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(More customer reviews)When I got a DS, one of the things I looked for was a baseball video game--one that simulated Major League baseball in real life. At the time of writing this, there are only three baseball video games for the DS: 2K7, Backyard Baseball, and 2K8: Fantasy All-Stars. 2K7 has received such unanimously bad reviews that it might as well have a plague warning label on it. So in essence, there are only two baseball video games for the DS.
Backyard Baseball and 2K8 are both pretty solid games. And while they both have their similarities (from power-ups to the stadiums), each one has its particular appeal.
Backyard is aimed at younger kids, so we should expect it to be cute and somewhat simple. And it does a great job at being both. But for someone who's looking for a more realistic presentation of the sport of baseball, 2K8 delivers better.
This is not to say that 2K8 on the DS is anything like a baseball simulator. Far from it. The makers of 2K8 for the DS have gone for a very stylistic version of the game. The designs might be considered UPA style (some of the classic Warner Bros. Bugs Bunny cartoons are in this style). And the animation is fairly smooth and snappy.
Even though all the Major League teams are represented, including full starting rosters (although outdated and with certain replacements, such as a character named Giggles for Barry Bonds), that is where any evocation of Major League baseball ends. There are no announcers, no crowds cheering. There is no Yankee Stadium, or Fenway, or Wrigley. Instead, we have themed playing fields, such as Alcatraz (with prison themes), or a ghost town, or a farm, or a lunar station. As we go along, we get to unlock more fields, such as Area 51 . . . and there are plenty to unlock.
Aside from the fields, the user will be able to unlock design elements, such as uniforms for your custom team, hats, gloves, balls, and bats. And these are all very fun and sometimes hilarious when the players of your team sport them.
Keeping with the tone of the game designs, certain power-ups are available for pitching, hitting, and fielding. They include items such as a fireball for pitching, an impromptu brick wall to stop home runs for fielding, and a chicken ball for batting, just to name a few. These can be turned on or off for gameplay.
When playing this game, you won't be able to help but notice the level of detail in the environment, from the drifting sky behind the farm to the water surrounding Alcatraz. When a home run is hit, there's the equivalent of fireworks, except the celebratory gesture will be in keeping with the theme of the field--such as pigs being tossed out of a barn or water spraying from a water tower. If nothing else, you will realize that the makers of this game have invested an immeasurable amount of creativity in designing pretty much everything--down to the way the elements of a theme, including the music, are placed to create the field.
The most extraordinary aspect of this game, however, is in the use of the stylus. There is no option but to use the stylus, in this case. There is no control-pad equivalent to the stylus for pitching, hitting, or fielding. And it's in the use of the stylus here that gives this game that extra dimension of split-second decision-making, where a player will get to swing at a pitch hard or soft, throw a fast ball or not at the last moment in order to give the catcher time to cut down a base stealer.
The way the stylus controls are laid out is sometimes intuitive (such as with pitching, fielding, and base running) and is sometimes maddening (hitting). Yet, the developers have balanced the stylus features very well so that the novelty of throwing physics-defying pitches is easy enough to learn that it keeps you from wanting to toss your DS out the window, but the hitting is hard enough that it presents a challenge to keep you involved.
One of the most impressive surprises of the game is the artificial intelligence (AI). Unlike other games where you can find loopholes in the AI and exploit them, here, the developers have tightened up the AI so that everything seems random enough--errors are made without patterns, a hitter might swing at a ball off the corner of the plate or not, and the fielders may or may not dive for a ball. This means that you can turn off control of the base running and the fielding and still have very good fielding and base running in the game.
A nice little detail that comes with the AI is when a fielder who's not making a play will slide to back up a play or fall down when coming to a stop. These little details just enhance the visual enjoyment of the gameplay experience.
The AI, by the way, has a difficulty range of 1 to 5. At 1, your opponent can't hit water falling into a pool. They strike out like crazy. They drop 50% of fly balls. And the pitcher throws nothing but breaking balls. They'll still dive and jump for balls, however, and they do make an all-out effort. But if you master hitting somewhat, you're basically playing home run derby against them (the key is to ignore moving the stylus within the arc of the swing zone and just move the stylus swiftly and diagonally toward the upper corner of the screen). As you go up the difficulty range, you will notice the AI improves. And at 5, they are nearly impossible to strike out, their fielding is very crisp, and the pitcher knows when to change speeds on you. So the difficulty level isn't merely about pitching speeds; it actually involves the intelligence and dexterity of the opponent--a very nice feature.
Even though no one will mistake the look of this game for a baseball simulator, the developers have done a very good job in regards to scale of play. On certain baseball video games, the outfield is so small or a fly ball travels so low or fast that hitting a ball down the line or up against the wall will afford only a single, even though in reality, these types of hits will almost always guarantee extra-base hits. In other baseball video games, rollers to third base are sure base hits, or ground balls into right field can still get you thrown out at first. These plays make no sense in the world of baseball that we have grown accustomed to.
Luckily, the 2K8 developers have designed the game well enough that fly balls to the wall stay up long enough for runners to round first and head for second. Hits down the line don't always guarantee doubles or triples, but half the time they do, depending on how fast the fielders get to the ball and if your base-running is alert enough. Routine grounders to third, well-played, will get the runner by a step at first. And hits to right field do not make you hold your breath thinking you could be watching a 9-3 put-out at first.
Outs to the centerfield warning track will be far enough to easily get a runner home from third with a tag-up. Stealing a base isn't always guaranteed, and success depends on the speed of the runner and the type of pitch being thrown while the runner is attempting to steal.
Swinging at a pitch early will tend to pull the ball, and swinging at the same pitch late will tend to take the ball the other way. You can control hitting a fly ball or grounder as well. The speed of the swing will influence the distance of the ball, and a check swing will cause the equivalent of a bunt. If you get jammed, you'll hit a lame ground ball. And, of course, nothing beats a good beaning, so you will be able to hit a batter and have him crumple in the batter's box. Pretty cute to watch.
Some details that would have been nice but are not included are base runners' sliding. That's completely missing. And no one ever tries to take out the catcher at the plate. It would have also been nice to have your pitcher be able to control the vertical aspect of the strike zone, but here, we are limited to only the horizontal aspect--which is actually fairly clever when used in conjunction with the stylus feature to show pitcher fatigue. When your pitcher gets tired, your ability to throw strikes gets more difficult since your vision of the strike zone shrinks. Another detail lacking is that you can't shift your defense, which would have increased the complexity of strategy, especially since the game allows hitters to try to place the ball with early or late swings.
Hits and errors are not recorded on the score sheet, and neither are any individual statistics, such as winning pitcher or who hit how many doubles or home runs. There is no season mode, and there's no statistical reference for any of the players. But you do get to create your own team by choosing various players from all over, and they have little star ratings regarding hitting, running, fielding, and pitching. These ratings are both useless and useful. They're useless because you're not merely pressing a button to hit the ball or to pitch, so the ratings have little influence on your players' performance. How well your players do is up to you. But they are useful in indicating relative ability pertaining to your effort: You can have a pitcher like Ben Sheets batting and hit shots to the warning track, but that same swing with Pujols, who has a higher rating for hitting, will take the ball out of the yard.
Your custom team can be used only in single-player mode, which includes exhibition play and a pennant tournament play. In addition to these modes, you have training modes for pitching, hitting, and fielding. They are all challenging, fun, frustrating, cute, and for the most part, pretty clever.
The terrific features of this game are dimmed somewhat by a few problems. First, there's no save feature for an individual game. But that's pretty easy to get...Read more›
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