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All-Star Baseball 2004

It's that time of year again. The crack of the bat, the smell of freshly cut grass, and a thrilling bottom of the 9th game-winning homerun. Baseball is back, and if you're reading this review then chances are you're a fan of the sport. All-Star Baseball 2004 is the third game in the series for GameCube, a series that became popular on Nintendo's own Nintendo 64 console. Since the All-Star Baseball titles has been around for so long, they have put together an incredible set of features. However, if you already own a game in the All-Star Baseball series for GameCube, there's always a question of the worth of a new ASB game, such as the 2004 edition. Also, if you don't yet have a baseball game for GameCube, should you get All-Star Baseball 2004, or opt for 3DO's High Heat Baseball? Hopefully this review will answer those questions for you.

Key Features

Scenario Mode allows you to play in situations from last year's MLB season and change the outcome.
Pick-Up Game Mode allows you to play a pick-up game by choosing teams from 18 randomly-chosen players.
Inclusion of Negro League teams with players such as Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Buck O'Neil.
Changed Rookie Mode which now includes gameplay tips from Derek Jeter during games.
New Multimedia section includes interviews with Derek Jeter, Cal Ripkin Jr., and Buck O'Neil.
Panoramic Stadium Tours give you facts about all the stadiums included in the game, include the fantasy stadiums.
You can now save during a game, playing for as long or as short as you'd like.

Gameplay

If you are familiar with previous All-Star Baseball games, there is very little that has changed in terms of the controls and gameplay. The only difference really is the strike zone. Instead of a solid box depicting the borders of the strike zone, the zone is now shown as a blurred box. The borders are now harder to judge when a pitch is coming at 90+ mph, which makes the game much more realistic. Besides the strike zone the mechanics of the game are unchanged.

Batting

All-Star Baseball 2004 uses a batting cursor when you are up to the plate. Many people don't like using cursors, but Acclaim wisely includes a normal system for those of you in that camp. My opinion is that the batting cursor is a great way to play baseball games. You can tilt the cursor to push or pull the ball, or attempt to hit a sacrifice fly. You can also press B to hit for power, which gives more of a kick to hits, but makes it harder to make contact. It may take quite some time to get used to this system if you haven't played with it before, but it is far deeper than non-cursor batting systems in my opinion. The bunting system is greatly improved over last year. You press X to show bunt before the pitch, or press it while the pitch is coming to attempt a drag bunt. You also choose which direction you want to bunt. Overall, it's definitely the deepest batting system I've ever used.

Pitching

Pitching uses the normal behind-the-batter view. Every pitcher has his own arsenal of pitches ranging from curveballs, 2-seam and 4-seam fastballs, and sliders, to lesser-used pitches such as slurves, knuckleballs, and circle changes. The pitches appear in a different order for each pitcher depending on how much control he has over those pitches, from his best pitch to his worst. You choose your pitch by pressing the button associated with it, but there are many things to do before you even choose which pitch to throw. By accessing the manager menu with the Z button you can check out a bevy of research on the current batter that can help you. You can see a batter's hot and cold zones, what pitches you threw to him in previous at bats, and you can even choose to intentionally walk the batter. The amount of research you are given is essential, especially when playing on the highest difficulty, All-Star. Once you finally choose your pitch, you are given the option of attempting to pickoff a baserunner, beaning a batter, throwing a pitchout, or throwing the pitch. You can control the location of the pitch before you actually throw it; as well as moving it after the pitching icon has disappeared.

There are many aspects of pitching in real-life baseball that appear in All-Star Baseball 2004. Pitchers become tired in the game, both mentally and physically. Of course, in most baseball videogames pitchers are physically tired by the end of a game, but in All-Star Baseball they also begin to lose some of their control if they have given up a few hits, a major homerun, or for other reasons. An option to visit the mound can alleviate these problems many times, but it won't always work. This is when you need to go to the bullpen. You must warm up relief pitchers ahead of time. If they aren't warmed up when you put them in, they won't be nearly as effective, and they can get injured. Some days, pitchers just won't have their normal control, so you need to use everything you have at your disposal to get through these difficult days.

