ver the last few years, I’ve become quite attached to the All-Star Baseball franchise. This series has always excelled in areas where other games haven’t even attempted to go. With baseball card collecting, Expansion mode, legendary player interviews, and stadium tours, it has the enthusiast angle covered better than anyone. While it does a good job of luring in the baseball fanatic, its gameplay has aged poorly next to the competition.
On the field, All-Star hasn’t been winning any Golden Gloves. In fact, it’s always had a number of frustrating glitches like phantom catches. Going into this season, I hoped that Acclaim would work out the gameplay kinks and take the series to the next level. The implementation of the fielding cam, a view from behind the player’s shoulder, brings you closer to the action and makes for some exciting moments, but does little to alleviate this game’s annoyances (phantom catches, bugs, lackluster AI).
Getting with the times, Acclaim did implement online play, a host of new animations, and new player models. Long story short, Acclaim didn’t go out of its way to elevate the series – this is simply an enhanced version of last year’s game seen from a new perspective.