"It just doesn't feel right!"

Family Stadium is a long-running series of baseball games that has built up quite a following in Japan. The only game in the series to come to the US was Family Stadium '87 (released as R.B.I. on the NES), which is also the most well sold game on a worldwide basis (beating out even Super Mario Brothers). The series is titled ''Family Stadium'' (or ''Famista'' for short) when a game is released in the series on a Nintendo system, and titled ''World Stadium'' when released on any other system (Playstation, PC Engine, ect.). The newest arrival in the series is ''Family Stadium 2003'' for the Nintendo GameCube. The game does not seem to hold up well when you compare it to the older titles in the series in my opinion, read on to find out why.

For one thing, while the series has grown over the years; new options and modes of enjoyment have came about. When you boot up Famista'03, the first thing you will notice is a lack of a CG movie. This has been a part of the series since World Stadium EX on the PSX back in mid '96. The GameCube is CERTAINLY capable of such movies, but no such movie or intro is to be found on Famista'03. You turn on the game and there is the title screen... that's it. Even the N64 has in graphic intro movies. Not since the Super Famicom has a Famista game not had some type of intro. A small gripe, but once you press start you have a choice of ''pendent'', ''exhibition'', ''training'', and ''option''. This may not seem so bad, but each of these choices is extremely limited. For example, under options, you have the option of BGM (back ground music) being either ON or OFF, nothing in-between, and the BGM is VERY loud, so is the Announcer and the crowd; so this causes the games sound to be a huge fusion of a bunch of noises all at once when nothing is very well individually represented or distinguished. It would be like listening to a band that is composed of 4 lead singers, but nobody to play any instruments, every member wants to be the star of the show, and this causes the entire group to just sound loud and annoying.

Under ''practice'' mode, you have a few options of ''hitting'', ''pitching'', ''fielding'', ect. but there is no way to work on any certain skill within each option; for example, under ''hitting'', you bat at a combination of all types of pitches, there is no way to solely refine your skills on hitting a fast ball or curb ball. The other methods of practice are equally limiting.

The actual baseball game lacks a whole lot of things all at once, The characters all look the same, nearly EVERY character in the game looks the exact same. While World Stadium always had a fairly wide variety of different looking characters with different facial expressions and so on, the characters in the world of Famista'03 all look interchangeable. The character models themselves look very plastic and shiny not unlike the characters in the clay-mation cartoon ''Gumby''. It looks as though one character was made, and then very slight tinting of the skin is the only distinguishable difference between characters, that and some of the characters have a mustache, but there is only one mustache; so even that is limited.

The Famista series has always been a little more on the action/arcade genera of baseball (a good comparison might be Baseball Stars 2 on the Neo*Geo), which has always made the series quite an enjoyable breath of fresh air compared to some of the more serious Baseball titles. However, with this Famista'03, the series try's to depart from the more arcade feeling and try a more ''realistic'' approach. The graphics are entirely in 3d (as opposed to the sprite-based characters and 3d stadium on the World Stadium series) and this comes off as a problem. The new appearance causes the entire game to just ''feel'' very foreign and unlike every incarnation of the series up to this point. It is difficult to put this into words; an example might help illustrate this. Batting is handled in a very traditional 16-bit manor, meaning that there is no contact zone to line up similar to most other 32-bit and beyond baseball games, the batter has to somewhat blindly anticipate where the ball may land, cross one's fingers, swing the bat, and hope for the best. Needless to say, batting hardly ever leads to making solid contact with the ball. The batter is given a rather huge space to walk around in the batters box, yet the game requires making contact with the ball to be very strict and regulated in ones movements. Pitching is equally as frustrating, You are limited to only about 3 types of pitches and you have little to no control over where the ball lands. You often throw a ''ball'' when you mean to throw a ''curve ball''.

Fielding feels clumsy and loose, your character wobbles toward the ball, and then over runs the ball. The outfielders occasionally may ''summersault'' or ''flip'' when they are going after a ball in their direction, but this often throws off the player and causes you to stop moving your fielder, thus another grounder is missed and the computer scores yet another run.

The game does feature a nice variety of stadiums though. And in typical Namco fashion, there is some self-advertising thrown in for good measure, including a small and rather pastel ''Klonoa Stadium'' to play in.

Overall, the game just does not stack up to the previous incarnations of the series. It might be a good idea to miss out on this installment. If you are looking for a very deep yakyu (baseball) game with cutesy anime-style art, I would HIGHLY recommend ''jikkyou powerful Pro Yakyu 10'' (also called ''powerpro'' or ''pawapuro'') on the GameCube and PS2. PawaPro10 is a serious baseball game done right. Everything from refining every single individual position on your teams offence and defense position, to playing a simulation mode that puts you, the player, right into the action of being a Japanese Yakyu pro. The cell-shaded brightly lit graphics don't hurt either. Or if you would prefer a more lighthearted action/arcade approach done correctly, why not try out ANY of the ''World Stadium'' games for the PSX. The World Stadium series feels like a 32-but upgrade of the baseball classic Baseball Stars 2 from the Neo Geo. Characters have funny animations and the game is very well received by both serious and novice baseball fans alike. Although a little difficult to locate these days, any of the ''World Stadium'' games (including the original World Stadium EX) for the Playstation would be well worth upwards of 50 dollars. I would recommend either of those choices over Family Stadium 2003 for GameCube. Overall, I give this game a 5 out of 10 for effort. The included demo CD of ''Viewtiful Joe'' does not justify the price of admission to this baseball game.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/27/03