Fielding

Fielding is the area where All-Star Baseball struggles a little bit. When a ball is hit in the air, a circle appears where the ball is going to land. An arrow also appears pointing towards where the fielder you are control is located. The arrow is helpful, but you may encounter trouble when trying to catch the ball. Standing in the center of the circle is not the best idea since the center is where the ball is going to land, therefore you would catch it where your player's shoes are. The difficult thing to get used to is you need to stand near the front of the circle. It's very unintuitive, but you should be able to get used to it after you get some games under your belt. It is very jerky sometimes, however, and you will find yourself missing fly balls that you thought for sure you were in position for. There is a lock-on system that will freeze your fielder when he is in position, but it doesn't work particularly well. Throwing to the bases also takes some getting used to, as it is generally better to press the button for a base before the ball reaches your fielder. Otherwise the fielders seem to take too much time to throw the ball. For example, if a grounder is hit to the third baseman, if you aren't pressing the button for first base before the ball gets to him, 90% of the time you will not get the out at first. There are some other AI problems in the game that almost seem to be worse than last year's game. When your baserunner gets caught in a rundown, you can get out of it almost every time. All-Star Baseball 2003 had a great rundown AI, and I'm shocked that this year's AI is so bad. Another problem, although minor, is that if you throw a ball from the outfield to first base after a single, the baserunner is usually not on the base, and leaning towards second. He is never called out, however. It is not simply a case of the runner running through the base, since he is leaning towards second base. Fielding is definitely an area Acclaim needs to work on, whereas pitching and batting have gotten extremely polished over the years.

All-Star Baseball 2004's Franchise Mode is extremely deep. You select which team you would like to manage through up to 30 seasons, and can decide whether you want to micromanage your team, or leave most of the decisions up to your staff. At the beginning of your franchise you choose whether or not to have a trade deadline, decide how CPU trades will work, allow players to be injured, and whether or not you want to start the season with a fantasy draft including all MLB players. Another option you are given is to choose between a Simple and a Complete Franchise. A Simple Franchise gives you complete control of your roster, including two levels of minor league teams, you can participate in the amateur draft, propose or respond to trades, renew player contracts, and more. In a Complete Franchise, you participate in the Rule 5 Draft, and can offer players arbitration in the off-season. If you don't know what either of those are, All-Star Baseball 2004 includes a rulebook that not only tells you what arbitration is, but it also tells you pretty much anything you would want to know about baseball.

In Franchise Mode's off-season there are a great number of things to do. You can participate in the Rule 5 Draft and offer players arbitration in a Complete Franchise as already mentioned. You can also check how your players are developing, change your team budget, check the current year's Hall of Fame inductions and retirements, resign players, and go to the winter meetings to trade players and sign free agents. Overall, there is quite a lot to do and there isn't much else I can think of that they could include.

All-Star Baseball's Expansion Mode was added to the series last year, and improved upon in this year's game. Expansion Mode allows you to start a franchise in one of a select number of cities. You choose the city, the team mascot and name, and the team's stadium. There are a good number of cool stadiums to choose from, many of them modeled after current stadiums. You can see a tour of every stadium, and Derek Jeter will also give you tips about what kind of players to draft in the expansion draft. Finally, you choose whether you want to play in the National League or the American League. Another expansion team will join baseball along with your team. The other team will be placed in the other league, and will compete with you in the expansion draft. Unlike last year's Franchise Mode, this year's mode does not replace a current MLB team. Too bad for those of you who want to kick the Yankees out of the league. Besides the creation of your team, and the expansion draft that follows, Expansion Mode is exactly the same as Franchise Mode.

