Nintendo Wii Review: Baseball Blast!

Baseball may be the national pastime, but anyone who is currently watching the MLB playoffs can tell you that it takes an awfully long time to play a game.  There may have been a time when three hours was enough for nine innings, but those days seem gone.  Perhaps then, 2K Sports' baseball themed collection of mini-games, Baseball Blast!, will help bring more fans to America's game, fans who can't spend four hours watching Andy Pettitte throw to first base.

Baseball Blast! features over 20 different mini-games which use baseball as a jumping off point.  For instance, in some of the more sedate games, one may find themselves using the D-Pad on the Wii Remote to select whether a pitch will go high, low, left, or right in order to hit targets on the way from the mound to home plate. 

In slightly more complicated games, Slide! Slide!, the player has to decide whether their base runner jumps or slides on a trip through a basepath jungle in order to best avoid tigers and baseballs while managing to get all the gold stars that appear.  It's momentarily fun and vaguely baseball related, but even on the hardest difficult available doesn't offer much of a challenge.

Not to worry though, other mini-games are far, far more difficult, even on the easiest level.  One of the harder games, Diamond Double, requires players to time their swing and its strength so as to hit a ball into one of a multitude of jewels hovering above the outfield.  Some jewels are worth more than others, and if one doesn't hit the right ones, they'll never score enough points to advance.

While difficult, that game at least has its roots in baseball, not all really do.  One of the more fun (but still frustratingly difficult) games is Bumper Base, which features the player as one of four bumper cars running about on an elevated base.  The goal is to knock the other cars off, something accomplished by powering up and bumping them or jumping into the air as they try to bump you.  It's certainly a cute little game, but as with too many of the mini-games herein, the controls leave a lot to be desired.

Article Author: Josh Lasser

Josh Lasser, formerly known as "TV and Film Guy," and complete with a Masters Degree in Critical Studies in said areas, gives his opinions on TV, Film, and Entertainment in general. All of which he does in a shameless attempt to try to get paid to do the exact same thing. …

Visit Josh Lasser's author page — Josh Lasser's Blog