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Home Run King

Developer: Wow Entertainment

Publisher: Sega Of America

Console: GameCube

Genre: Sports

Number of Players: 2

Released: March 19, 2002

Memory Card Blocks: ?

Introduction

I will start off by saying that I absolutely love arcade baseball games. I was patiently waiting for this so called arcade baseball game. It turns out that it‘s more simulation then arcade. Very disappointing. The Houston Astro’s Jeff Bagwell endorses it. So is the game better than All Star Baseball 2003? On with the review.......

Graphics: 8.5/10

The graphics are the high point for this game. All of the stadiums are all very detailed and accurate to their real life counterparts. Even the backgrounds that are behind the stadiums are very nicely done. For example take a look at PNC Park in Pittsburgh and you can see the bridge and the water underneath it. It’s too bad that the crowd looks horrible though. I haven’t seen a crowd this bad since the N64 days. The player’s uniforms look almost real with the wrinkles in them. There faces are very realistic and sometimes they even blow bubbles. Their batting helmets are very shiny. They also move realistically and there are no animation problems like in ASB 2003. The only problem is that where the elbow meets the upper arm it does not look real. For the most part the players have their actual batting stances. This game even includes all the mascots for the teams.

Moving out of the way of a gun shot from a Doger's fan!!

The highlight of this game is with out a doubt the awesome Home Run cut scenes. There are about 10 different cut scenes overall. If you are playing in Pac Bell Park and you hit a HR into McCovey Cove you get to see a couple of boats going after the ball. In Shea stadium the apple rises, in Enron Field the train goes along the track as fireworks are exploding over it, and my personal favorite is at County Stadium where Bernie the Brewer takes his HR slide! I strongly recommend just playing exhibition games so you can watch all the HR cut scenes. For the first time in a baseball game there are actual dirt effects when sliding and if its raining the ball will splash water when it hits the ground. The camera sometimes has bad angles and causes you to mess a play up. It doesn’t happen that much though.

Sound: 7/10

The sound is pretty mediocre to say the least. The commentary is obviously pieced together making for some odd sentences. It just doesn’t sound real at all. It’s like they are just reading off a cue card rather then actually calling the game. The PA announcer is good and there is some organ music played at certain times during the game. I was disappointing that there are no humans in the crowd yelling at the players or any vendors saying “get your peanuts”. A nice touch in this game is during the seventh inning stretch you are treated to “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” song. The sound effects for the ball hitting the bat and when players slide is very realistic sounding.

Gameplay: 6.5/10

Well this game was billed as an arcade game from all the ads and previews I read. It’s definitely not the case though. There are five modes of play: season, exhibition, quick play, playoffs, and home run derby. You can also create your own player or you can edit teams and make trades to your hearts content. Sadly, there are no franchise or expansion modes in this game. So you would think that the actual game play is arcade-like then, right? Wrong. I hoped I would be hitting home runs and scoring lots of runs every game. I struggled to score over 8 runs in every game I played and I was playing on the default difficulty level.

This has to do with the odd pitcher/batter interface that is in this game. I will talk about that in the controls section of the review. Also it takes a while for the pitcher to throw the ball so its not really fast paced like a true arcade game should be. Also the opening cinematics last forever and you can't bypass it because it is hiding the fact that it is loading. You can hit some pretty long HR’s though with players like Omar Vizquel or the pitcher that go 400+ feet. They left out the feature of letting your relievers warm up in the bullpen. So the game play is half arcade and half simulation.

Controls: 6/10

The controls are pretty innovative for a baseball game, but they are still pretty hard to get used to. The pitcher selects the pitch with moving the analog stick in whatever way you want. After that, while the pitcher is in the wind-up there is a power meter so you can have the ball go fast or slow. I found this really confusing that there is no graphic that tells you where your pitch is going to go. Batting is pretty much the same, try to guess what pitch is being thrown and if you guess right the batting icon will turn red. You have to move the analog stick just like when you pitch. There are 3 different swing types: power, normal and contact each one mapped to different button. Base running is basic just press the r-button to go and the l-button to go back to a base. The fielding is pretty good, but sometimes the computer selects the wrong player. Just hit the b-button and it will allow you to change fielders. The a-button serves as a dive/jump button. Also to throw to a base you have to press the analog stick in the direction of the base and press the a-button. This is the worst part about the controls.

Replay: 7/10

Like most sports games there is a good amount of replay value here. You can take your favorite team though 1 full season. You can spend some time creating your own players and teams. The HR derby is great for playing with a friend. Sadly, there is no 4-player support so its only you and one friend. Besides you will spend a lot of time in exhibition mode viewing all the different HR cut scenes. There also appears to be some sort of point system in this game, but I don’t have the manual so I don’t know what it’s for.

Conclusion

This game can’t decide if it wants to be arcade or simulation, so I would recommend renting it first to see if it’s your type of game. ASB 2003 is a better game overall then Home Run King. I still have yet to find an arcade baseball game that is better then Ken Griffey, Jr Slugfest for the N64. MLB Slugfest from Midway is coming out soon and lets hope it takes the crown as best arcade baseball game ever!

Pros Cons

GameCube Exclusive Crowd looks horrible

Stadium graphics are detailed Doesn’t support 4-player

Awesome home run cut scenes Half arcade, half simulation

Realistic looking faces Unique yet confusing controls

Manual Replay

Final Score: 7/10, 70% C-

Reviewed by: Eric Brown on May 25, 2002

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