Mr. Tino's Backyard Baseball Review
posted at 3:01 AM on Friday, July 14, 2000
Introduction
| Company: |
Humongous Sports (www.HumongousSports.com)
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| System Requirements: |
| P166, 16 MB RAM, 5 meg HD for PCs, or 132 MHz PPC, System 7.5.3, 32 MB RAM, 4X CD for Macs |
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| Reviewed Using: |
G4/400, 256 MB RAM, Mac OS 9.0.2, Rage 128 Pro AND...
iMac/333 MHz, 96 MB RAM, Mac OS 8.6, Rage Pro |
Throughout the century, baseball has been a game fathers (and starting with the feminist revolution, parents) have enjoyed with their children. Lately, though, there seems to have been an increasing gap between the very grown-up business of baseball and the childlike innocence, of, well, childhood. Monster contracts, shameless free agency, beer commercials everywhere and near-nude female players (OK, not the free agency) have made the game something very alien to today's kid. But leave it to the Demigods of children's computer games, Humongous Entertainment, to bring the game back to a level kids 5-12 can understand. There's nothing "edu" about the 'tainment in Backyard Baseball 2001, and that makes it something that children and pedophiles alike can enjoy.
Gameplay
Backyard Baseball's gameplay is delightfully simple, whether you're hitting, pitching, or playing in the field. There is an option to play with a gamepad, but I found the controls mystifying. I'd recommend the mouse, anyway - the game's slow pace makes the mouse a perfectly acceptable input device.
Playing with the mouse, hitting consists of selecting a type of swing, pointing a cursor where you want to swing and clicking at the correct time. Depending on your skill level (or age, I suppose), you can either have the game tell you exactly where the ball is going, give you a general idea, or leave you to watch the pitch's path on your own. I played mainly with the general vicinity option and found it to be challenging while not being frustrating. I'm sure the exact location option would be a hit with the younger set.
Special swings include screaming line drives (the ball literally screams), under-grounders that perplex fielders, and the all-powerful aluminum power. Let me tell you, you haven't really lived until you've seen an 8-year old Ken Griffey Junior hit the ball 750 feet. Griffey has said that Billy Martin wouldn't let him in the Yankee clubhouse as a kid when his dad was on the team - maybe he should've been on the Yanks.
Pitching controls are a breeze, too. Select your pitch, select a location and click. The strike zone is displayed so you can make sure to keep good control while still hitting the corners. There is a "Juice" meter that tells you how much longer your pitcher can stay out there before you need to replace him (any player in the game can pitch, although some are better than others). Occasionally you can replenish your pitcher's energy with a "more juice" option in the pitch selection area, but it only appears once or twice in a game, so use it wisely. Maybe Humongous should make a "Backyard Softball" game featuring a "beer meter" - only I imagine replenishing that would hinder your pitching, not improve it.
Fielding, often a weak point in more "mature" baseball games, is handled well (but not especially realistically) in this title. On ground balls, a cursor is used to get your fielder in front of the ball, and then the same cursor is moved to first base to throw out the runner. On fly balls, the outfielder is moved under the ball in a similar fashion - where the ball will land is displayed on the field. Some fielders, such as Derek Jeter and Nomar Garciaparra, are smooth as their prepubescent cheeks, while others, like Jose Canseco, don't have a chance.
On the fielding screen, everything moves very slowly. This can frustrate people used to fast paced sports and action titles, but it's definitely good for kids and novices. Some runners obviously move faster than average, and some are considerably slower. A footrace between concrete-shoed Mike Piazza and the wingfoot Kenny Lofton would be an ugly, ugly thing. Still, no runner is exactly a blur, and neither is the ball.
The game features one player from every major league team, except the Reds, who have two. This is an improvement over previous Backyard Baseball games which featured only fictitious, politically correct players (this edition has its fair share as well, including my personal favorite - a Japanese, wheelchair bound catcher). Still, one player per team is a little slim - it leaves out huge stars like Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddux, Manny Ramirez and Jim Edmonds.
Most of the players are well represented in their strengths and weaknesses, but sometimes there are things that are just odd. Why is Frank Thomas, Chicago's power-hitting first baseman, the best pitcher in the game? Why is Ivan Rodriguez, the best defensive catcher of all time, not a top-rated fielder? Why does Jose Canseco even have a chance in the field? Hell, how can Jose Canseco even play? Shouldn't he be injured? In general, however, the skill levels make sense.
