Like a prophet in the wilderness, I am crying out to anyone who will listen:
“Unless we change our ways, Nintendo’s Wii will be the ruin of video games as we know them.”
I have stood by and wept as the system’s wild popularity and casual appeal has compelled many software companies to produce a swarm of poorly made games at a cheap price. After all, why should developers and programmers actually put thought, time, and hard work into a title when they can simply slap a disc in a Wii case and it will sell faster than elf-ears at a fantasy convention?
History tends to repeat itself and, to our detriment, the public has a limited memory.
Back in 1983, the video game market was oversaturated with too many home consoles and a ton of horrible games. Consumers were caught in the deluge, confused and disgusted by the lack of quality titles. As public demand fell, game developers were left with a glut of useless inventory.
Legend has it that Atari had produced so many copies of their adaptation of ET: The Extra-terrestrial (widely considered to be the worst game of all time) that they were forced to bury copies of the game somewhere in the Nevada desert. This notorious incident has given rise to the term “shovel-ware” – a term that has unfortunately become synonymous with much of the Wii’s sub-par software library.
I realize I’m supposed to be objective, and I probably should cut the game some slack as it’s aimed at a much younger audience, but in these dark and dangerous times, I must answer to a high calling:
Backyard Baseball ’10 is quite possibly the worst game I have ever played. I’m sure there are worse games out there, but I would rather take a bullet than ever again have it defile my disc drive. Unless we take a stand, right now, against this kind of shoddy craftsmanship and the blatantly corrupt business model that produced it, we will soon find ourselves up a creek without a shovel.
When you reach Backyard Baseball ’10’s main menu, your ears will be greeted by the game’s seemingly harmless theme music. The tune is catchy and not overtly offensive, but you will soon come to realize with horror that it was the only piece of music composed for the title, and the developers weren’t shy about letting it play on an endless loop.
The menu options are simple. You can play a quick game with teams the computer picks for you; you can set up an exhibition game, a home run derby, or a tournament; you can lead a team through a season, or play in an all-star game.
What’s not immediately apparent is that while the game does feature Major League teams and players, it’s also crowded with an army of fictional players equal to the pros in skill and ability. In fact, there’s really no reason to play with the professionals since their stats are watered down and the character models look nothing like their real-life counterparts. Each player is saddled with a childlike design that’s poorly rendered and largely indistinguishable.
Actually, the game’s connection to Major League Baseball is tenuous at best. Players can only lead their teams through a 16 or 32 game season – hardly representative of the long pennant drive. The teams’ uniforms are ugly and poorly represented, and to make matters even worse, the game doesn’t feature any of the club’s ballparks. It does feature about a dozen fields with varying, and sometimes, interesting themes, but they are all poorly constructed and badly animated.
I found this lack of authenticity particularly hard to swallow. For over a decade, most licensed baseball games have featured full team rosters with realistically modeled players and meticulous, lovingly detailed ballparks. Still, this lack of polish didn’t have to sink the game. Early baseball titles on the 8-bit NES weren’t armed with all the bells and whistles, but the most successful ones still shined because of their fun and functional gameplay. Unfortunately, that is not the case here.
Backyard Baseball ’10’s motion controls are limited to a simple flick of the wrist for both pitching and batting. Unlike the baseball mini-game on Wii Sports, there’s no true motion recognition when you step up to the plate, and successful swings are simply executed by snapping the remote at the correct time.
Pitching and fielding fare somewhat better. The pitching system is simple and it allows you to put the ball where you want it to go, but the game breaks up your momentum by forcing the player to flick the remote a second time to release the ball.
Fielding is fun and intuitive, with each base assigned a point on the remote’s directional pad. Unfortunately, the frame rate often stutters when you throw to a base, and the computer controlled outfielders could be outclassed by a team full of hyperactive three-year olds. Seriously – there are more errors here than in the federal tax code.
The title includes play-by-play commentary featuring an annoyingly cheery announcer and her strangely silent co-host. Their comments are rather obvious and often repeated, but this really isn’t anything unusual in sports games. The developers also attempted to spice up the action by adding in special “power-ups” that allow you to pull off physics-defying stunts. These abilities are silly and fun, but they can severely alter the balance of the game.
Backyard Baseball ’10 was clearly designed with the youngest audience in mind. Given its targeted appeal, perhaps I have held it to too high a standard. But while this was intended to be a simple and accessible game, that shouldn’t give the developers license to lazily paste together a poorly designed and listlessly executed title.
This is a boring game. While it might be a good aid at nap time, if your young ones are interested in baseball but not quite ready for the big leagues of better licensed games, I suggest you send them to your actual backyard.
Caution Rating: 0
