'Baseball Superstars 2010' – An Excellent Sequel
posted September 24th, 2009 10:39 AM EDT by Eli Hodapp in $5.99, 4.5 stars, Games, Reviews, Role-Playing, Sports, iPhone games, iPod touch games
Korean game developer Gamevil released their latest entry in the Baseball Superstars series last night with Baseball Superstars 2010 [App Store]. According to Gamevil, the original Baseball Superstars is the best selling baseball game on the App Store, and given my experience with Baseball Superstars 2010 so far, it's safe to say they've got another hit on their hands.
Baseball Superstars 2010 is a full featured baseball game with multiple game modes ranging from simple exhibition games to full seasons or homerun derbies. What sets the game apart from the pack are the RPG elements that allow you to create your own pitcher or batter and build their statistics in "My League" mode.
Various exercises and social events are available to train your players along with items to purchase such as bats and shoes with your annual salary. Once you have built up your players (up to 4 batters and 2 pitchers), you can use those players in the full season mode where you will need to manage your team's ability to work together as well as their morale.
If this sounds crazy, that's because it is. Both Baseball Superstars games have this odd mixture of really solid Baseball gameplay and these strange RPG elements that seem silly at first but start to have the same allure as leveling up any character in an RPG. I've never really been a sports gamer, but the RPG elements in the original Baseball Superstars really sucked me in, and the sequel is doing the same.
There's an additional level to the lovable absurdity in Baseball Superstars 2010 with the included "super" players. There is a pitcher that's a robot, a batter who is some kind of nurse, and in a game I just played the opposing team's pitcher performed a super move turning all the baseballs they pitched into bombs. These crazy components to the game with the RPG elements mentioned earlier somehow really make this game appeal to me, and I'm not even a baseball fan.
Baseball Superstars 2010 also offers an interesting solution to online multiplayer. Everything is done via a asynchronous match mode where you can go online to search for teams to play. In this mode, you're essentially downloading the player statistics of the team you select and playing against them locally on your device.
Sure, it's not real-time multiplayer, but the ability to download your friend's team and play against them when you have time should fit in well with the portable gaming habits of a lot of iPhone gamers where you're only playing in small increments while you're on the go.
If you don't want to get involved in a full baseball game, the homerun derbies and missions are great for playing for a few minutes at a time. Competing in both of these game modes will earn points that you can then spend to unlock additional characters and buy items.
Gamevil released the following gameplay trailer:
[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]
Similar to how the Madden games work, Baseball Superstars 2010 is the annual evolution of Baseball Superstars. There are many small tweaks and refinements that make the 2010 edition worth owning if you enjoyed the original. If you haven't played a Baseball Superstars game, there is no lite version for 2010, but there is a Lite for the original Baseball Superstars [Free] that can give you an idea of what to expect out of the sequel.
App Store Link: Baseball Superstars 2010, $5.99
TouchArcade Rating:
The game is awesome, I snagged the '09 version when it went on sale for .99c – so paying the extra for the new version was well worth it.
After reading this I think I'll give it a try. I liked the Power Pros series on PS2 for similar reasons, so having some kind of it on the go would be great.
The gameplay screenshot says "poo ooh" in the top-left corner! Ha ha!
(* giggles like a little schoolboy *)
Loved the first one. I bought all of the best baseball games on the iPhone and Baseball stars was my favorite. It felt like a classic 2D baseball game (think neogeo or nes)
Its a great game, instant buy.
Am I the only one that notices the game design is a spot on replica of the old online game called Gunbound??!?! Same original designers?
chibi anime is a cliche artistic design…you'll find it everywhere if you look
I really like this. I wish this came put before batting 1000. This is superior by far. All those batting games were getting old.
shit this game is addictive.. my league mode is more addictive than PES become a legend mode :S
Been playing it more and more and compared it to the 2009 version. Its very much improved and an incredible game… although there are some problems:
1. The frame rate isnt as fluid as it used to be.
2. There is an error in the outfield's graphics when in fielding view mode (top down). You can see that the outfield ground has a jagged disconnected section to it. Its as if their graphics tile is offset by accident. It looks sloppy and bad.
3. The homerun animation (third person behind plate) slows down as if the games frame rate drops to 1fps. Its really bad. This should be fluid (or so i would think). Personally i think it looks really bad graphically in this animation.
I hope they fix these things. Knowing the developers history with 2009, they will probably improve this soon. But it needs to be fixed!!!!!!
NO WAY! Ever seen an anime film before? The homerun animation is SUPPOSED to be like that, and I like it!
You can actually see the graphical bug at 4:17 in the video. Look in the outfield and notice the slightly offset of the grass texture)
yep kinda dissapointed with the framerate for this and hybrid (3g 3.1). At least 2010 is way better than 09 1.0 Surprised that I see no coke ads in this. Hopefully the updates that are coming will make this even better =)
Probably because of the lag, but batting feels kinda off. Like it feels more just luck and randomness (seem to miss special pitches way more than before).
It sounds simply bizarre!
Is there a good, real baseball simulation program? You know, something like Strat-o-matic Baseball that reflects real players' actual stats?
When up to bat it does seem a lot harder to hit homeruns as it seems to lag sometimes. The game is pretty much identical to bs2009 with slight improvements such as graphics/animations, leaderboard, injury/illness (when you train with low morale) etc.
In bs2009 i completed all 16 season of my league with all stats at 999. Think it'll be harder when trying to accomplish it in bs2010 (COM varies its pitches a lot more in bs2010)
Those that haven't played bs2009 go and download bs2009 lite as its pretty much the same, before purchasing either 2009 or 2010 version.
If you do get either, you will spend endless hours trying to max out your players and to complete My league.
I'd give bs2010 8/10
Baseball Superstar 2010 Free, by Gamevil, delivers a solid hit with the update from their 2009 version. Whether you have five minutes or an hour, the BS2010 fills the time. The first choice when you get back in the app is to resume. With a free version, there is no excuse to wait.
http://www.appzealot.com/2009/11/baseball-superstars-2010-free-delivers-solid-hit/