All-Star Baseball 2002

Pros • Many game options • Slick batting interface	Cons • High learning curve • Poor animation
Bottom Line All-Star Baseball offers a great balance between good visuals, killer gameplay, and lots of extras. In baseball there is an area on the bat known as the sweet spot. While the name kind of gives away its purpose, it is the place on the bat where, ideally speaking, you hit the ball. If the ball makes contact too high on the bat, then it’s a pop fly and an easy out. Likewise if the ball is hit too low, it doesn’t have enough lift and is easily fielded for an out. Too far left and there’s not enough power. Too far right and you’re in foul territory. With baseball games for the PlayStation 2 there is the same kind of effect. Triple Play looks great, but it doesn’t deliver the gameplay. High Heat 2002 is realistic, but suffers with visuals. All-Star Baseball is a good compromise between these two extremes and lands right in the sweet spot as one of the best baseball games of the season.

Acclaim is certainly no stranger to the baseball diamond. For years, they made the best baseball games for the N64, and as an owner of that doomed console, I was curious to see what they could do with the power of the PS2. Fans rest assured, All-Star Baseball kept the solid batting control that it has always had. Players bat with a batting icon and can choose to use a power swing or a normal swing. With the power swing you add distance to the hit, but you are also more likely to go down swinging. To help improve your chances of hitting the ball, batters can guess what type of pitch and the area in which the ball will fly. A correct guess will give you a bigger sweet spot.

The pitching control is also pretty sharp. Most pitchers have 4 to 6 different pitches at their disposal depending on what that player uses in real life. Players can also stack the infield and outfield in a particular area to increase the odds of an out. For example when a pitcher who is not known for his power is at the plate, you may want to move the outfielders closer. The only fault in the almost perfect gameplay is the fielding. Many times the transition between hitting and fielding leaves you running in one direction and when the camera angle changes you are running in the totally opposite direction.

As if the different options at the plate and at the mound weren’t enough, players have tons of different game options. Players can choose any major league stadium, the game time, weather, sky, or vibration. Besides those choices, players have the options for exhibition games, season, the all-star game, a playoff mode, and even a fantasy draft mode. If you need some batting practice, there is a batting practice mode and a home run derby.

While not quite as pretty as Triple Play, All-Star Baseball is far from shabby. The player models and stadiums can easily rival those found in EA’s offering, but they starting falling to pieces once the characters start moving. There’s nothing wrong as far as frame rates or slow downs, but the movements just don’t look very realistic. For example, a lot of times a fielder will stay in his crouched down ground ball stance even after he has fielded the ball. Another graphical flaw that I noticed was that fielders sometimes caught pop flies that seemed several feet from their current position. None of these blemishes are deal breakers by any stretch of the imagination, but they are annoyances.

The announcing team for All-Star Baseball is about as exciting as plain flour. The manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks provides the commentary, while Thom Brennaman is the play-by-play man. Chuck Morgan of the Texas Rangers handles the PA. Don’t get me wrong, this team isn’t all that bad, their calls are as accurate as a videogame can get, but they are as exciting as watching the paint dry. The rest of the audio matches the rather monotone sportscasters; even after hitting the long ball, there is little noticeable fanfare.

All-Star Baseball 2002 doesn’t top the list in any game category, yet it does consistently well in all of them. Whether graphics, gameplay, or features, All-Star is a solid contender. This is possibly the best all-around baseball game for the PlayStation 2.

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