As a lifelong Yankees fan, riding high the euphoria that is the 27th World Series Championship, I was easily swayed to plunk down a few bucks to play a baseball game named after (and presumably approved by?) one of the all-time Yankee greats. This has got to be one great game, right?
In a word . No.
Let me first point out the good parts of the game before I reach down deep and hurl an assortment of fastballs high and inside at Real Baseball.
THE GOOD
Real Baseball has very nice graphics “ especially the motions of the pitcher winding up and delivering. You have some decent controls over pitch selection, aim, speed, and fielding choices. The gameplay is right around the junior high school level “ meaning that you should know the rules of the game, some basic strategy (i.e. steals, knowing what base to throw to, etc), and be able to time a swing on a Major League level pitch, but it ‘s not as involved as some of the high end console baseball games that really are geared towards adults — and thus does not take as long to learn, master, or play.
THE BAD
Despite Derek Jeter ‘s name on the game, all of the teams are fake “ the New York 26ers, Anaheim Diablos, Seattle Raindrops, etc. There ‘s also the Boston Brawlers, who, appropriately enough, are called what sounds like the ‘Boston Hosers ‘ “ love it! Some of the player ‘s names are real; some are close copies (Seattle has an ‘Ochiro ‘, for example).
The gameplay has very annoying idiosyncrasies. If you have a man on second, no one on first, and you hit the ball to third, your runner WILL run right into the out, and you can ‘t stop him. The outfielders all throw in from the wall at 125mph or so “ enough to get anyone out going for second. Don ‘t bother throwing over to first or second to pick off a runner “ as near as I can determine, he will never be called out. I tried it. A lot. You cannot have two runners try for extra bases at the same time “ so if you have runners on first and second and a ball is hit to the outfield, both will run one base automatically (as will the batter). You could tap home plate for the runner to try to go home, but you cannot tap third to have the other runner go as well. However, you can call a double-steal before the pitch. And why do the first and third base coaches always have the same dark gray uniform on no matter what uniform their team is wearing? When you hit a home run, it looks like the runner high-fives an umpire.
THE UGLY
The game is played from a TV perspective; a play-by-play announcer ‘calls ‘ the game “ that ‘s in quotes because he is limited to around 5 phrases total, which are oftentimes cut off before they finish ( ‘The batter is ready for the pit— ‘, for example) and are repeated so often that they very quickly become annoying. Almost every batter is ‘ready for the pitch ‘, and during almost every at-bat ‘the outfield is ready and waiting for this batter ‘ (but curiously, the infield is never mentioned and presumably is NOT ready).
When the top half of an inning ends, you are told that ‘That will end the inning ‘ and that ‘The outfield is coming in to end the inning ‘ (huh?).
Worse, from a ‘how did this bug get out in a release product ‘ perspective, at the end of each half-inning, the score is announced “ but instead of the total score, the total for the last half inning is announced. Thus, if you score 4 runs in the top of the first and 1 run in the top of the second, when your half-inning ends, your score is announced as ‘1 ‘ instead of ‘5 ‘.
CONCLUSION
I wanted really badly to like this game, but it is full of so many gaffes that I can neither enjoy playing it nor can I recommend it, even if it were a free app. Derek Jeter Real Baseball (and I badly want to put ‘Real ‘ in quotes) is available in the App Store, should the masochist in you decide to indulge. It should be noted that 98 people in the App Store rated this version 5 stars, and I really want whatever they are drinking.
Derek, you owe me $2.99. I ‘m sure you can spare it.
The author is chagrined to admit that he purchased this application. For further information regarding our site ‘s review policies, please see the ‘About ‘ page.
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