Wednesday, July 24, 2024

HardBall! for Genesis


Image: MobyGames

HardBall!


Genre: sports - baseball

Publisher: Ballistic

Year: 1991

System: Genesis


Gameplay Score: 2

Gameplay Notes:

Hitting and pitching are weird. As a hitter, you have to guess which pitch will be thrown, although I can't figure out whether or not this does anything. The picture won't throw a ball until you've selected a pitch that you think he's going to toss. But hitting it is just about timing. You can't move within the batter's box after you've selected the pitch. Base running is decent although you have to instruct your runners to do everything, they will pause. If you don't tell them to run. It's fine most of the time but when the bases are loaded it's really annoying. Really nice physics.


Level Design Score: 4

Level Design Notes:

This one has a number of modes including exhibition, of course, a world series, and a batting practice. I love this.


Theme Score: 2

Theme Notes:

No Major League Baseball licenses but it looks and feels pretty good. The stat tracking is nice and it feels like a solid baseball game.


Art Style Score: 2

Art Style Notes:

The view is from behind the picture and askew to the right like the Bases Loaded series. The artwork in the hitting view is nice with a good amount of shading and whatnot on the sprites, although they all look the same and have almost no animation. When fielding the sprites are teeny tiny and the ball moves quickly so it's hard to feel the ball hid into the outfield cuz the ball is not much smaller than you are.


Audio Score: 3

Audio Notes:

The sound of hitting and throwing and catching or decent. Again, there's a song that plays constantly. I think you can turn it off. Like Tommy Lasorda baseball this one announces which fielder the ball is closest to.


Overall Score: 52

Review ID: 965



No comments:

Post a Comment