Rock_On's Full Review: All-Star Baseball 2002 for GameCube
First of all, I use to play baseball and always had the image of me jumping over the fence to catch a Home Run intended ball in the bottom of the 6th with 2 outs and it was the championship game. I had jumped over a fence to catch a ball before, but I had so many cuts from the fall that I couldn't play for the next four games. Second, I don't know why I rented it in the first place cause I have never liked Baseball video games. I heard that some of them were pretty good, and that this one was suppose to be really good. But I disliked this one very much.
Lets Play Ball
Since this is a Baseball game, there are different game options to choose from. In exhibition mode you can play a friend or just play the computer. Then there's the season mode where you have a pretty wide variety of season selections like full season, half season, 5 game round robin, 3 game round robin, and a bunch of other selections.
There's the home run derby where you can test out your mad hitting skillz.
Batting
This game is real, a little to real. There is a little triangle shaped Batting cursor used to help you put some smack on the ball and to aim where you're hitting. There is a little box on the screen where the balls will be pitched in and you can move the cursor to hit the ball. Before the ball is pitched, a little white circle will show up giving you an idea of where to hit the all. But the circle could change depending on what kind of pitch is thrown.
You use the left analog stick to move the cursor to the ball and the C-Stick to tilt the cursor up and down, left and right. When you tilt the cursor to the left, you'll tend to hit the ball on the left side of the field. Tilt to the right, you'll hit to the right side, tilt down, you'll generally hit grounders, and tilt up and you'll hit fly balls.
Pitching
It's not that hard. A little key comes up with a different pitch set to a different button. Like fast ball, curve ball, ect. When the ball is hit, there's a little circle where the ball will go and the nearest player will be under your control to run for the ball.
There's not much real depth in the game, it is a Baseball sim, and all you do is hit the ball, catch it, pitch the ball, score a run, steal a base, and repeat process.
I'll just get to the Graphics, Control, and Sound, since most you guys know what this game will be like.
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Graphics
I'm going to make this short and sweet. The graphics are pretty well done. The players look like real time athletes, Stadiums are detailed to the bare bones and makes you feel like you're actually at a game in Wrigley Field.
The way the players look in some of the super plays that occur are amazing. It's like watching a super high tense baseball game on TV where 20 bats are broken, it takes twenty minutes to get one runner out, and so much blood on the diamond from intense play. Player motions are pretty fluid like and I have no complaints on this aspect.
Control
The control, I did NOT like about the game. The way the batting formula worked, just didn't appeal very much to me. When the white dot appears in the box to let you have an idea of where the ball is going, there's not enough time to set the cursor, use the C-Stick to aim where to go, and hit the "A" button. I don't know if this was a problem with anybody else, but to me it bothered me greatly.
Sound
The sound's pretty good actually, real time announcer, the crack of the bat, and the crowd. The crowd sounds like you're in a real ball park watching a game with real fans cheering on the home team or whatever. Not much in the sound area either.
Overall
If you're not a die-hard sports fan, then save your precious money on SSX Tricky or Super Smash Bros Melee. This review really sucked I know, I'm not real sure how to review a regular sim sports game, so bare with me until I update with more knowledge of what I'm talking about.
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