if it is a big guy with bulging muscles, he will probably be doing it very slowly. But this is only if the batter does not get three strikes on him.

If he does strike out, there are a few reactions. Again, it depends on the size of the batter. If he is smaller, or not a big hitter, he will be humiliated and hang his head in shame. Getting a little stronger, he will be really mad at the umpire and huff and puff at him. But if he has those big muscles, he will break his bat with his knee right there in front of you! So now that the inning is over, lets switch to fielding.

You can move your pitcher left to right depending on the type of pitch you want to throw. There are no sinkers here, the behind the batter / slightly above the head camera prevents this type of pitching. But to make up for it, you are able to control the ball completely, you can curve a ball away and make it go right back using the D-pad, and he probably will not swing at it! Your pitcher also stands in two different stances, depending on the situation. If there are no people on base, he will stand directly facing the base with the glove over his chest. But if someone got on base, he will stand to the side, with the glove over his chest, so he can throw out someone trying to steal! However, most pitchers throw the exact same way, so Hideo Nomo throws the same way as Randy Johnson.

The fielders don't have many animations. Basically, they have an animation for when they run, if you can call it running. Usually it looks like they are flying through the air, which can make for some cool Matrix effects. The same happens when they have to jump to make a catch. I swear when they do they he looks just like a Michael Jordan logo on those shoes. Anyway, a few more animations include, the guy holding up the ball when he has it, and him throwing the ball. It depends on something, I personally haven't found out yet, but depending they can throw it quite fast, a little fast, and quite show. Outfielders who throw quite slow can kill a team fast.

The sound effects / music backgrounds were done good, to a limit though. The background music really could not be more annoying. There are two songs, one while you are going through the menu, and one while you are playing. It does not change at all. The background music will make you want to turn down the volume way down, but all you have to do is go to the options menu twice, and turn the Background Music to off. Now we can listen to the sound effects, without suffering through the background music.

The cracking of the bat sounds just like a well crafted Louisville Slugger. Meanwhile, the crowd seems to sound like somebody rustling a plastic bag, while hitting a ground ball, and a ball hitting a glove seems to have the same sound effect. That is pretty much all of the sound effects in the game, but now that we are done with the eye candy, and (not so good) ear candy, lets play the actual game.

When you start up the game, you instantly have five things to do. You can play Exhibition, All-Star Game, Home Run Derby, Playoffs / World Series, or Season mode.

Exhibition mode is where you choose two teams, the first team being your team, and the second team being the team you play against, and instantly start up a game.

All Star Game mode is where you go straight to the middle of the season and play the all star game. You just choose whether you want to play as the American or National league, and you can start right up.

Home Run Derby is where you have to hit as many home runs as you can. You choose a team, and a player of your choice on the team, and then compete against Ken Griffey Jr. and hit as many home runs as you can before you get ten outs.

World Series is where you skip everything and just play the World Series. You choose the two teams you want, the first team being your team, the second team your opponent. Then you play a best-of-seven series to see who wins four games first.

Finally, there is Season mode. You can either choose a short season (26 games) a half season (70-90? games), or the full season (162 games). You choose the team you want to play as, then start up. You can go into options and edit a few things. You can edit a few things such as fielding (you can make it so it fields for you), activate the Designated hitter, and a few other things.

There is something in this certain game, that separates it from most of the other baseball games out there. The controls. In most games, you will have to move the cursor to where the pitch is being thrown and then press the swing button. But on this game, you don't have to do that at all. All you need to do is hit the B button when the pitch is over the plate. But the downfall of the simple controls that your pitches are limited. No slider here! But the simple batting more then makes up for it.

Also, since the batting was made easy in this game, the challenge factor went way down. It is pretty easy to hit a home run if you figure out how to hit it, even with the pitcher. Maybe you can somehow raise the challenge by using a bad team, but I don't know.

Need a baseball game? Don't want to mess with those difficult hitting controls? Want to have FUN? Then Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball is a very good game for you to own, or to add to your gaming collection.

Overall: 9

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/25/03, Updated 07/25/03