Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: All-Star Baseball 2004

Written by John Scalzo on February 13, 2003

First Impressions: Este juego ahora estс en espaёol

The All-Star Baseball series slipped ever so slightly last year. There were a few glaring glitches. The "Future Throw" button turned fielding into an act of frustration. The play by play was less than stellar. Yet the batting and the pitching was just as good as ever. All of these things made ASB 2003 a less than satisfying, but still passable, baseball game.

In light of all the new competition for a spot on the diamond Acclaim is not content for ASB 2004 to just be passable. They want it to go back to the top of the mound again. And to give that little extra juice, Acclaim has added a ton of new features to All-Star Baseball's bullpen.

Two things that won't change are the fantastic pitching and batting interfaces. Lining up the cursor with the oncoming pitch is still the batting style of choice. You can also still select your pitch with one of the face buttons and then fire off the heat right down the old plate. I don't believe I will ever get tired of pitching and batting in an All-Star Baseball game. The game's solid graphics engine also returns with it's yearly set of tweaks to make it look even more realistic than the last time. Some things never change.

But everything else has been rebuilt in an attempt to make ASB 2004 the king of the diamond once again. The first big new gameplay mode is the Pick-up Game mode. Pick-up will give you a pool of twenty random players, including ASB 2004's stable of 110 Hall of Fame and Negro League stars. Each team then picks sides schoolyard style and the game is on. Played in either a sandlot, a corn field, the schoolyard, or the city park. This is baseball how it was meant to be played. And not only will the location be just like your childhood days gone by, but each player will step up to the plate in jeans, t-shirts, sweats, basically anything but a real uniform. The only way this could get any better is if you have the option of making second base a rock. Because second base was always a rock. At the very least, home plate is a Stop sign.

The next new mode is the Scenario Mode. Scenario Mode takes 21 games from the 2002 season and places you right in the middle of them. Introduced by Derek Jeter, Cal Ripken, or Steve Lyons your goal is to change history. Like for example be placed in the Devil Rays' shoes opposite Dreek Lowe's no-hitter from last year and try to break it up. And all baseball fans know the quickest way to break up a no-hitter is to start talking about it.

Acclaim has also gone back to the drawing board with the Franchise Mode. Budding GMs must now keep track of player salaries and the payroll budget as well as the on field duties like promoting minor leaguers, waiving washed up players, and making trades. Acclaim has also said that the trading A.I. has been improved to prevent lopsided trades. Of course sports game developers say that every year. But the real cool part of the new Franchise Mode is the ability to build a new stadium for your team when the time comes. In addition to the thirty MLB stadiums, ASB 2004 sports 45 additional stadiums that you can use in Franchise Mode. Now the real question is will you be able to threaten to move the team if the taxpayers don't give you a new stadium?

To atone for the dreadful play-by-play used in last year's game Acclaim has almost totally reworked all of the sound. The play-by-play sounds slightly improved, and there's definitely more of it this year. But the real kicker is that there will be a Spanish language option when for play-by-play. There's no word yet just how extensive it will be or if the announcers will tell you that hitting the SAP button on your TV will change it into Spanish, but it'll be included. Also new to this year's game is the option to choose your batter's "theme music." You know, those short little bursts of music as batters walk to the plate. Acclaim hasn't released the soundtrack listing yet, but they say there should be at least twenty different tunes to intimidate the pitcher with.

The last new feature stuffed into All-Star Baseball 2004 will be player interviews where Derek Jeter, Cal Ripken and Buck O'Neill give a history lesson on the great game of baseball. Say what you will about Acclaim, but they are stuffing this disc with a Sunday doubleheader's worth of stuff.

Among the special features that make a come back this year are the ever faithful Home Run Derby and Batting Practice modes. The Baseball Cards option is also back. A new and improved Create-a-Player mode will debut in ASB 2004. And Acclaim has said the Trivia game will also be tweaked and improved.

And finally there's the biggest new addition to the All-Star Baseball series. Throughout the year Acclaim will offer updated rosters for players to download through the PS2 Network Adapter. Online play isn't an option at this point, but I know it'll be a relief to me to not have to manually fix the rosters everytime something happens.