America’s Pastime, baseball, has a rich history of competition among some of the most gifted athletes of our time. Bu,t sometimes, it’s not such a gentlemanly game. Sometimes, a pitcher beans a batter with a ball out of frustration, anger, or just by accident. Sometimes a bat flies out of a batter’s hand and towards an opposing player. Hey, these things happen, but when they do, sometimes emotions boil over and confrontations on the field take place. As per the “unwritten rules" of baseball, if a teammate looks like he’s about to get in a scuffle, both sides’ benches clear and rush to their aid.
Developer HooAh is taking the concept of bench-clearing brawls and turning it into an action-strategy game, and if I gave out awards for “Awesome Things to Make a Video Game Out Of" this would win first prize. I’m not even sure if there’s any actual baseball mechanics in the appropriately named Bench Clearing, but what I do know is that once a scuffle breaks out, you can choose an assortment of different units and weapons to trod out on the field and help put a healthy beatdown on your opponent’s team. Check out the trailer.
The problem with cool game concepts is that they aren’t worth a whole lot if they don’t result in a well-executed game, and for that piece of the puzzle we’ll just have to wait and see how Bench Clearing eventually turns out. But, I love the concept, and HooAh does have experience in making brawlers with their popular Gangsta’s Paradise ($0.99) games. I’ll be hoping for the best when Bench Clearing launches “soon" on the App Store.
