March 20, 2002 - Sega's definitely not new to creating baseball games for videogames, and it really shows in the company's Game Boy Advance original title: Baseball Advance. Developed by Sega's Smilebit team (the Jet Set Radio Future folks), this baseball game successfully combines a fast-paced design with many of the required baseball elements into a really great portable package. A few corners have been cut here and there in the development cycle, but Baseball Advance is a real king of the mound for the 2002 series.

Features

• Four gameplay modes
• Four baseball stadiums
• All MLB teams and players
• Battery save (one season)
• Only for Game Boy Advance

Baseball Advance isn't based on any existing Sega baseball game released for other systems, so don't expect a Game Boy Advance version of GameCube's Home Run King or the Dreamcast's World Series Baseball series. This is an original game developed specifically for the GBA...and it's a class act all the way through. It's very cut-and-dry in features, though...the design team slimmed down Baseball Advance to a great-looking and playing game of baseball with an extremely short list of gameplay modes. You've got Exhibition, Season, Playoff, and All-Star...no batting practice, no homerun derby, and no multiplayer modes. The game features all the teams and the current roster of MLB players...but there are only four stadiums to play in. At least the fields you can play in are complete; Fenway, for example, has a fully functional Green Monster in left field, so right-handed homers are a little harder to slam out in Boston. The overall design of Baseball Advance is more action-based that simulation based, so games are quick-paced, snapping through all nine innings with no real lull in the gameplay. Some baseball games concentrate more on the hitting game than the fielding game, but Baseball Advance has a great balance of the two.

Smilebit created one of the most creative, intuitive, and functional batting interfaces ever developed in a baseball game, borrowing elements from past Sega baseball games to create Baseball Advance's real gameplay star. To hit the ball, batters must maneuver the cursor within the batter's box before the pitch, guessing where the pitcher's laying down the ball. The cursor's size is determined by the ability of the player...so Barry Bond's cursor is absolutely massive compared to, say, Randy Johnson's. If the cursor is near the target area of the pitch, the cursor will automatically zero in on the pitch, making it easier to hit the ball. Players actually have to start charging their swing during the pitch by holding down the A button...letting go will make the batter swing with the strength determined by the power bar at the side. So, charging a swing too early or late will end up having a weaker connection to the ball. Hits can be somewhat directed by moving the cursor slightly off-target...but this is a skill that's a bit hard to master.

Pitching is a simple matter of point-and-shoot -- each pitcher has its own series of throws: fastballs, sliders, curveballs, and it's simply pick the throw and toss it into the strike zone. As the game goes on, the stats on each pitch will reduce...and you'll notice a frequent number of wild pitches. So it's important to keep an eye on your pitcher and swap him out when he's letting up one too many dingers.