The Hardball franchise is the greatest of the early simulations. Hardball 2 blew all the completion away at the time. Although not quite as editable as Hardball 3 it’s game play is great and you will find yourself playing for hours to try and perfect your team and your ball playing skills. In stead of just pitching fast or slow like other games of the day like Nintendo’s Bases Loaded you pick your specific type of pitch and let ‘er rip. This makes hitting more of a challenge.
So when you do hit successfully it can be very gratifying. The homeruns are great. Not just another line drive that just makes it over the fence as your base runner sprints around the bases. “Take some time to relish what you have just done, guy.”
I got this game for Christmas as a little kid and was probably the game I played more than any other growing up. I already had a Nintendo and played Bases Loaded and loved that game, but Bases Loaded was a very simplistic set up and had absolutely no way to edit teams or players. You played the game as the developers made it with out any wiggle room. As you can imagine I was having the
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time of my life with this new kind of baseball. Some of the common issues with games of those days were unfortunately not corrected by this title. Running “to” first base and not “through” first base was always a pet peeve for me. Base running is also difficult. Getting caught not getting back to the base in time on a fly ball or pop up was frustrating for a while until about a month of non stop play. Running around bases and taking an arcing curve to get to the next base would have been a plus, but what baseball game at that time didn’t take a 90 degree turn that would brake the ankle of anyone in real life trying to pull that off? I would have liked to see a collision at home plate and injuries.
Being able to edit players and teams has always been the mark of a good sports title and Hardball was the pioneer for this kind of edit ability. These were great games and anyone looking for a great baseball game of the era would do well to try this one out. I still wish I had the time to actually immerse myself in this game again, but I will definitely find time to play a game here or there.
