I feel I must start by saying that I’ve never understood the American (and Japanese) obsession with Baseball, never understood how an entire nation could get excited about what is, effectively, a game of Rounders, or how a World Series only has entrants from one country. So it was with some trepidation that I picked up a copy of Baseball Slugger: Home run 3D Race by Com2us Corp but boy, was I in for a surprise.
My first ten minutes with the game were a little difficult as I tried to get to grips with the controls, which are a mixture of accelerometer and touch. Basically, you need to move the greyed out ”˜bat’ to where you think the ball will be as it crosses the plate, and touch anywhere on the screen at the right time to get a hit. Some may find this a bit tricky, but stick with it as it doesn’t take long to get the hang off and soon you’ll be scoring homeruns like the pros.
There are three game modes (not counting training); Arcade, Classic and Matchup. You play Arcade and Classic on your own and the aim is to simply score as many points as you can. In Arcade the game is over when you reach 10 outs with fouls and strikes counting towards this. In Classic it’s a similar story, but anything other than a home run will count as an out.
Now, you may think that I’ve rushed over both of those game modes and I have, but with good reason, the beauty of this game lies in the Matchup Mode. This is the online mode and is what will keep you coming back for just one more go.
Once you’ve connected to the network and selected your channel you’re ready to play against the world. In this mode, the first person to fill their homerun gauge wins the match and gains win points and golden balls (I’ll come back to these shortly). Starting off as a Rookie, you progress to Slugger, Star and Legend. Whilst the game play remains quite simple, there is something strangely satisfying about beating people from around the world, knowing that your skills have reduced them to a blubbering wreck, weeping softly onto their iPhone as they realise they will never be as good as you. (Well, that’s what I like to think anyway, I imagine there probably thinking “you got lucky, punk”). Once you’ve won (or lost) you can either challenge the same individual again, or find yourself another player.
A great feature of this mode is the picture in picture view of what your opponents doing, so as opposed to just seeing an opponent’s homerun gauge go up, you can see what they’re actually doing, Though be careful not to get too distracted. This can make for some tense games when you notice they’ve just got five homeruns in a row and I’ve played quite a few games with nail biting tension at the end, this just goes to add to my love of this game.
You can also add people you play against to your friends list, or alternatively, if you know their slugger ID, you can add them directly. (Hint: add people you play against, there be achievements to be had). Whilst this isn’t anything we haven’t seen before it’s always nice to see as you can battle your friends and finally show them whose boss.
Back to the golden balls, you get given a generous 300 when you first start and gain more for winning matchups, and completing the achievements within the game. You can use these to customize your character, and whilst some items, such as clothes and new bats will improve your characters power and control, others such as sunglasses and new face styles, simply mean you can be different from the rest and stand out from the crowd.
I’ve found very little to complain about with the game, the menu navigation when connected to the network is sometimes a little slow and I get the occasional “weak connection” warning and have been disconnected on a couple of occasions, but given that I’m playing over Edge (yes, not Wi-fi, not 3G but the slowest and oldest of connections, Edge) I really don’t think I can complain too much.
Current Status: Recommended
Reviewed at: v1.0.2
Reviewed on Firmware: 3.0
Download size: 26.0MB
Released on: 17 Jun 2009
Retails for: £1.79 / $2.99
Compatible with: iPod touch Gen 1 & 2 / iPhone Classic / iPhone 3G / iPhone 3GS (Requires OS 3.0 or later)
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