HardBall!
System: Genesis
Release Date: June 1991
Developer: Accolade
Publisher: Ballistic
Genre: Sports
Head back to the Majors in HardBall! Choose your favorite city from the National League or American League, then head to the diamond for some baseball action! Nine innings await you. Can you take the lead and outplay your opponent?
From the main menu, you can head to the Batting Cage to learn the mechanics of the swing. Oh no, batting is from a behind the pitcher perspective. That’s… unfortunate. You can also get a feel for each pitch type, of which there are many, so that’s nice. The only homer I was able to ding came in this mode. When you get tired of taking your practice, you can quit and play an exhibition game or a series against another team.
The teams are made up of fictional characters, as no licenses are present. So I opted for Detroit against Chicago. The American League follows the DH rule, but if you play against a National League team, you’re forced to bat as the pitcher. This was very unfortunate for me in a followup game, when I loaded the bases for my pitcher… and promptly grounded out to shortstop.
Each pitcher has up to five pitches at their disposal. Outside of the fastball, they have movement. This makes deciding whether to swing or hold off a bit more difficult. If you have the patience to play the pitch count, unlike me, you can tire the pitcher out more quickly and force an early change. I subbed mine once I noticed the velocity on his pitches falling. It seems like the extra enthusiastic fastball drains your stamina more quickly.
There are nine zones that you can choose to throw or bat toward. If the batter picks the right zone and swings at the proper time, it will result in a better hit. If the ball is put into play, the announcer calls out who you’ll control, but you don’t get to see the position of the players on the mini-map. At one point a ball got hit to the outfield and, try as I might, I couldn’t get an outfielder to come on screen. Thank goodness for time travel… The time it takes to play each game is right around thirty minutes. The scoreboard is shown between every batter and it really doesn’t need to be, as this just acts to elongate each inning.
Graphics: 2.5
The pitching view is nice, but the fielders look really plain.
Sound: 1.5
The same song loops over and over and is only alright. The voice samples are clear.
Gameplay: 1.5
All the different pitch types available is novel at this point. But there’s little depth outside of that.
Difficulty: 2.5
The pitching view makes it more difficult to understand the depth of the pitch.
Fun Factor: 1.0
I hate having to bat from the pitchers view. I dislike not knowing where my outfielder is on fly balls.
Overall Rating: 1.8
HardBall! earns a C. You already have a better choice if you want to play baseball on the Genesis. Skip this one.