The game is pretty options-rich. You can play either a single exhibition game or go at it in a season. The season mode keeps track of all the standard stats - runs, walks, hits, RBI, and so forth - which is something you wouldn't expect to find in a kid's game. There are four difficulty levels - Hard, Medium, Easy, and the excruciatingly unchallenging Tee-Ball mode (self-explanatory). There are eight different parks to play in, ranging from tranquil city parks to sandlots and inner cities. The dimensions and wall heights of the different parks do pleasantly affect gameplay, giving a different experience in each.
The game features internet multiplayer that seems as though it could be very entertaining, but this a Windows-only feature. I'm reviewing it on a Mac.
Sound
Speaking as a person who does not fit into the game's suggested 5-12 year old range, the sound is very immature. Constant calls of "Hey, batter batter", "We want a batter, not a broken ladder" and so on, have serious potential to wear thin after a while. However, they could entertain the game's standard audience. The announcers, though natural sounding and not too repetitive, are very Saturday morning cartoonish, and waiting for the kids to finish their comments makes the slow-paced game even slower. I turned them off after one game. However, again, a younger me might enjoy the commentary.
The game features only a little bit of music. There's music during the intro movie, and there are small musical introductions before every at-bat. Nice touch to mix things up, but it's nothing that you'll give a second thought. And you shouldn't - it's a baseball game.
The sound effects are very cartoony. The large library of bouncing sounds, whirling sounds, and glass-breaking sounds compliment a very limited library of actual baseball sounds. Every now and then, you might feel more like you're watching an episode of Looney Tunes than playing a baseball game. Although this might sound annoying, super-realistic sounds wouldn't have fit very well with the...
Visuals
The visuals in Backyard Baseball accomplish everything they want to accomplish. The graphics are done in the old sprites-on-a-static-background style of the Super Nintendo baseball games. The fields, which range from tranquil, well-mowed backyards to sandlots and inner cities, are well drawn. The sprites feature pretty seamless animation and no pixilated jaggies (which is more than can be said for Diablo II). Everything is drawn in a deformed, huge-head style way, although it's undeniably American (The way a baseball game should be).
Team PC, the politically correct squadron of fabricated youths, is quite varied in graphical styling. There's southern hicks, wheel-chair bound catchers, melon-headed eating machines, head phoned-rockers, and lots and lots of girls. Speaking of rockers, it's a shame there's no youth version of Braves reliever John Rocker in the game to make fun of Team PC, which represents every race and creed.
The younger major leaguers are good for a laugh. Most of them do resemble their surly, overpayed adult counterparts, in a young and innocent kind of way. The players vary wildly in size and age, seeming to well represent the game's 5-12 year old target audience. It doesn't seem fair to have a six year-old Derek Jeter battle a twelve year-old Randy Johnson, but he seems to fare well enough. Frank Thomas at ten years is the size of about three normal kids put together. He must have a glandular problem. Mike Piazza, the adolescent version, is a hip California kid, and fortunately he doesn't sport his trademark ugly mustache. That would've been disturbing.
Conclusion
It should be obvious by now that if you're a common gamer, it would be more intelligent to pick up a more conventional title such as High Heat Baseball or Triple Play 2001. While Backyard Baseball does manage to offer enough options to satiate an older player while remaining simple enough for younger fans, it's best suited for either a young sports fan or a parent who wants to enjoy computer gaming and sports with his (or her) child. Still, I found myself embarrassed when Mr. Kindred opened my bathroom stall and found me vigorously playing Backyard Baseball on my laptop. This game is a guilty pleasure of mine.
aesthetics: 4/5
The game doesn't try to dazzle with its visuals, but the goofy, cartoony graphics do an outstanding job of conveying the feel of the game.
sound: 3/5
Again, they match the feel of the game, but they're too annoying in general to give a high score.
gameplay: 4.5/5
The name of the game is fun. Well, actually, it's Backyard Baseball 2001. But it certainly provides entertaining, arcade-style baseball action.
value: 4/5
Like any sports title, the gameplay can continue for quite a while through season modes. It's also not affected by outdated rosters like most baseball games.
the verdict: 4/5
While it's aimed at kids (and great for them), the silly game can be a nice change of pace for anyone. |
