World Series Baseball 2k1

Dreamcast owners probably figured baseball, of all sports, was safe in the hands of Sega. After all, the World Series line of baseball games had a longstanding tradition of excellence dating back to the Genesis days. Unfortunately, tradition goes out the window in WSB 2K1, right along with a good portion of the gameplay and fun we were expecting. The box promises that if you can "do it on the diamond, you can do it in the game." I guess that doesn't include fielding, because the CPU takes care of that for you. Is this the future? Do gamers want less control? Gee, I hope the next racing game steers the car for me so I can just worry about the gas. Ridiculous. WSB 2K1 has a host of other problems as well, including rampant slowdown, silly animations, unresponsive runners and fielders, terrible sound and more. This game just doesn't feel like baseball, even for an arcade-based baseball game (which it is trying to be). The only portion of the game which feels remotely polished is the pitcher/batter interface, which is a deep system of subtle controls and cool timing elements. Once the ball gets put in play, however, hilarity often ensues. I love watching my pitcher run a circle around the mound before leaping, ballerina-style, to catch a pop fly. Ever seen a shortstop running in place? You will. I also suspect you'll be doing something a lot of other WSB 2K1 owners might do. Return the game.

Two things I really like about WSB--the batting and pitching interfaces. Using the trigger button in a reverse action (release for the swing) is a cool idea. It feels like you can hit anywhere on the field, and often times you can. Pitching is nearly as effective. Once you release the ball you direct it like a guided missile--fun stuff. Sadly though, the rest of the game is a flop. It switches between sim and arcade but doesn't commit to either. Come on...you can't take control of your fielders! That's just crazy. It looks good, although close-ups of players reveal robot-like features. Fly balls are hard to judge as well. Too bad, I was really hoping for more.

Sega Sports has been one of the brightest spots on the DC, which makes it incredibly surprising that they released this utterly stupid baseball game. On the surface the game looks great--the best a baseball game has ever looked, but at a horrible expense. I could hardly believe it when I couldn't control my fielders to retrieve a ball in play. Even the worst baseball game on the Atari 2600 at least let you control your fielders. Did they not think this aspect of the game was important? I tried to live in a fantasy world and pretend it didn't bother me, but it has too many other problems, such as the sluggish batting interface. What a mess. Pathetic.