There’s a really decent game of baseball in here. Looking at the art style I was expecting it to be a press-button-to-win type thing, but there’s a few tweaks and systems added in that make this surprisingly basebally game of wagglesticks.
Firstly, for pitching, you pick the type of pitch you want, pick where you want to throw it and then try to get a waggly cursor over the crosshairs by the time the Pitcher releases the ball. The closer you are the more points you get for that pitch. The more points you get, the more filthy the pitch is. You can goad batters to swing at pitches outside and they will also watch pitches go if they’re ahead in the count.
Your Pitcher is rated for velocity, accuracy and “junk” and the ratings seem to have a proper effect. My starting pitcher throws straight heat and does well getting batters to whiff on fastballs, then ground out on her change up. Meanwhile, my closer is slow, but accurate and has filthy stuff, so I throw a lot of curves and sliders that tease the batter to swing, then disappear into the basement.
These ratings are affected by fatigue and “mojo.” Mojo is a form of confidence, where events in a game will change a player’s capabilities. If the batters get a lucky long bomb, then your mojo may drop, which can turn into a self-reinforcing cycle, forcing you to send to the bullpen.
Pressure is also included to modify your pitcher’s abilities… making it harder to pitch successfully with the bases loaded than with two out and no one on.
Mojo also works for batters, which has a couple type of timing games going on. You can play for contact, which is a simple button press based on timing, or you can go for power, which involves you holding the button instead of tapping, then releasing to hit. You can also bunt. Batters are rated for power, contact and speed on the basepaths.
The game also has an “ego” system, where your ego points go up as you gain in-game experience and good results. With low ego, the game will make sure your bat is swinging on the right plane, making batting all about timing, and it’ll move fielders under the ball for you. As your ego goes up, so the game does less and less for you. Theoretically this means that players of different skill can play each other, although multi is purely local right now.
I was expecting pure arcade basthathon here, but there’s at least a little more to this.