Oh there are so many bad things I wish to say about this title, but I'll keep it as general as possible to keep it to one page. First off we come to the game engine. Here we have a title that looks good in spots, but looks atrocious in others. The player models are some of the best I've seen. From the player's lifelike frames and body shape, to the ultimately scary, realistic looking faces, WSB does dazzle in this department. The player animations are also slick, moving at a good 60fps most of the time. The stadiums are also represented marvelously. Each stadium is an near exact replica of its real life counterpart. Sega even went and put detail in the cities behind the stadiums. Lighting effects are the best I've seen on the system thus far; When it's daytime, the shadows extend off the players correctly, and at night, a deep and darker shade is displayed on the player models, giving the visual effect of stadium lights instead of sun. Now that's effort. There is one fact that is true, we have come to expect graphical greatness from the DC, and this wasn't really much of a surprise. What was a shocker was the lack of detail the crowd had. Being a delighted DC owner, I'm used to my crowds being either very detailed, or at least well animated. In WSB we got neither. The crowds look to have been swiped from the WWF Attitude engine, with pixilated characters moving at a blazing 2fps. What gives? I would have been happier if they were cleaner with no animations like NFL2K. The crowd isn't the only graphical glitch we come across. While the players look and animate well, there is enough slow down sometimes that it's distracting in some instances. When you steal a base, slide into home, or make a big play, slow down plagues this game. If you've read this far, and wonder why it's gotten a D+, let me tell you the graphics are the best part of the game. Ever hear the phrase, "Looks aren't everything?"

Next we come to sounds. "Blah!" This is the word I'd use to describe how the game sounds overall. The menu offers you a bouncy, rip-off of Final Fight theme music. When you start the game you are treated to one out of around 5 variations of the National Anthem for the US or Canada; each version of the anthem sounding just as nice as the other in full stereo sound. (Where's the surround sound in Sega's games?) Then the pain begins as the announcer begins to speak and Sega's sound engine comes into play. Whoever hired this commentator to do the announcing job should be fired. He lacks not only intensity, but enthusiasm as well. The thing that really boils me is you can't turn him off! Of course in my many years of playing sports games, I've grown accustom of bad announcers. What I'm not accustom to, however, is listening to my 128-bit DC tainted with 8-16 bit sounds. This in my opinion is very unforgivable. From the crack, or should I say pop of the bat, to the crowd sounds, this game's .wav files sound as if taken from John Elway's Quarterback. If you think I'm kidding, think again. For starters, the sound effects range from weak to annoying. Did these people actually grab sounds from a game, or make them up? I vote for the latter. The sound of the bat gives off a hollow popping sound, the ball when hitting the ground has a bouncy sound, and when the ball hits a players glove it sound if hitting a cooking pan. Are these baseball sounds? Next we have the crowd, or lack thereof. For the most part the crowd does a continuous light roar the whole game, except on big plays and the opposition scoring. They actually sound like they are in a tunnel and don't have any "real" reactions to what's going on. When they do react, it's done broken up and poorly, with tweeting, whistling sounds made famous by the 8-bit Track and Field. The best example is when the opponent scores, the roar goes silent, then boos ring out as if about a half dozen fans are in attendance. This game just sounds bad, plain and simple.

Gameplay of any sports game is what makes a title illustrious or mediocre. In the case of WSB, mediocrity fills this game making, the dreams of a great DC baseball title this year null and void. For starters the game only offers auto fielding. Before I get jumped on, I actually prefer auto myself. Why is this a big thing then? One reason., the defensive A.I. is absolutely brainless. For example, I had a ball go right through my pitcher on a line drive, and he made no attempt at the ball. Other instances are: Players diving late, jumping extremely late after the ball connects with the bat, no real attempts by outfielders to generate dramatic plays, etc. To make matters worse, when the auto fielder catches the ball, it's not always a guarantee you'll get the ball out of his hand in time. Most of the time the players will stop, pause, then throw the ball. I could go on, but I think you get my point. Fielding isn't the only bad controlling issue. Base running is also affected by this rush job called WSB. No manual base running is to be found here either. Sure you can control them once the ball is hit, but the runners always take off when the ball is connected with. Even if it's a line drive to an infielder, the base runners get on their high horse, and becoming caught in double and sometimes triple plays. I've seen more triple plays through the 50+ games I've played than in my entire gaming life in other titles put together! This is just crap in my opinion. There is good news though. The batter/pitcher interface, while taking some time to get used to, is outstanding. A batting cursor is given inside the strike zone made famous by WSB 98. Here you have complete control of where the ball will go. Hit it in the center, line drive, below the center, fly ball, and so on. Swinging is done by holding in the right trigger and letting it go by timing the oncoming pitch. The left trigger is bunting. Pitching, while difficult, is very precise and accurate. Pick your pitch with the diagram, press A, treat your analog like the strike zone and measure where you want it to land. When the power button goes up, press A again. The when you find your selected power, presto, perfect pitching. If World Series Baseball 2K1 weren't plagued in the other game play essentials, the game would have been much better.

But wait, there's more! Options are also very sparse. The game tenders the usual options you come to know: Exhibition, Season, Quick Start, and even Create a Player. What are missing are a home run derby, (even the Genesis versions had a home run derby), multi-season, drafts, multi player trades, farm clubs, small rosters, and more. "Are you crying? Are you crying? There's no crying in baseball!" Sorry ladies and germs this really isn't baseball.

Bottom line, this is an arcade game plain and simple. If it would have boasted the Sega Sports Arcade logo, this reviewer may have understood. But Sega promised us much more than we got, and we deserved more. Not this half-done, rushed out to make a buck, glorified arcade game. Konami had the right idea, delay their game till next year and get it right, instead of bringing out a product that would tarnish their name. I guess from now on Visual Concepts will have to do ALL 4 major Sega Sports titles in order to get it right. So I say to Sega, "Take me out of the ball game, forget the peanuts and Cracker Jacks, this boy's American pastime has been botched by Sega of America. Let freedom ring."