The progression went a little something like this... In the beginning there was Atari Baseball. Three fielders moving simultaneously, and we'll leave it at that. Intellivision graced us with nine defenders, and we eventually saw the first inkling of real baseball on the NES. Eventually, when the powerful 16-bit systems came into play, a new pitcher/batter interface was introduced and has become a mainstay. This appears to be the closest you can get to actually standing in the box staring down a fastball. It was about this time a decision was made that just recognizing a strike and timing your swing was not enough. Hence, the batting cursor was born. Players then have to first guess or react fast enough to place the cursor over the area of the strike zone where the ball will cross, and then they can time their swing. This level of complexity has never sat well with me. I've spent many a year in a real batter box, and the action of moving a cursor to the location of the pitch does not remotely mimic the actual hand-eye coordination it takes to hit a baseball in real life.

Baseball Advance may have just set the standard for future pitcher/batter interfaces with the perfect blend of difficulty and intuitiveness. The batters box perspective and cursor based batting are both retained. "But I thought you just said that the cursor was a spawn of evil or something like that!" Well, that was until I saw it used like this. The batting cursors vary in size based on two factors, the hitting ability of the player and how they are feeling (hot/cold/tired/energized/etc represented by a colored arrow). With this implementation I've seen Ichiro Suzuki step up to the plate on a hot streak with a batting cursor that nearly fills the entire strike zone.

Step two, add sugar. Not only do the cursor sizes vary, but they also lock-on. I've played the games where if you guess the pitch location before the swing you get a bigger target, but Baseball Advance really capitalizes on the idea. Guessing the pitch is done by simply placing the target in the preferred area. When the pitch has left the hurler's hand, you'll know if you were right because if the destination of the pitch is anywhere inside your cursor, then your bat will lock-on and track the pitch on its own. If you've guessed wrong and you think it's still going to be a hittable strike, then you'll have to do the dirty work of getting the cursor on the right location. For such a simple addition, this is truly a remarkable evolution to hitting in video game baseball. In the Ichiro example above, you've basically narrowed it down to timing and power (which I'll get to next) for him because you know if it's a strike, he'll be locked on. No post-pitch target moving!! Of course, deeper in the batting order, you'll inevitably have a tired player with a low batting average. For him, you'll most likely be moving your much smaller reticule around just trying to make contact.

The final step is yet another timing factor to keep home runs in check for those hot batters with giant batting cursors. A power meter has been introduced and functions in similar fashion to a simulated golf game. Just tapping the button when attempting to hit the ball will output the least possible power while holding the button before releasing the swing causes the power meter to rise to the top and lower again. To get the most power out of your batter, you'll most likely need to start holding the button during the pitcher's windup. Of course there is no real defining moment because of the many different speeds of pitches combined with the pitcher's current level of stamina.

From the pitcher standpoint, it's pretty much standard point and shoot type of stuff. Different pitchers have different junk, but everybody picks their pitch, picks the target area, and lets it fly. As pitchers get tired, they'll start losing control. At this point you can end up missing your target or throwing 80 mph meatballs right down the center of the plate.

Outside of the battery interface, the fielding and running is pretty mediocre. The fielders have good range, and the control over them is superb. Because of the flatness of the 2D field, there are some questionable line drives that are caught that look like they should have easily been above the fielder's head. The biggest problem is how to react to a hit ball. Because of the limited field of view, sometimes it's even hard to tell which direction to move your infielder on a routine ground ball. This is further magnified on ropes hit to the gaps in the outfield. Without any map or indicator (other than an arrow pointing to the direction of your off-screen player), it's very difficult to judge where you should be running to track down the ball. Sure the ball is on-screen and the arrow points to you off-screen, but it doesn't give you any idea of how far away you are and thus no idea of the angle to take on the ball.

I mentioned running, and while the general idea is kept quite simple with the left trigger moving you forward and right trigger back, there are still some problems. Key number one is the speed of the runners seems a tad too high. Even those that are not fleet of foot will have no problem stretching an outfield single into a double. Infielders have no time to relax on a grounder. They've gotta get that ball out of the glove and on it's way to first with a quickness or risk giving up an infield single. The other problem is related to the computer's running decisions. I take it for granted that the AI will do the little things like run to second on a force play, but I also take it for granted that they won't run from first, past second, and half way to third on a deep pop fly to right field. The concept of "go half way and see what happens" is lost on the CPU brain. If you're not paying attention and taking control of that runner then you're in for a lot of double and maybe even triple plays (I've seen my fair share).

You'll be happy to know that even though this is a lowly GBA cartridge game that they have not skimped on the players, stats, or season mode. While there are only four stadiums to choose from, you'll still have full access to all the MLB teams and their corresponding players. In addition to the season mode, one could also play a quick and dirty exhibition game, an all-star game, or just play though the end of season playoffs. The strange thing about the season mode is that you can't simulate any of your games. Maybe there just isn't enough memory to handle all those stats in one fell swoop?

You'll also be happy to know that even though this is a lowly GBA game (I kid, I kid I love my GBA) that the graphics are really something to behold. I haven't played it in quite sometime, but the pitcher/batter screens look a lot like (and maybe a little better than) the old World Series Baseball games on the Genesis. The players are large and quite detailed down to different batting stances and great waggle animations. Something I'd like to see fixed for next year is the unnecessary post swing. See, if you start holding the swing button during the pitcher's windup and you see a ball coming, you'll still want to let go after the pitch. The batter should go back to his stance at that point, but instead he takes a big he-man whiff while the ball is traveling from the catcher back to the pitcher. It looks a little silly. On field graphics don't fare quite as well. I already noted the small field of view, which affects gameplay in some regard. The players are also small and lack any real detail. I'll take what I can get here until I see something better on the small screen.

Not much to say about the sound though. I’ll take mild crowd sounds over a poor attempt at speech any day, and that’s what we got here. No new nightmares about Joe Montana’s Sports Talk, just plain old white noise. The crack of the bat ain’t too bad, and there’s a nice rendition of the National Anthem before the first pitch.

So there are some niggling problems with the game as a whole, but in the grand scheme they really don’t detract that much from the overall experience. I guess this is really a “B” game, but I’m generously bumping it up because of the innovative batting features. That and the fact I play this game more than any other baseball game that’s come by in the last five years. Don’t let the fact that it’s on a handheld system fool you into thinking it’s not a contender. And a note to other developers...please adopt this new batting system like you embraced the cursor when it was introduced!!

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