PlayStation 1
Released in 2000 by Agetec
Grade: D-
It’s the definition of a “budget title.”
Where it falls in the series
It’s the one and only, although I can’t quite be sure because this sorry game doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page!
Praises and gripes
Not sure what else I expected from a game with nameless teams and big-headed, big-eyed Anime characters with generic names like Jay, Josh, Berger, and Cash.
This is painfully straightforward video baseball, with 80s gameplay yanked into the jagged edges of lazy 32-bit graphics.
The controls are simple. The pace is quick. The batting view gives you a good look at the nicely rendered ball. Once the ball is in play, there’s a familiar camera view moving smoothly.
Unfortunately, pitchers have magic powers over the ball as it comes to plate, resulting in some funny looking pitches. I faced a pitcher throwing around 65 mph, and then he zipped one past me at 92 mph! Talk about ratcheting it up! And batted balls tend to line out more often than not. How does playing nine scoreless innings sound? Not quite the fun-filled vibe you might expect, right?
The only thing that could save this game would be heartwarming charm. Too bad the constant, repeating music is downright torturous. It sounds like a cheesy old RPG when the royal prince shows up, with someone banging the snare drum from the Metallica album St. Anger. It’s reason enough not to play this game because you cannot turn it off 😡
The search for a decent baseball game on PS1 carries on, folks.