Ah, spring. Birds chirping, garage sales, and America's #1 pastime - baseball. And with the start of the baseball season also comes the first run of baseball games for the Nintendo GameCube. The first baseball game to be released for the Cube, All-Star Baseball 2003 (featuring Derek Jeter) brings the excitement of the game straight from the ballpark to your living room.
Aesthetics:
As with any All-Star Baseball game on a Nintendo system, the graphics are stunning. The players all closely resemble their real-life counterparts, as do the stadiums. Acclaim has done a wonderful job in the options department with this game. You can select any time of day, as well as any type of weather. Not only that, but you can also choose your team’s uniform. Kudos also go out to Acclaim for keeping up to date with the world of real-life baseball. Case in point – Comiskey Park now has shrubbery instead of last year’s blue divider. Acclaim knew this and changed the stadium accordingly. Sports games have a habit of cutting their crowds out of virtual cardboard. Yes, All Star Baseball 2003 has the cutout characters, but they are all animated via fmv. So it actually looks like there are real people in the stands
The animation in ASB 2003 is stunning, which actually should come as no surprise. The players all move fluidly, without a hint of choppiness. There is a wide variety of player animation, so the game does not seem tired and repetitive – there is even some humor. I remember beaming Sammy Sosa in the noggin with a 95-mile per hour fastball. Slammin’ Sammy fell to his knees, and eventually got up to take his base – in the wrong direction. It’s the little details like this that make the game so enjoyable. I only wish the pitcher would have some kind of reaction when you hit a homer. The only thing better than hitting a good ol’ dinger is watching the pitcher bury his head in his mitt when he realizes he gave up the run.
Sound:
The sound in All-Star Baseball 2003 is as realistic as possible. The crowd roots, roots roots for the home team and boos the away team. The PA announcer calls the batter when he comes to the plate. And the peanut vender is present as always. The crack of the bat (and sometimes break) sounds like the real thing, and the organ player…well…plays the organ.
Announcers Thom Bernnaman, Steve Lyons, and Bob Brenly call the plays. While their commentary is welcome, after a while it is just the same lines over and over. But we should expect that by now, so it is not a big deal. All in all, the sound in All-Star Baseball 2003 is excellent, with no problems whatsoever.
Gameplay:
All-Star Baseball 2003 is a simulation game in every sense of the word. You won’t find any arcade action here, folks. This is 100% realism. ASB 2003 is loaded with gameplay options that will keep the replay value up for a long, long time. Here’s the list:
Quick Play – An exhibition game where the teams are randomly chosen. The name pretty much says it all.
MLB PLAY
Exhibition – Play an old fashioned game of baseball. Choose your teams, and you’re off. Exhibition games don’t count towards any standing.
All-Star Game – Relive the 2001 All-Star game by playing NL All-Stars vs. AL All-Stars.
New Season – Take your team from opening day to (hopefully) the World Series and try to win it all.
New Series – Skip the season and go straight for some World Series action in this best-of-seven games series.
Expansion Mode – Create a team, select a city, ballpark, and name and take them through an entire baseball season.
Franchise Mode – Take your team through up to 20 seasons of baseball. Watch your team members’ careers go from start to finish in this expansive option.
Note:
You cannot save Franchise or Expansion mode games using current memory cards. Opening Day Franchise or Expansion requires 1 file and 51 blocks to save. Mid Season Franchise or Expansion requires 1 file and 153 blocks to save. Current memory cards have a capacity of 59 blocks.
This is taken directly from the ASB 2003 Instruction Manual. Currently you can purchase a 16x memory card by Interact, which has enough blocks to save these modes. I highly recommend using this memory card. I’ve been using the card, and have no complaints thus far.
Player Cards – Much like Madden 2002, you earn points by completing various objectives during a game to buy packs of cards. Classic teams, stadiums, and cheats all can be earned via the Player Cards. My only complaint is that the cards are somewhat hard to read. Sometimes you don’t even know what player’s card you got.
Home Run Derby – This is where all the best players come to slug it out to see who can hit the most dingers. Choose your player, and try to hit as many pitches out of the park within a certain number of outs. You can also select the number of outs, as well as the ballpark you’ll be playing in.
