A Gaming Diary
Posts tagged baseball
Baseball Superstars 2009 (iPhone)
Jul 22nd
I’ve finished four seasons as my little batter chap now. The third season was the best so far, with my team winning the title and everybody happy and some bonus money for me and a general sense of hurrah!
The fourth season was a disaster. My batting average fell from a bad .278 to a pitiful .261. My team kept losing, which meant my morale plummeted, so instead of going out and training in my time off I had to go on dates to try and improve my mood.
However, every date failed, so my morale stayed at about zero for most of the season and my performance on the field suffered accordingly.
That nightmare season is over now, though, and morale resets at the start of each season so I’m hoping for better in my fifth season. I really wish I could get my popularity up, though. To extend your career past its tenth season you need a popularity rating of over six hundred, I think, and mine’s only about 140. Not good at all.
Baseball Superstars 2009 (iPhone)
Jul 20th
Yes, so I took the plunge and downloaded the full version of Baseball Superstars. I’ve got to something at lunchtime, after all.
I’ve set myself up as a batter on the Dragons. I’m not doing too well so far. The screenshot below shows how I’m doing most of the time.
I am getting better, though. Partly due to training to raise my stats (when I’m not using my spare time to go on dates to recover morale), partly due to getting better at the game and partly because of the lucky purple helmet that I spent an entire year’s salary on. Sometimes I’m even getting screens like the one below after a game.
But not very often.
Baseball Slugger: Home Run Race 3D (iPhone)
Jul 20th
Despite playing a lot of 9 Innings and Superstars, I didn’t neglect Baseball Slugger. I played a few rounds of the Arcade mode, but I mainly played online.
I did, sometimes see this screen.
But more often I saw this one.
I got enough golden balls to complete my Jaguars costume and buy a new bat, though, which was nice.
9 Innings: Pro Baseball Lite (iPhone)
Jul 20th
After playing some Baseball Superstars Lite I tried out 9 Innings: Pro Baseball Lite.
It looks superficially similar to Baseball Superstars, but with a slightly more realistic look. That sums up how it plays, too. You don’t get any pirates or nurses playing baseball in this, just athletic-looking men. The pace is slower, the pitching requires that you time button presses and it seems a lot easier to mess up your fielding and it’s a lot harder to hit the ball anywhere useful. It lacks the mode where you create a player and play as them, but you get special tasks to perform in games to gain points to upgrade your coach.
It, like Baseball Superstars, is a very good game and I played it a lot. I think I’m coming down on the side of Baseball Superstars, mainly because I like the RPG-type mode and find it easier and quicker to play, but I’ve not made decision yet and both games seem very worth £1.79.
Baseball Superstars Lite (iPhone)
Jul 20th
Baseball Slugger is, as I’ve mentioned, all kinds of awesome. However, I’ve had a hankering for a fuller baseball game, where you’ve got teams and nine innings and you run around bases and all that. After some research online it seems my top pick, Konami’s Power Pros Touch, isn’t available in the UK and there’s no demo of the official MLB game, to which there has been a varied response online.
So that basically left with me two contenders – Baseball Superstar and 9 Innings: Pro Baseball, both of which have fairly generous Lite versions available. First off, I tried Baseball Superstars Lite.
It’s a fast and furious arcade baseball game, with super-deformed players, non-human super players and some RPG elements. It also runs at an incredibly fast pace. I enjoyed it very much indeed – especially the part where you create a player, play as only him and then go on dates and train up between games. Very promising indeed, though in all the time I spent playing over the weekend, which was a lot, I never worked out how to play as my super players.
Baseball Slugger: Home Run Race 3D (iPhone)
Jul 16th
I like it when games have “3D” in the title. It’s all nostalgic and cute. You just want to pat them on the head and give them a shiny apple and tell them to run along home before they catch polio.
That aside, Baseball Slugger is comfortably the best game I’ve played for the iPhone. The controls just work. There’s no getting used to them, or being pleasantly surprised with how well they work, all things considered. None of that. You tilt, you tap, your guy swings his bat and either you hit the baseball or you don’t.
Aim your bat. Time your swing. That’s it. Nothing else to worry about. It just works.
I’ve been playing the Arcade mode for a day or two, but last night I decided to try out the online multiplayer.
That’s me there, just about to start playing against a chap called Ticookie. We played a few games and he beat me every time. In fact, everyone beat me, except one poor sod who actually managed to lose against me. My ranking points flew away like rocket-propelled birds as I lost over and over and over and over again. Yet I couldn’t stop playing. Arcade mode is great, but when you’ve got that little window up there showing a real other person and you’ve got the bars under the player names filling up something kicks in and grabs you and won’t let go.
You’re not taking turns, you see. Your playing your game, he’s playing his and you fill up your power bar (or whatever it’s actually called) by hitting the ball and getting points. Whoever fills the bar first wins, obviously enough. It’s a system that keeps things working, minimises the effect of any lag, but provides real competition. It doesn’t hurt that getting into a match is very quick and it’s easy to ask for a rematch after a round. It’s brilliant, just brilliant.
If you’ve got an iPhone and you’ve not got this game you’re DOING IT WRONG in caps. Just get it. Now.
MLB 08: The Show (PSP)
Mar 12th
Just the one game this lunchtime. Got two hits from four at bats and was named player of the game, which was nice.
MLB 08: The Show (PSP)
Mar 9th
Wow, now I’m down in AA things have got a lot easier. I’m batting not far off .400, for starters. Looks like I’m going to fail my advancement goals, though, because I can’t get the number of walks I need.
MLB 08: The Show (PS3)
Mar 9th
Started a Road to the Show game. The player I made looks nothing like me, but that’s okay. It’s all very similar to the PSP game, but with extra shiny. After a few games I decided to play some team stuff, so started a season as the Astros. Didn’t even finish the first game of spring training, but at least I could save it.
MLB 08: The Show (PSP)
Mar 7th
Spring training over and a final batting average of .226.
Based on that the Angels offered me a one-year AA contract at $98,750. Yes please!
