Gaming Target - GameCube: All-Star Baseball 2003

Written by Chris Reiter on June 18, 2002

Full Review: Striking out Ken Griffy Jr. feels real good...

Baseball is a sport that drives most American made men as moths are to burning light bulbs. This is the kind of sport boys grow up with, and some come to love from their childhood and up until the time they get old and weary, resting on their fitting little grave. Sure, it's a game. But to many, it's more than that. Through Acclaim's eyes, I think I can see that passion. It's a form of entertainment that's adored by millions, and not every game developer can capture the true essence of a sport this big like Acclaim has.

Right off the bat, and into play time, you can sort through up to 10 gameplay modes. These options include Quick Play; a standard baseball match played between two computer selected teams. MLB Play, which is made up of Exhibition, All-Star, Season, and Series modes of play. These modes take you everywhere from a quick game between two of your favorite teams to the fabled world-series.

Also, there is an interesting Expansion Mode wherein you select a city, a ballpark, and a name for your franchise club, which you can then staff the club to go 20 seasons with it. Franchise Mode is a brand new option to the game, letting you round 20 seasons with your own creation of a ball player to become either a superstar, or a flop. The control is in your hands. Player Cards is another new optional mode that allows you to use the points you've collected while playing a game in one of the MLB modes. With the earned points, you can then buy up to 500 baseball cards of famous player faces, saving you the trip of going out and getting them from a novelty store. Home Run Derby is a mode where only home run hits count. Anything less isn't worthy of this feature's time. Finally, there's a Special Features mode where you can access such attractions as a baseball trivia game to find out if you're up to knowledge in your sport history, and a batting practice option that allows you to hit the ball as long as you want until your swinging skills can't get any finer.

Taking position in any of the playable modes and controlling the characters comes off as second nature. For example, if you're playing a rounded game and in your pitching stance, all you've got to know is how to move the round cursor to the location where you want to throw the ball. Then by selecting how you want to toss it around, whether it is a curve ball, a slider, a cutter, etc., the ball will follow suit. It's just as easy to catch a ball, with markers surrounding your characters and the vicinity the ball is placed or landing in reveals just where you'll need to head to, following up with either one of the face buttons will throw the ball to the closest base. Hitting the ball on the other hand I found rather difficult. The target cursor represents a triangle covered by an angle switcher, which if you rotate it around, will allow you to swing the bat in the direction it's facing. It does take a lot of practice to know how the target system operates for those not used to playing the game of baseball in its virtual world.

You are able to choose from over 900 players amongst all 30 of the Major League teams. You can modify the lineups, check for weather stats, and select from up to 50 stadiums to play ball in. As such, All-Star Baseball 2003 requires a huge amount of memory storage. Nintendo's standard Memory Card 59 only holds on its own 59 available slots to fill. Some features, such as saving an entire Season game, require over 100 blocks, as do a number of other ones. Before buying the GameCube version of All-Star Baseball, it's best that you have a larger memory card, like a third party version, ready for play-- because you're sure as hell going to need one.

One sure thing about the game, is that Acclaim has depicted the sport of baseball almost as real as it looks on television. Every player acts just like a real human would, or more like a human baseball player I should say. Their animations are fluid and flawless. Details such as how they grace the plate, take their stance, tighten their grip, and even tap their cleats with the upper portion of the bat help to add a great amount of depth to the visual scheme. While the individual character models could use a little more detail in facial expressions, it's outstanding in how they each have wrinkles in their clothes, and outfits to match their real life models.

With those players in mind, the backgrounds of the game aren't enough. In the stands, the people placed there are like cardboard cut outs during a batter's arrival movie. It's also noticeable that other visual attributes, such as the playing field and billboards aren't produced to what they're fully capable of in appearance. Overall, the best part of looking at the game is its players, and I guess that's all that really matters anyhow.

The background noises, while not entirely terrible, are the low point of this finished product. Added in to make you feel like you're at the ballpark, you'll constantly listen to fans chanting and chattering gibberish. What they yammer though I wouldn't exactly call ear heaven. The same pattern ensues in repeating itself over and over and eventually becomes not only a nuisance, but also a reason to buy cotton balls to plug up your ears. However, during the gameplay the announcers save you from pure torment with very detailed dialogue. If you strike a player out, gain a ball, trick a batter with a fastball, or even slam a home run, they'll catch on quick and repeat the action orally like you'll hear it anywhere else in the official sport. More accurate than anything else, the game commentary makes you feel right at home in front of the tube, laid back with a soda and a bag of chips.

Considering how good the game announcers are, the sound continues to mirror the game's lifelike counterparts with accurate in-game noises. The thump of a ball hitting a glove...the crack of a bat after that high flying swing...the footsteps of you running along the outfield homing in on the ball... These sounds are all part of the mix of noises within the latest All-Star game, and won't disappoint on their operating angle throughout any particular point during it all.