The Backyard Batting Cage

Beyond 2D, Reviews, Slider, Sports — By Jeffrey L. Wilson on August 4, 2010 at 2:05 am

I’ll fill you in on a rather dark little secret that only three other human beings are fortunate enough to be privy: I love the Little League World Series. The international teams of mini-athletes pure every bit of their hearts and souls into every at bat, pitch, grounder, and catch, so when they lose a big game and break down into inevitable tears, it’s all the more hilarious. There is (was?) a reason why I kept this a secret.

So when Activision announced that it planned to bring the magic of the Little League World Series to home consoles I was all over it. I watched every trailer, viewed every screenshot, and poured over press releases. You see, outside of sullied children, I also love arcade-style sports games. Little League World Series Baseball 2010, available for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, plays very much like an updated, albeit slightly toned down, version of Baseball Simulator 1.000; there are powerups, stats to track, and a very solid baseball engine as its base. Little League World Series Baseball 2010 may not appeal to the hardened sports fan who want to simulate big league action, but if you like your sports games with cheery attitude, loads of charm, and lots of cute fun, Activision’s title fits the bill.

Developed by Japanese programming house NOW Production, Little League World Series Baseball 2010 is a lighthearted, family friendly game–as it should be. This is instantly noticeable when the attract mode kicks in, and you see anime-style children performing all manner of throws, catches, and swings. Pressing start takes you to the main menu where you can play in exhibition, tournament, skill challenge, and clubhouses. The first three are pretty self-explanatory, but the last is the area where you can edit your team (everything from uniform colors, to equipment, to gender and body type). With some patience and imagination you can create an entire team of personalized players that are great at pitching, fielding, batting, or a bit of all three.

Before playing an actual game, you have the opportunity to select Talent Cards, power boosts that can give your team an advantage in certain scenarios. For example, selecting the Line Drive card adds more top spin to a batted ball–whats cool is that the boost lasts throughout the entirety of an at bat, so you won’t blow it if you happen to hit a foul ball into the stands. When I applied the Line Drive card to the my creatively named edit “Jeff Wilson” his bat turned super saiyan–it became gold and every time he made contact it was a bullet. These talent cards are plucked from virtual binder where they’re housed in protective plastic sheets–simply too awesome. It’s this time of attention and care given to the baseball fan that makes this game such a winner.

Little League World Series Baseball 2010 has an intuitive, easily accessible control scheme. When pitching, the face buttons each represent a pitch type, which you execute by holding R Trigger; the same button swings the bat when you’re on offense. The longer you hold the button, the more powerful your pitches and swings become. Fielding is remarkably easy–the CPU places your defensemen in the perfect position to catch balls, so much so that you don’t have to do much in order to make the play. Some may lament the lack of defensive challenge, but considering the gameplay style, I thought it fitting.  I didn’t like that I couldn’t more the pitcher or the mound or the batter in the box, but you can use the analog sticks to move the ball or alter your swing to hit the ball on the ground or in the air.

Spectacular plays are don’t go unrecognized in Little League Baseball World Series 2010. Whether it’s an impressive strike out, deep homer, or cool catch, you get a replay of the action from a TV-style angle that acts as a nice highlight to the in-game shenanigans. A cartoony version of Brent Musberger  makes the calls, which makes for some repetitive commentary (I had heard one particular phrase half a dozen times after one game) as he’s the only game voice.

Talent Cards aren’t the only manner by which you can power up players. Everytime that you successful accomplish a task (throw a strike as a pitcher, take a ball as a batter, make plays) you earn points that fill a meter at the bottom of the screen. Think of it as a fighting game’s super meter with three levels. Each level lets you whip out a more powerful move, perfectly fitting the arcade aesthetic.

Little League World Series Baseball 2010 does so  much right that it makes the flaws either a) stand out more or b) irrelevant, depending on your point of view. The camera angles can get a bit wonky when fielding flies, but the on-the-ball defense pretty much takes the fear out of a missed play. There’s no online play, but there are leaderboards for the included mini-games. Sobbing children also aren’t included.

These minor quibbles shouldn’t stop  you from giving this game a hearty go. It’s truly a fun, endearing title that should appeal to baseball fans of all ages or anyone keen on Japan’s unique spin on an American classic.

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Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey L. Wilson’s love of all things shiny/digital has lead to jobs penning gadget- and video game-related nerd-copy for E-Gear, Laptop, LifeStyler, Parenting, PC Magazine, Sync, Wise Bread, and WWE. Besides overseeing the editorial content at 2D-X.com, he hosts New York City’s monthly Bits and Bytes video game media and public relations meetup. You can find him at a bar sampling foreign beers, or on Twitter doing twittery things.

More 2D-X News, Features, and Reviews: Review: NBA Unrivaled (XBLA)Review: Samurai Shodown Sen (Xbox 360)E3 2010: Luca Libre AAA: Heroes del RingTags: activision, little league world series basebal 2010, now production, review, sports game, xbox 360

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