All-Star Baseball 2004 also includes a collection of bonus play modes. Trivia, batting practice, and Home Run Derby return from last year along with two new modes. Pick-up Game randomly picks 18 players from the game, 2 from each position, and then the two teams take turns picking players. It's a great option for playing a game against a friend. You also play on some pretty cool fields like a schoolyard, a sandlot, and a cornfield. The other new mode this year is Scenario Mode. This allows you to participate in some situations from last year's MLB season and try to change the outcome. Although the majority of the scenarios are some variation of getting a few runs to win the game, there are some interesting ones like getting Mike Cameron a 5th homerun in that game last year against the White Sox, breaking up Derek Lowe's no-hitter against the Devil Rays, and there are two scenarios that actually finish last year's All-Star Game. All the scenarios are introduced by Derek Jeter, Cal Ripkin Jr., Tom Brennaman, or Steve Lyons. Scenario Mode is a great addition to the All-Star Baseball series, but something I'd really love to see them include is scenarios from baseball's past. How cool would it be to strikeout Babe Ruth when he made his classic homerun call in the World Series at Wrigley Field?

Visual

All-Star Baseball used to dominate other videogames in the visual department, but in recent years it has been passed up by World Series Baseball from Sega. All-Star Baseball 2004 still looks better than every other baseball game out there excluding WSB 2K3, though. ASB has some great batting stances and pitching deliveries. Every big name hitter and pitcher has his own unique look. The player models themselves are pretty good. The player's faces are clearly distinguishable, however, the player body models don't portray much of a difference between the larger players and smaller players. In the field, All-Star Baseball 2004 once again encounters some problems. Although there are some great motion-capture animations, the problem comes when these animations attempt to combine. A catching animation followed closely by a throwing animation looks extremely jerky, and is in no way seamless.

To return to the bright side of things, All-Star Baseball 2004's menu is much improved over last year's lackluster menu. The menu gives the feeling you are watching old film reel baseball highlights, and also each choice you make in the menu sends you to a new area of the clubhouse, which is portrayed in the background. There is also a great intro, starting with Lou Gehrig's Luckiest Man Speech, followed by a bunch of great nostalgia-evoking highlights played to Smash Mouth's All Star. The only problem with All-Star Baseball 2004's menu system is it is difficult to access statistics during a season. Stats should be extremely easy to locate, and they were in last year's version, so it is puzzling that they are burdensome to find this year.

Audio

Returning to All-Star Baseball 2004's menu, you will notice that the music playing is the theme from the Natural. Perfectly fitting for a baseball game. During games you will here normal baseball noises: the calls of the umpire, the jeers of the fans, and a short music intro for players. The announcers, Tom Brennaman and Steve Lyons, do a fabulous job in the game. Although, as with all sports games, they get repetitive eventually, it takes much longer for Brennaman and Lyons to repeat. I've never been a fan of Steve Lyons, but I must say that some of the long-winded stories he and Brennaman occasionally go into are great, and should be a staple of all baseball videogames. Stories are a common tool of most baseball announcers and it's great to finally see them used in a videogame. However, many times the announcers fall behind the action. There are also instances where a grounder is hit to an infielder, and thrown to the first baseman, and the announcers say the infielder, not the first baseman, steps on first base. In general, though, the announcing is top notch.

This game gets an N-Philes score of B+.

If you already have All-Star Baseball 2003, 2004 probably doesn't have enough additions to make it a worthwhile purchase. If you have anything prior to 2003, however, it is likely worth it to upgrade to All-Star Baseball 2004. The game also includes connectivity with it's Game Boy Advance counterpart, but it simply allows you to transfer cards you collect in the GBA game to the GameCube game, not even vice-a-versa. The GameCube version doesn't include the downloadable rosters of the Playstation 2 and Xbox versions, either, but hopefully that is changed next year. All-Star Baseball now has competition, even on the GameCube, though. 3DO's High Heat 2004 is coming to GameCube this May. High Heat is probably more realistic, but it doesn't have the nostalgia value or graphics of All-Star Baseball, at least judging from last year's version. If you want a new baseball game on opening day, however, All-Star Baseball 2004 is your only option, and a pretty good one at that.

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