At this point I would like to use my powers as a Senior Editor here at NGenres.com to make a request of Acclaim, as both a videogame fan and baseball fan. Last year, EA Sports included an option in Triple Play 2001’s Home Run Derby that was, in my opinion, the most enjoyable aspect of the game. An option in the game was “Extreme Home Run Derby,” in which you selected a player for the Derby as usual, but the selectable stadiums were not actual baseball stadiums. They included a Living Room, a Medieval Castle, and a Construction Site. Whenever a home run was hit, points would be awarded depending on where the ball landed. If the ball hit a large garbage can, fewer points would be earned than if the ball hit a small picture frame. Whichever player had the most points by the time they had a pre-set number of outs wins. For some reason, EA didn’t put this option in Triple Play 2002. I strongly suggest this version of Home Run Derby be included in a future baseball game. OK, on with the review.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Batting Practice – The title pretty much says it all. Practice your batting skills.
Trivia Game – An extremely enjoyable mixture of baseball and trivia, you and an opponent each pick a team and by answering trivia questions, earn points. A correct answer earns the current batter a base hit, and an incorrect answer is an out. When your team gets three outs, it is your opponent’s turn to bat. Whoever has the most points at the end of nine innings wins.
Team Management – In this feature, you can draft players, and create an unstoppable team of only the best in the baseball business.
Statistics – View a player’s stats.
The game itself is perhaps the most challenging game I have ever played. This can be very frustrating. In my opinion, if the difficulty level is at its easiest, then there should be no problem in winning a game 20 – 4. But even the easiest setting is quite a challenge in ASB 2003. For example, I was playing a game, and at the bottom of the ninth inning, I was up 10 – 4. For some reason, the other team scored 5 runs in one inning. They did better in the last inning than they did throughout the whole game! Now, I’m not saying that the AI catches up (or cheats) to make the game closer, but I did find this rather odd. But this is based on my own experiences – your results may vary. Regardless, the game is quite a challenge, even on the Rookie setting.
Control:
The controls in All-Star Baseball 2003 are tight and responsive. This is extremely important, seeing as though baseball games require you to be on your toes at all times. When pitching, you move a small circle around the home plate, which represents where you want your pitch to end up. You then select which type of pitch to throw. The selectable pitches are in order of effectiveness (A, B, Y, X, L, & R, with A being most effective and R being least effective). Just pick where you want the pitch to go, select it, and throw.
When fielding, you can choose between Automatic fielding (where the players are controlled by the game), Assist (where the game controls your players unless you move the control pad yourself to take control), and Manual (where you control all the action). Another feature that is very useful are “future throws.” By pressing the corresponding button (A for home, X for 1st base Y for 2nd, B for 3rd) before anyone gets hold of the ball, you can choose where the fielder will throw the ball once he gets it
The batting system itself takes some getting used to. But when you do figure it out, it can be very advantageous. While batting, there is a triangle that represents your bat. Move the triangle towards the bottom of the batter’s box, and your swing will be low. Move it towards the top, and the swing will be higher. Correctly placing the triangle with the pitch results in a much further, stronger hit. The direction of your hit is also selectable by using the C-Stick. Want to hit a fly ball to left field? How about a grounder up the middle? All is possible by using the Control Stick and the C-Stick in tandem.
Another way to increase the effectiveness of your swing is by guessing the pitch. By holding the R button and pressing the corresponding button, you can try and guess what type of pitch the pitcher will throw. If their best pitch is a Curve ball, hold R and press A. Guessing a pitch correctly also increases your effectiveness.
But if all of this seems a bit too difficult to master, you can always turn on Easy Batting, in which all you need to worry about is the timing of your swing.
Multiplayer:
With the rest of the game this good, it should come as no surprise that the multiplayer mode is just as entertaining. All-Star Baseball 2003 supports up to 4 players, and the framerate does not suffer at all. And since the pitching icon can be moved after it disappears (after selecting a pitch), your opponent will not have any advantages when it is his turn to bat.
OVERALL:
If you love baseball, this is definitely the game for you. All-Star Baseball 2003 is fun, challenging, and offers enough modes of play to keep you entertained for a long, long time. The only way to make this game any more realistic is to hire a peanut vendor.
The Lowdown on  All-Star Baseball 2003
| Aesthetics: Awesome |
Control: Very Good |
| Gameplay: Very Good |
Multiplayer: Awesome |
| Sound: Awesome |
Innovation: 5/6 |
| Lasting Appeal: 6/6 |
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Overall: Awesome!
"Top of the Genre"
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All-Star Baseball 2003
