Home Run King
- April 09, 2002 00:00 AM PST
The king makes its debut on the GameCube with a slightly different take on the national pastime.
Sega�s first baseball effort for the GameCube has a very different feel than its trademark World Series Baseball series, in both a good and bad way.Home Run King�s visual package is more sharp than shoddy, but it�s an uneven balance. Details like the texture of the uniforms, the shine on batting helmets, and facial likenesses look great. During gameplay, players move realistically whether they�re turning on a pivot foot to throw out a runner or leaping backwards into the air to catch a slightly misjudged fly ball. The not-so-good aspects are the polygon clipping issues and bland stadium crowds. Also, the flashy camera angles when the ball is in play often prevent you from properly judging your defensive play. A little extra work in those areas would have gone a long way toward keeping you focused in the reality of the game.
The game audio is flaky. The two announcers in the booth are a bit off, and their commentary sounds like it�s from Sega Bass Fishing, complete with jarringly odd speech patterns.
The best reason to give Home Run King a chance, however, is the fantastic pitcher/batter interface. The pitcher selects the style of pitch and picks the location with the analog stick. You can also gauge pitch power with an additional power bar that�s been lifted directly out of Virtua Tennis. Although you can�t see your pitching location cursor, which can be tough to master at first, it�s really the best way to handle all-important games against a human opponent. Batting has its twists on tradition starting with the ability to guess what type of pitch is about to be thrown. Your batting target morphs to the angle of the pitch, and it changes from blue to red if you anticipated correctly. Fielding is relatively smooth, but the computer sometimes selects the worst person possible to field a ball even with the assist function fully turned off.
Home Run King is quirky and not for everyone, but it has an engaging charm and an addictive pitcher/batter interface that make it stand out at the ol� ball game.
